Embrace Rain! Winter Adventures on the North Coast

Change does not come easy for me. But when my kids were 3 and 10, I spontaneously uprooted them and moved from San Francisco, where I had lived for twenty years, to Fort Bragg, a remote coastal town on the north coast of California. We’d visited a handful of times since my parents moved there a few years prior. The quiet, the natural beauty, the friendly locals, and the slow pace all acted like a drug on us when we’d leave our harried urban lives and spend the weekend with them. But Sunday would eventually come and we’d head back to the city, our car snaking along the Redwood forest floor, the trees taunting us with their beauty and wisdom. Three hours later we’d be looking for parking in my SF neighborhood, where the sickly tree I’d planted on the sidewalk out front of our house was the only natural beauty on the street. Painted ladies notwithstanding, my beloved city lacked the color green.

We moved in the Fall, and by the Spring of the following year I’d had my first taste of SAD: seasonal affective disorder. It rained FOUR times as much on the coast as it did in the Bay Area, something I didn’t think was possible. I still subscribed to the San Francisco Chronicle then and I will never forget the front page on March 31, 2006: above the masthead they’d reprinted a calendar for March with the rainy weather symbol on every single day for the entire month. I was homesick for SF, kicking myself for leaving a place where you could easily entertain two little kids indoors at any number of discovery centers or art museums. When I asked other parents here what they did when it rained, their reply, “we go the library and we stay home and play games” made my heart sink. I was not the most patient game player. And thank god for libraries, but with all the cutbacks in their funding, ours was not open much. Not to mention young children in quiet places has a very short expiration time.

Thankfully a good friend advised me the homesickness would wear off by year three, and he was right. After 14 years, I’m still here, and I’ve learned a few things about what to do in winter, which I am happy to pass along to stir crazy visitors.

First a few pieces of advice. Our fancy apps are convenient for forecasting storms, but as often as not we’ll get a drizzle rather than the predicted downpour. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare accordingly: check road conditions, pack rain gear, good shoes/boots and spare clothes, bring games and books! But don’t let the forecast dictate your fun, embrace the rain and discover a new kind of fun.

• Head to the redwoods. Unless the rain is torrential, the redwood canopy is high and dense so getting out on one of the hiking trails won’t be too wet and will reveal the magnificence of the forest in the rain: water droplets acting like magnifying glasses on rich green foliage, the sounds of rain falling or water rushing in the creeks is hypnotic, and the fresh smell of the soil decomposing and nourishing life all around, will engage all your senses.
• Puddle jump. Our trails and dirt roads become small swimming pools especially appealing to young ones. Let kids splash to their hearts’ content, then bundle them up and take them somewhere for hot chocolate.
• Coastal walk with umbrellas. Discover the winter gardens in the stunning Mendocino Botanical Gardens (they have umbrellas for you!) and if you pack a thermos and a snack there is a warming hut out on the bluffs which will give you a chance to sit and dry out, while watching the surf through the glass window. Fort Bragg’s Coastal Trail is paved so less prone to puddles, making a great option for rainy walk
• Learn something. The Noyo Centerfor Marine Science is a great place to spend a rainy afternoon learning about coastal marine life. Checkout the amazing marine mammal specimens, including an Orca skeleton, plus a 3D dome that streams footage from under the water. The GuestHouse Museum is great for local history, and you can spend hours pouring over art from every corner of the earth in the Triangle Tattoo Museum.
• Watch the surf from your car–we have plenty of pullouts along our coastal roads: they are a great way to watch big waves pound the coastline during a storm. In Fort Bragg, grab a coffee and head to the south parking lot on the Coastal Trail. In Mendocino, Heeser Drive offers plenty of pullouts. And Hwy 1 offers many a scenic overlook. Look for whales if the sea is not too rough.
• Dine or Drink with Delightful Views. Many restaurants along the coast give you a front row seat to nature’s show, while you stay warm, dry, and fed. The Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg sits along a river full of cavorting seals (my favorites place to eat: breakfast at the Noyo Harbor Inn and lunch at Silver’s at the Wharf). In Mendocino, you can’t beat the view at Flow, perched on the second floor overlooking the bay, accessed by walking up through an old water tower. Venture up toward Westport and have a drink or tea at the Old Abalone Pub.
• Swim or exercise. There’s something for everyone and the world-class CV Starr Center: an indoor aquatic center with a water-slide and large recreational pool, a lap pool, a gym, and all types of exercise classes.
• Let the kids run. We don’t have many here, but when you have small kids that just want a place to run around under your supervision, these two placed were godsends for my kids. The Company Store in Fort Bragg has a few businesses inside (including the Mendocino CookieCompany, perfect for a hot beverage and a treat), but its large open space gives kids a great runway space. Just down the street the old Depot building which houses Laurel’s Deli also has a teeny mall with a half dozen businesses and old trains for admiring.
  

