Sunday, 23 November 2014

HOLIDAY, NOVEMBER 2014 (09) - SONOMA TO MENDOCINO

NOVEMBER 04

Our next base of operations was going to be a little town on the northern California coast which I’d first visited during my first American adventure nearly two decades ago…

But first we had to get there, and that involved leaving Sonoma, after calling in at the now fabled (to our minds at least) “Sonoma Cheese Factory” to buy our lunch, as well as a few other bits and pieces…

Still, armed with cheese, lemonade, wine and bread enough to make up a half decent picnic, we left Sonoma, both brooding upon the fact that this might actually turn out to be for the very last time.

Still, such thoughts were swiftly dispelled as “Min” guided us almost faultlessly towards Armstrong Woods, the “Must See” place that had been recommended by the ladies in the Tourist Information Office the previous day and, given that we weren’t planning upon heading all that much farther northwards on this trip, and given that, for the first time, we’d ruled out the long haul over to Yosemite Park, this was probably the only chance that we’d get to see any Redwoods this time around.

I don’t know whether it’s the utter peacefulness, of the strange muted light, or just the trees themselves, but (and you may very well disagree with me) I think that there’s something utterly magical about being in the woodlands…


After making our short visit to the Redwoods, and scoffing our picnic in the car park, we headed off back towards the twisty-turny roads of the coast, and were so bowled over by the beauty of it all, that we simply had to pull over at a spectacular little place called Jenner just to drink in the sheer beauty of it all.


 After that, we climbed back into the car and headed north along the terrifying bends, on several occasions being blinded by the lowness of the sun in the sky, before eventually arriving in Mendocino just before sunset.


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