Where I Wish I Was!

Every year for our anniversary, hubby and I take off to Fort Bragg on the northern California coast. We absolutely love it there. I'm one of those people that has a hard time shutting off my brain and whenever I arrive in Fort Bragg, it always amazes me just how quickly I completely let go and relax! But, can you blame me? This is the view, looking to the left, from the deck off of our room at the Beachcomber Motel. Sigh. Gorgeous panoramic views, fresh ocean air, and sleeping with the door partially open at night (yes, there's a security bar!)....its like heaven, to me.

Thanks to this lovely economy that so many of us are experiencing right now, we have made the decision to not go this year. Booooo!! Boooo!! The pricey projects around the house that need to be done will thank us for the decision, but I'm not too thrilled about being a responsible grown up right about now. Hmph! Thank you for indulging me in my pout for just a moment. Now, I'll move on! :>

I love this large single tree that I always watch (and take a gazillion pictures of every year) the sun slowly set behind. Each year we come back we always notice which limbs have crashed down below. These pics are from our 2007 trip. Somehow I forgot my camera in 2008 and so the only pics I have are from a disposable and are not on the computer.

In 2007, we lost our sitter, my Mom, at the last minute due to a family gathering and so we brought the kidlets with us and made it into a little family vacation. Consequently, we altered some of our activities that we usually do to accommodate young kidlets interests and patience levels. Each year we gallery hop through Fort Bragg and Mendocino in search of a new piece of original art to give as our anniversary gift to each other. That particular year, we knew the kids would not be up to a long gallery hop, so we only visited about four or five. We also took them to the toy store, an ice cream cone after dinner, and a walk through town to eat it.

In the morning, after breakfast, we took the kidlets to what is always our last stop on the Sunday of our annual trip, Glass Beach. Our son had a blast climbing the rocks, checking out the sea critters, and looking for drift wood, cool rocks, and sea glass. While the larger pieces of glass from the old closed glass factory nearby have all been picked over through the years, there is a ton of little colorful pieces of ocean washed and smoothed glass all over the beach. And when the tide is out, there are great tide pools.....lots of sea weed to walk through, but wonderful treasures to look at!

You can see sea anemones, mussels, limpets, jelly fish, and a crab or two. Do you see him? If you can't, enlarge the pic by clicking on it. Say "Hi, Mr.Crab!!"

What? Are you coming to see us? Coming to say 'hello'? Hi Mr.Crab! Come closer, I want a better picture...please? Oh no, after this pic, he'd had enough and quickly scurried below the water.

Fort Bragg, Mendocino, and most of the northern California coastline is just a dream and I feel fortunate to live so close by. I know we'll make it out to the coast a few times this year and I really look forward to our next trip to Fort Bragg. Where are you looking forward to visiting soon?