Adventures on the Coast for Your Mom's 25th!

Your mom and I took a long drive up the California coast this weekend to celebrate her 25th birthday! Hitting the quarter-century mark stirred some feelings in your mom and a good dose of reflection accompanied this adventure further north along the coast than we've ever been before.

One of the interests your mom has had for a long time now is to get back in the saddle, so we made a point to hit the trail for a ride during this adventure. 

We were led on a trail in Bodega Bay, taking in the coastline's sights and stopping through a small creek set into the small valley here. 

Your mom's horse, "Hot Rod," was a quirky one, but your mom did a good job wrangling him and keeping him on track. It wasn't without a fight, though!

We stayed the night not far away in Muir Beach in this gorgeous bed and breakfast, The Pelican Inn. It's styled after a traditional English bed and breakfast which was right up your mom's alley. She was spellbound! 

Inside was their "snug room," a private room for guests to relax. 

The windows opened to a nice balcony and everything had that old-world feeling to it. 

It was early in the afternoon, so the pub in the inn wasn't busy, but we set down to enjoy a drink before hitting the beach just down the road from here. 

I was able to get a real British pint of bitter in this well styled pub. Delicious! 

The dining room was styled just like everything else, but before a wonderful dinner we were determined to get our feet in the sand. 

It was a beautiful day on Muir Beach. A nice cool breeze, a warm sun, and some soft surf made for a really pleasant afternoon. 

  

I like the rocky character of the northern California coast, which makes for nice landscapes. 

We ate like royalty at this place! Your mom was introduced to beef wellington for dinner and the next morning we had this wonderful English breakfast. It was a great start to the coming long day. 

The first stop northbound was at the legendary Russian River Brewing in Santa Rose, where I got their practically epic beer sampler. This place has an amazing reputation which seems to be well earned. 

We hit up a number of book stores on the way, but your mom's favorite was yet to come! 

The windy California Highway 1 is has a way of encouraging breaks here and there, and it's slow going but beautiful. We stopped briefly in this redwood grove to stretch and your mom took this beautiful picture of a fallen, mossy tree resting in a field of clover. 

 

We finally made it back to the water, which was a wonderful sight. 

Your mom had done some research on nearby ghost towns, and she learned about this old cemetery sitting right on the rocky shore. It's called Cuffey's Cove, and it's a bizarre mix of some old graves and some really new ones spreading a couple centuries. 

Your mom found the oldest one, a woman buried in the 1840's who ever since has rested here in this beautiful coast. 

We then stopped in the nearby Fort Bragg to hit up another brewery I'd been wanting to visit. Your mom sampled this place's famous imperial stout, "Old Rasputin," and she loved it, making the beer nerd in me proud! 

The route from Fort Bragg to our stopping place in Eureka was another long, long drive, so we took our time to stop and enjoy the sights whenever we could. 

Eureka, like a lot of these northern coastal towns, is an interesting mix of cute and quaint, rich and poor, manicured and dilapidated.  

It had the feeling of being in some parts only a few years old and in others being practically ancient. 

It was getting late in the evening and the boardwalk in Eureka was dead still. It was a peaceful walk along the bay. 

We completed the night with another pit stop at a local brewery, and here your mom got to sample a few different fruit beers before picking her favorite (a strawberry wheat beer). 

The morning of our last day in the adventure, like usual, I was itching to see some things, so I got up and took a solitary walk around the foggy and still town to take some pictures. 

 

After breakfast, your mom sought out this bookstore, Eureka Books, where she fell in love with the places design and great collection of used books for good prices. We both found a souvenir here after perusing for a good while. 

 

The drive back is always bitter sweet, with as much adventure as any other bit but with that small feeling that it's all about to come to an end. We were determined to make it a fun day, so we again took our time and made a point to explore some nearby sights, like this river in Fortuna. 

Your mom humored me with some further beer tastings, and we were both delighted to find on Eel River Brewing's patio this sweet cat, named Amber after one of the place's beers. 

She spent some time hanging out with us before scurrying off for a nap in the sun. 

The last real stop was in the tiny Garberville, where we found one more bookstore to explore. In this case, it was a bit of a bust, as the kooky owner basically let her pets have their run of the place and had it smelling like a foul pet store. 

The northern California coast was behind us, and we were on our way back to the real world, still knowing that this was far from our last visit to these beautiful areas.