Pioneer Cemeteries: Falling in Love with the Past

Caspar Cemetery, perfect in the fog

Cinderella came to the Mendocino Coast. But not that Cinderella. Her glass slippers would not have lasted a day on the muddy rutted roads. No, this flesh and blood version went by the name Cinderella Wallace. She came to the coast in the late 1800s, a time when logging towns were bustling with men, money, and booze. She lived on the edge of the Evergreen Cemetery in Mendocino Village, and was routinely awoken by a loud drunken man who walked through the cemetery on his way home each night. Cinderella prized her beauty sleep, so one night she took matters into her own hands. Just before the saloon’s closing time, she crept out to the cemetery, crouched behind a gravestone, and then jumped out to scare the drunkard as he passed by.

I learned about this mischievous Cinderella, and a host of other deceased characters, during a cemetery tour on Halloween night, where local actors hid behind the headstones of their namesakes, then on cue popped out to share their tales. (A wonderful joint partnership between the KelleyHouse and the Mendocino Theater Company.)

A driftwood headstone shaped like a ship

Visitors to our coast fall in love with the sea, but when you stay long enough you will also fall in love with the dead. You might be amused by the names (there is both a Mustard and a Pickle buried in Mendocino), you might be moved by the heartfelt tributes (lives cut short and those long-lived), you might appreciate the gravestone sculptures, or you might be moved by the gorgeous natural surroundings (the dead have the best ocean views—many cemeteries are on bluffs or hills).  A walk through any of the charming cemeteries here will take you back in time and instill a sense of wonder.

If you, like me, are a little bit of a history nut, you can go back and research the stories of the folks you encountered. The Kelley House has a great online archive, and the Little River Inn, has a wonderful exhibit on their cemetery.

Katy Tahja’s excellent blog post on the Victorian symbolism found carved on headstones helps decipher some of the stories of those buried here:

“All sorts of objects were carved on gravestones. Anchors were symbols of hope and indicated seafarer’s graves. Arches stood for victory, arrows for mortality. Books appear on scholars’ gravestones, and a broken column indicated a life cut short. Doors or gates on stone were passages into the after-life and keys denoted spiritual knowledge.”

Here are a few things you might enjoy about each cemetery (just look up these names on your GPS to visit):

Sarah Foster, a surviving member of the Donner Party

• Rose Memorial Cemetery (Fort Bragg). Perhaps most famous for its connection to the Donner Party. Sarah Foster, a surviving member who later became a midwife is buried here, along with Britton Greenwood, a guide in the rescue party.
• Pioneer Cemetery in Noyo Headlands Park (Fort Bragg), The three remaining gravestones commemorate military men who died during the brief period Fort Bragg had an army post.
• Parrish Family graveyard. Located inside the Mendocino Botanical Gardens near the old family farmhouse, the graves date back to early settlement when David Parrish, a protégé of Luther Burbank, brought the first horticulture research to the site.
• Caspar Cemetery. Visit in the morning as the mist pulls back on this hidden cemetery (pictured at top). Walk to the middle to see a large tree swallowing the headstones. (My daughter filmed an Alice-in-Wonderland-eque story here.)
• Evergreen Cemetery (Mendocino). Home to Protestants, Jews, and a small pet cemetery. Final resting place of Cinderella, but also Erik Albertson, who built the Masonic Lodge building in the 1860s and carved the now iconic sculpture at the top, “Time and the Maiden.”
• Hillcrest Cemetery (Mendocino). Vets, Catholics and Chinese are buried here, though many of the Chinese remains were later dug up and sent back to the deceased’s birthplace, in accordance with Taoist beliefs). Look for the 3-Century grave: Francisco Fara, born in 1798 and died in 1904, so lived in three different centuries!
• Little River Cemetery (Little River). Lovely sculptures. And a magnificent blowhole (really a sinkhole) just behind it. Resting place for Dreeme Life Ball (who’s wife name was Dolly, can you believe it? Dreeme and Dolly Ball!).

