Mendocino Retreat!

Paul and I enjoyed a nice relaxing 3 days on the Mendocino Coast in June. It was a much needed relaxing break for both of us. No kids or work for 3 whole days! We didn't really know what to do with ourselves! But we eventually figured something out!


The trip to Mendocino was a pleasant, but LONG one! We (I) decided it would be fun/romantic to drive over to Bodega Bay and up the 1. Not my best idea. The map said it would take just over 4 hours, but it took us almost 6! I KNOW Paul was thinking, "we could have driven to Disneyland!" Oh well, it was nice to just talk and listen to music and see the sights. There is so much of California I've never seen! I've never been north of San Francisco before, so it was a real treat for me. We stopped near Bodega Bay to snap some shots.

Belly shot! 27 Weeks Pregnant.

There are tons of these rocks with arches in them all along the Northern coast. I think they are so pretty and remind me of Pirates of the Caribbean for some reason.

We stayed at this beautiful Bed & Breakfast called Dennen's Victorian Farmhouse. Thomas Kinkade actually painted a picture of it because it's so cute.

We had our own little suite behind the house with 2 fireplaces and the HUGEST bathtub I've ever seen in my whole life!

Paul doing the manly fire thing

We got to request what time we wanted breakfast. So every morning at 8:30 we had our breakfast in bed brought to us! Doesn't it look delicious? It did look a little better than it tasted, but oh well. The hot chocolate was awesome though! Honestly the best I've ever had. I meant to ask the owner what she used. Note the little marshmallows on the side! And fresh squeezed orange juice. Mmmmm!
This is the HUGE bath tub! 4x6 feet! Paul kept laughing at me because I kept slipping down because I had nothing to put my feet up against. It was the perfect size for him though. I so wish we had one of these in our house! In my dream house this will be a must have! Anyways, every morning after breakfast in bed I took a long hot soak!
Our first morning, they had to kick us out of the room so they could clean it so we ventured down to the beach. It was a little walk down a dirt path, but so worth it. There were little tide pools everywhere and this neat little island.

Doesn't Paul look like he's having a blast? Not sure what's up with that face! haha.

Isle di Monte Cristo (just kidding, I don't think it has a name, but I can pretend right?)

Yes, that is my husband at the top of the island. I was feeling a little nervous about falling and killing the baby, so I stayed behind and took pictures of him. He actually walked around to the other side of it too.

The little path leading down to the beach

We walked back to the B&B and had some Navarro Winery GRAPE JUICE! It was the best grape juice I've ever had! Gives you wicked heart burn, but totally worth it!
Paul uncorking the bottle. That's something I've never seen him do before, so thought I should take a picture!
The cheese and crackers were part of Paul's Father's Day gift from his rootbeer/cheese tour! I'm glad he felt like sharing! We brought a big cooler with a bunch of food and snacks and of course a lot of root beer!


For dinner that night we went to the Albion River Inn. This was recommended to us from several people so we tried it, but what we didn't realize is that it's a senior citizen's club...or at least it appeared that way. We were the youngest people in there by at least 30 years. Haha. But it was a beautiful view and pretty food.

They had beautiful grounds there. I wish it had been sunny!

My Salmon

Paul's Steak

After dinner we drove up to Fort Bragg about 15 minutes away and walked down to Glass Beach. I think this was one of our favorite excursions. Glass Beach used to be a public dump until the 60's when some smart hippie decided this was a bad idea. Really???!!! So they cleaned it all up...mostly. But they couldn't get all the glass up and now it's been washed in and out of the beach for so long that the glass is smooth and pretty. We saw a little of Re-bar and bricks and some rusty stuff. It was pretty cool (for a dump that is).

Glass Beach

After the beach we went to the Fort Bragg Movie Theater and saw A-Team. We lucked out because it was half price night! I haven't been in a theater without stadium seating in a long time. There was no floor lighting and we sat in the back seat in front of the rotating fan because it was so hot in there! But A-Team was funny!

The next day we went to old town Mendocino. It is the cutest town ever. I highly recommend going there if you are in the neighborhood. And go to the Mendocino Chocolate Co. and get their chocolate pecan toffee. It's like eating heaven!

I thought this was a neat building. An old church turned Natural Food Store. Shows you the way the world is going huh?

I swear there are no ugly houses in this town. It must be mandatory that they all be built cute. Most of them are old houses from the 1800's. Something really interesting, almost each house has their own water tower!
This is Jessica Fletcher's House from the old TV show Murder She Wrote. I used to watch that all the time as a little girl. It was so fun to see the house from the show! Wouldn't you love to live in a house like this?
This is the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. I don't really know anything about it because by the time we took the 2 mile walk to get there, the visitor's center was closed. But it was a pretty walk. Then we walked back and realized that we took the long trail instead of the direct ROAD that leads right to the lighthouse! Oh well, we got our exercise in for the month!

Here we are after our exhausting walk

That is pretty much it. We had a great relaxing time, with absolutely NO cell phone service...yikes! We had to Skype my Mom to check on the kids. We missed the kids terribly, but were glad we were able to spend some much needed together time before we have 3!