Hi there everyone!
Elisa and I decided to spend a long weekend on the Northern California Coast near Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg sits on the coast just north of the quaint seaside town of Mendocino. The County of Mendocino was immortalized by Willie Nelson and Lee Ann Womack who sang the great song "Mendocino County Line", a personal favorite of mine.
Mendocino is now very famous for producing some amazing wines. I am partial to the Pinot Noir wines from the area. But on this trip, our focus was going to be abalone. We would be joining our niece Amberly and her fiancé Christian who along with several of their friends annually celebrate the re-opening of abalone season by diving for the tasty muscles in the kelp beds right off of the Mendocino Coast. They would be roughing it by tend camping at Van Damme State Park. We on the other hand would be "roughing it" in our Legacy Motorhome just up the road in Fort Bragg.
Fort Bragg was originally occupied by Native Americans but in the mid-1800's the Indians would be resettled onto a reservation near the mouth of the Noyo River. A military garrison would be opened nearby by Horatio Gibson, who would name the fort after one of his commanders, Braxton Bragg. By the 1890s the Indians would abandon the reservation and the military would leave shortly thereafter, but the town would remain and a growing lumber industry would propel the Fort Bragg to prosperity. Fort Bragg would experience a boom in 1906, when the lumber industry would be called upon to help rebuild San Francisco after the great earthquake of 1906. Today, the lumber industry has moved to other places and Fort Bragg's focus is now on tourism. The beauty of rugged coastline is certainly a great draw, but just off the coast are the beautiful redwoods. This is what makes Van Damme State park such a great spot, it has access to the coast but sits among the trees in a large sprawling state park. There are also countless quaint B&B's and cozy Inns that line scenic Hwy 1 from Point Arena to Fort Bragg.
Getting to Fort Bragg was the most challenging part of our trip. For starters, we were late preparing for our trip, because we had to take Elisa's brother to a number of different doctor's appointments. Then, our little Hyundai that we tow behind our motorhome would have a problem and end up in the shop. So we would have to make arrangement s to rent a car from Enterprise up in Fort Bragg. We left Martinez, CA at around 10:30 AM and the trip would usually only take about 4 hours. Unfortunately, we would be tied up in traffic on Hwy 37 near Napa Valley. We were leaving on a Thursday, so there shouldn't be traffic in Napa Valley, but apparently Route 116 was closed and we would be re-routed to 101 just past San Rafael and we would then be caught in the Pentaluma traffic. Bottom line is that the journey would take over 5-1/2 hours. We had an appointment to pick up our rental car at 4:00pm and we weren't going to make it. We called ahead and the gal working the desk suggested we not take Hwy 128 and instead stay on 101 to Willits and then take Hwy 20. it worked out, and we would arrive by 4:25 just before she was closing for the day.
We had a difficult time reserving as spot for our 38' motorhome on this first weekend of August. That's because it is the first weekend after the opening of Abalone season and apparently everyone who as camping - except us - was diving for the little buggers. We did end up finding a spot at Woodside RV park. it's not the most scenic and well equipped park we've been in but we did get a nice pull through spot. By the time we got settled into our spot, we needed to begin thinking about dinner. Elisa had picked up some great looking ribeye steaks before we left so that problem was solved and we had a great dinner.
The next day, we would spend some time exploring Fort Bragg and taking a long walk with our dogs Oreo and Bella on Glass Beach. Glass Beach is a popular tourist spot just north of Fort Bragg, and as the name suggest, the beach is abundantly covered with beach glass. The interesting story is how the beach came to be covered in glass. From the 1860 through the 1950's the town of Fort Bragg would dispose of their garbage by first burning it on the beach and then dumping it directly into the ocean. Over time, the ocean would decompose the discarded items and expel the diestrus all along the shoreline. The glass from bottles and jars that were thrown into the ocean would become broken sanded smooth by the tides and then deposited along the beach. Nowadays, much of the glass has been picked by tourists and locals and while there is still a lot of glass it is nowhere near as plentiful as it once was. There are signs everywhere, asking people not to take the glass but most of the folks we saw out there were filling their pockets and pails with the glass gems. At this rate, they're gonna have to come up with a new name for this beach.