There are many more along the coast, so when you feel the urge to stop, do it, you won't be sorry.

Dudleya Farinosa, Coastal Superstar

Our coastal bluffs come alive with showstopping wildflowers every spring, but there’s one humble succulent that deserves your admiration and protection. Native to the California coast, the beautiful red-tipped Dudleya farinosa dot the coastal landscape and have become something of a celebrity for all the wrong reasons: they’re being stolen in droves.

Why? In part, succulents are having a moment. Living succulent walls are a thing in case you haven’t noticed. On a recent trip to Venice Beach I noticed every other business boasted a gorgeous vertical wall of succulents—some inside right alongside designer shoes, some fronting bar and restaurants, others doubling as storefronts attempting to beautify the concrete jungle.

But the storefronts aren’t the market for the Dudleya, which can be grown easily from seed and are available in nurseries. No, the Chinese seem to highly value them for their color, symmetry, and age (some are over 100 years old). They sell for $40-80 a piece; demand is so high that thieves steal onto the bluffs and strip hundreds off at a time. The kicker: the climate in China is too hot for these lovely plants to survive, so most die off after a few weeks.

Poaching. A word I wish still just meant a way to gently cook eggs. But sadly, poaching, as in stealing items of value from public lands in order to resell them, is something we are all too familiar with on the coast. We live amidst abundant natural resources, and over the years have had to contend with burl poaching (removing the scar tissue from redwood trees because the grain is beautiful) to abalone poaching (taking abalone that are not mature or catching more than your allotment, or using illegal means) to now succulent poaching.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife have their hands full, and limited resources often require volunteers to police our protected species, or in the case of the Dudleya, suspicious locals. Check out this Press Democrat article for more detail about a bust initiated by observant patrons of the Mendocino post office. In a nutshell, as we locals know, a long line forms if you’ve got more than a package or two to mail. The person at the counter was mailing THIRTY boxes to China, many with dirt on the bottom, which raised alarm bells in one of the waiting customers. Complaints were lodged, fast forward to a bust which resulted in thousands of dollars in fines and jail time. I relished the part of the story where the culprits, caught red-handed, were forced to replant 850 plants under the watchful eye of the game warden.

I learned about this phenomenon from my daughter’s boyfriend who covered the story on their high school radio show last year. I had never heard of them, or this issue until then. I sought a Dudleya out not long after and took the picture you see above. Beautiful! If you have a chance to admire one, do so. If you have an opportunity to replant one as part of a conservation effort, do that too! And by all means report any suspicious activity to Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Whales on Land: A Scavenger Hunt

Golden West Mural

Whale watching on the California north coast thrills locals and visitors alike. The blast of excitement you feel when that spout of water appears is reminiscent of childhood easter egg hunts. But plenty of visitors are not so lucky—maybe the ocean is too rough and the whitecaps obscure the spout, maybe inclement weather keeps you indoors during your visit, or maybe you just can’t seem to spot the spout when all around people are saying “Look, look, it’s right there!”

But whale watching rewards patience, so just accept that today is not the day to see one and try again later. And it does not mean that you can’t indulge your whale curiosity in other ways. Because we are a coastal community, whales are abundant on-shore, so I’ve prepared a little scavenger hunt for whale lovers of all ages!

Find the Whale Skeletons

We are fortunate to have 2 intact, fully articulated whale skeletons in Fort Bragg so you can get up close and personal with their anatomy.

Grey Whale at MacKerricher

• Check out the 30-foot grey whale skeleton displayed near the visitor center at MacKerricher State Park just north of town. The docents here also lead whale watching tours during migration season, For extra credit, find the wooden bench sculpture nearby of a mama whale and her baby.



Noyo Center Orca

• To pose with your head in the mouth of a killer whale, stop by the Noyo Center for Marine Science, where an Orca skeleton was articulated (aka assembled like bone Legos) by the community several years ago. The Orca is just one of many exhibits, so plan to spend some time here learning about marine life off the coast.

