I've been wanting to get up to the Mendocino coast. We have been to the Humboldt Coast, The Sonoma and Marin Coasts, but some how the Mendocino coast in between those others got left out. It has been very hot in and around the bay (our summer is starting here) so a seaside escape sounded just right. We drove through the Anderson Valley to get there, which is becoming an important wine and culinary area, just after that you hit the redwoods and the temperature drops about 20 degrees instantly, soon after that is the coast and a misty, moody fog. Mendocino was built by New England sea captains and it is the most New Endlandy of all the sea towns we have visited, but it still has a very California feel to it. The show Murder, She Wrote set in the fictional town of Cabot Cove Maine, was filmed here due to its New Englandness, as was the masterpiece Karate Kid lll. The town has been an artist colony for some time, it sits on the Mendocino Headlands (literally - across the street from one of the main streets are the bluffs over looking the Pacific), the houses are simple and quaint clapboard type cottages, the people were super friendly and the shops and restaurants were adorable. We camped a few miles south of the village in a town called Albion under the Albion River Bridge, a wooden trestle bridge that sort of scared me. It was steps to the beach and steps to the Albion river. We fished (sort of - Hope made her own fishing device and we discovered Devin's fishing pole did not fair the move well), we came close to catching some crabs for dinner (*bring a net next time), and fell asleep listening to the fog horn. It was the perfect get away. We drove home along the Pacific Coast highway which was the perfect ending.
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