During part of our vacation, it was possible to think we'd accidentally gone on our friend K's vacation by mistake. At Clearlake we narrowly missed a quilting exhibit and then, at Fort Bragg, we spent a day walking trails at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
Heathers and perennials were stars of the moment.
We wandered freely.
The gate separates longer trails from the shorter garden paths.
A banana slug. The banana slug is the official UCSC campus mascot.
The pine and fern garden area. It's nice that they leave the dead trunks as part of the landscape.
Coastal fog.
Dahlias.
Sunflowers at the vegetable garden.
And finally, lunch.
While at Fort Bragg we rode on the steam powered Skunk Train. The tracks were originally laid to haul lumber, so the 'destination' lies in the middle of a youngish redwood forest.
The pace is leisurely, about 29 mph. The best views are from the open air car.
Along the way, the train passes several cabins and campgrounds. Some people live in some cabins year round. The area is away from any town, so generating and managing utilities is up to the residents.
At the destination, where the engine is detached from the 'front' of the train and reattached to the 'rear', we ate lunch. The redwood below is probably 200 to 300 years old.
Now we're returning to Fort Bragg.
Since we went south for our last California vacation, we decided to go north. Our first stop was the Petrified Forest, between Santa Rosa and Calistoga. We took two guided hikes, the Meadow Walk and a walk to see redwoods in a nearby ravine.
The log in the picture below is not petrified, though its gray cast makes it look like chalcedony fossils. The 'logs' lying on the red gravel, though, are fossilized.
Then, because we were so close, we went to see the "utterly amazing" Old Faithful Geyser.
This is what it does. Ta da. Now that you've seen it here, you can save yourself a trip and a fair amount of pocket change. The web site's information page is more interesting than the actual exhibit.
At the same location it's possible to pay a quarter and feed a goat. What a pen of goats has to do with a geyser is anyone's guess, though the goats definitely like to be fed.
We also visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum and stayed in Santa Rosa. We all liked the inked cartoons.
The next day we went past Mt. Saint Helena (not Mt. Saint Helens) to Clearlake. The lake attracts serious bass fishers and in August there are fishing contests every weekend.
Garrett checks wi fi spots along our route.
Representing the casual fishers, we were there during the middle of the week and stayed onshore. This wasn't because we didn't want to get a boat but because it was HOT!!! It's easier to bake along the shore, closer to air conditioning and a refrigerator of cold drinks.
The ducks were happy and didn't seem to mind the heat.