Find the Art Whales
We are a community of artists, so dip into any gallery to be rewarded with photos, prints, and sculptures. Here are a few that are easy to spot around town:

• This graceful wooden bench on the Coastal Trail in Fort Bragg reminds me of a mama whale swimming next to her calf. Sit and contemplate the spectacular views, look for passing whales or seals that sometimes swim in the cove below. Crafted by local artist, Yorgen Quent Kvinslend, this is one of many benches on this trail created by local woodworkers. You can’t help but run your hands along the smooth grain of the wood while relaxing here.
• The "Greetings from Fort Bragg" mural pictured above appears on the side of the Golden West Saloon (one of the only brick buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake and a still-great watering hole) is ready-made for selfies. Artist: Wilfried Sieg III 



Whale sculpture in Mendocino

• The whale sculpture that welcomes you at the entrance of the MacCallum House in Mendocino is beautiful and historic, created by a local sculptor namedByrd Baker. Baker was a founding member of the group who started the Mendocino Whale War, an attempt to stop Japanese and Russian whale hunting off the north coast, which resulted in the first Whale Festival in 1976.

Drink or Eat a (replica of a) Whale

• Indulge your sweet tooth with a chocolate whale from the MendocinoChocolate Company. 
• Drink for Science! Fort Bragg’s renowned Northcoast Brewery features a Stellar Seal IPA, with proceeds benefiting marine science efforts. Their Laguna Baja dark lager celebrates the grey whales’ annual 12,000-mile migration.

Wooden puzzles at Noyo Center

Shop for Whale Souvenirs

• You will find whale souvenirs in any shop along the coast, but at the Noyo Center for Marine Science’s gift shop your purchase goes toward marine conservation. Take a reusable lunch bag imprinted with whale graphics to work or school, buy a logo sweatshirt or beanie to stay toasty during your visit, or treat the grandkids to a whale stuffed animal or wooden puzzle.

Enjoy your whale scavenger hunt!

Whale Watching for Inspiration

Just like the whales that migrate along our coast, I too am a creature of habit. Every year I resolve to write more, but unlike those magnificent mammals, I never finish what I start (as you can see by the fact that the first and last blog post I did was SEVEN years ago). But two things happened to boost my resolve; I was laid off my job (which freed up plenty of time), and my daughter gave me a pep talk on developing a writer’s discipline. Having written several books, I once had this discipline, but writing is like a muscle, it atrophies without use. Roxy assigned me the task of writing anything that pops into my head for at least 20 minutes a day, so here we go!

  

Winter on the north coast brings an abundance of rain, mushrooms, and whales. It’s raining now, the chanterelles have been picked, so that leaves us with whales. If you want to talk about sticking to a routine, what better inspiration than the California Gray Whale. From about November through March, they migrate from Alaska, where they spend the summer eating, to Baja in Mexico, where they go to mate and have their babies. They make this 12,000-mile roundtrip every year, all without eating again until they return to Alaska. What a lesson in stamina and endurance!

A walk along any of Mendocino coast’s amazing coastal trails during winter will likely reward you with the view of a whale spout or three because grey whales like the shallow coastal waters. I just let my eyes rest on the water about 10 miles offshore, then scan patiently till I see a spout. If I see one, I whip out the binoculars for a closer look. The other easy way is to just watch other walkers who are pointing a finger out to sea—they usually have their sights on a whale or some other marine mammal you'll want to see. It's easy enough to whale watch from the shore, but you can also book a whale watching boat trip out of Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg to get closer to them. 

Greys are by no means the only whales off the coast; you might see a passing humpback, orca, or blue whale. If you want to whale watch like a pro print out a chart that lets you identify the whales by the shape of the spout (grey whale's spout is heart-shaped). And should your patience reward you with a bit of whale frolic, you may see these behaviors:

·      Whale breaching—the whale gets some speed underwater then propels its head and part of its body above the water and then lands with a crash and a splash.

·      Spy hole—the whale head appears above the water’s surface, just enough so the whale’s eye can gaze out.

·      Lob-tailing—the whale raises its fluke and slaps it down on the water, creating a vibration and sound that is believed to be a form of non-verbal communication.

For more about whale watching, visit the Noyo Center’s Crow’s Nest location on the Fort Bragg coastal trail. They have trained docents who can help ID your sightings, plus powerful binoculars on their deck. At their downtown center they have a spectacular articulated Orca skeleton that is not to be missed!

Didn’t get to see the whales? Don’t despair, there is another way to enjoy our love of whales, check out part 2 of this post, Whales on Land Scavenger Hunt.