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| Open car on the Skunk Train |
drove thru an ancient Redwood tree on The Avenue of the Giants http://avenueofthegiants.net/ ,
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| It's our Honda coming thru the tree |
walked thru the ancient redwood trail at Bull Creek in Rockefeller Forest, spent time at the Botanical Garden and on and on...
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| Chris, Susan & David on the Bull Creek Trail |
Last week we had a delightful visit from Ed Gelardin (retired psychiatrist who does mentoring of new psych students at the Univ of Arizona and is an IONS fan) and his brother Bob (lives in Marin, lucky guy!!). They made the 3 hour drive up the really windy, curvy roads from Marin to Mendo (we often ask this chicken and egg question - are there no decent roads to Mendo because there are no people here, or are there no people here because there are no decent roads - my vote is for the latter 'causes it is beyond beautiful here). they arrived after lunch and we immediately went to our 5 star, amazing botanical garden in Fort Bragg where the begonias are the size of your head
and the dahlias are in bloom.
This Garden is one of only 2 in the US that is on the ocean. And, it is just wonderful. We had a great dinner at the Mendocino Cafe, they walked the headlands the next morning and we said goodbye in the Ford House after telling them everything we have learned. Here are Ed and I in the gardens....it was really fun, and special, to have him here...
Yesterday we spent the day visiting other museums in "the area" - that makes me laugh because everything is really far from everything else and, I can't say it enough, on very curvy, roller-coaster roads. We headed out for Willits on Rt. 20 for the Mendocino County Museum http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/museum/ - that's 33 miles and an hour away. When Payson and Chris were here a couple of weeks ago we drove back to the coast from Willits at night trying to make Ft. Bragg before the restaurants all closed - that was an experience for them that I bet they won't soon forget. From that museum we drove down 101 to Ukiah (Haiku backwards) to the Grace Hudson Museum http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org/. Both tell stories about the wreck of the Frolic (why Jerome Ford came here in 1850-51 seeking his fortune, but finding Pomo Indians wearing silks and eating from Chinese porcelain plates, but that's another story, I digress) and about Grace Hudson's amazing paintings of the Pomo Indians which, from an anthropological point of view record much history and and and.... The drive back - only about 50 miles from Ukiah - took well over 2 hours.
We watched the sun set over the ocean and the moon rise over the hills and welcomed Fall last week - it was just spectacular and awesome. We are just so very, very fortunate! Hugs to you all.....