Later that Friday evening we wold drive down to Van Damme State park and connect with Amber and Christian and we would get some quality time in with our newest Grand-Niece Kirsten. She is only about 4 months old but this is her second camping trip. What a trooper. Earlier in the day, Christian had been out with the rest of the gang diving for abalone. He would report that there were lots of them out there but they were relatively small. We would arrive just in time to see his friend John running the abalone through a meat grinder so that they could make abalone won-tons and abalone pizza. Others in the group were slicing, pounding, breading and frying abalone. We would find abalone in salads and tacos. We brought along some Italian sweet sausage and some Bockwurst sausages to round out the faire. Everything was delicious. We would call it a night around 10:00 and make our way back up to Fort Bragg, which is just 15 minutes up Hwy 1.
On Saturday, we would sleep in until about 9:00 in the morning, this was partly due to the fact that our little dog Bella decided to wake us up at about 4:00 am so she could go out to the bathroom. Once that was done, she decided that everyone else should wake up and join her. It took awhile to get there back to sleep so, we would make up for it by sleeping in. After we had a hearty breakfast of eggs, hash browns, breakfast sausage and toast, we would head back to Glass Beach for another walk. It would be low tide, so Elisa wanted to head down to the tide pools to look or critters. After spending a couple hours looking at the seals and sea lions just off the shoreline and exploring the tide pools we would head down toward our campground to explore the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. They would be having a art festival and beer and wine tasting at the gardens. It was very crowded. The gardens are very deceiving from the entrance, it looks like it will be relatively small so my expectations were low. But once we got beyond the entrance, we were amazed by how large the gardens were. It was beautiful. They are known for their collection of rhododendrons and dahlias. The rhododendrons were not in bloom but the dahlia's were beautiful. The grounds wind their way from Hwy 1 all the way down to the beach, about 3/4 of a mile. On this day, open spaces in the park would be occupied by artists exhibiting their work. In between the artists were different vintners and brewers of craft beer. It made for an entertaining afternoon.
Later that evening we would make another pass through Van Damme State Park to see Amber, Christian and baby Kirsten. They were all so cute dressed in their Where's Waldo costumes, which was this years theme for the abalone fest. Even Lizzie the black lab would be sporting a Waldo classic white and red striped shirt. We wouldn't be staying for the abalone on this night as we wanted to try Luna Trattoria in Fort Bragg, a highly rated Italian restaurant. We would get there by 8:00pm and they were packed. Apparently, the great reviews aren't just hype. Chef Massimo and his wife are from Northern Italy and they lovingly prepare authentic dishes that include fresh made pastas and local seafood. We ordered a starter to share, Polenta with a meat sauce. it was perfectly prepared, the polenta was sautéed so that it was a little crispy on the outside but soft and creamy on the inside. The meat sauce was also delicious. For our entree's Elisa would order their gluten free fusilli with a creamy red sauce with salmon. It was excellent. I would go for the mixed grill with oven roasted potatoes. The grill platter would have a 4oz skirt steak that was accompanied with a spicy Italian sausage and house made pork sausage. They were drizzled with a nice tomato and garlic aioli that paired nicely with it. The potatoes were to die for. We declare Luna Trattoria as a "must go". Check it out if you find yourself in Fort Bragg.
On Sunday morning we would pack-up and head back home. It took us 5 hours again to get home, but the drive back was beautiful. We would wind our way along the coast on Hwy 1 and then head inland on Hwy 128. We would go from the rugged coast to redwood forests and then to rolling hills lined with oak trees and then into wine country Alexander Valley straddles Mendocino and Sonoma counties and it produces some fabulous wines.
It was a short but fun trip.