This trip was by far the most memorable of them all because this is the trip where we got engaged!!
This trip came about by an Internet search for somewhere interesting to go. I searched the web with tag lines like "romantic California locations", "romantic vacations on a budget", "hidden romance of California" and "secret California destinations" which eventually led me to hiddencalifornia.com. On this site I found plenty of great ideas. The one place I fell in love with was Le Faux. The cabin looks like it was plucked straight out of 17th century Europe and it is located in a picturesque story book setting. Not more than 50 yards from the ocean cliff, and set right at the edge of the woods on the property. I told My Love about it in October and we thought for sure it would be booked for the holiday season already but he called just to check. To our surprise it was available. We were ecstatic and decided to spend a few days there after Christmas and over New Years.
On the day we were leaving we were both too excited to sleep so we left around 2 in the morning with a 9-10 hour drive in front of us. We were in central California for the sunrise and stopped for a Carl's Jr. breakfast burger on the way. Entering Northern California the scenery began to change. There were vineyards on every side of the road for the last 100 miles of the drive and beautiful towering trees through the mountains.
We arrived in Fort Bragg around 11 o'clock in the morning (check-in wasn't until 3). We were both starving so we went to the first place we saw (which ended up being Toppers Pizza) to grab a quick bite and get out of the car. After we had finished eating we decided to find Glass Beach, which we had read about in our research of what to do/see on our trip. Glass Beach was easy to find just down the road a mile or two. We took a short 1/4 mile walk out to the beach to find an interesting little beach area that had multi-colored glass pieces all over, smoothed over by the ocean. The beach itself was beautiful, rock formations not far off the coast as well as on the beach. We explored the small tide pools, while making hilarious shaky home videos. We spent about an hour on the beach walking around, taking pictures, and taking in the beauty and serenity of it all.
Around 1 o'clock we decided to call ahead and see if we could check in early. The woman who owns the property was so sweet and said that checking in early would be fine. We headed over to the cabin getting a little lost on the way but finding it within 10 minutes or so. We pulled into the property and were immediately greeted by the breath taking view of the ocean in front of us. We began to unpa
ck and explore the cabin, the fire pit area on the cliff, and a bit of the woods. The room was beautifully decorated, every detail attended to. It even had a Christmas tree decorated in the corner and a nativity scene on the table at the foot of the bed. We quickly realized we needed to take a nap and unfortunately slept through what we didn't know would be our only visible sun set. When we finally awoke we decided to go grocery shopping to pick up a few snacks and food for a meal or two.
ck and explore the cabin, the fire pit area on the cliff, and a bit of the woods. The room was beautifully decorated, every detail attended to. It even had a Christmas tree decorated in the corner and a nativity scene on the table at the foot of the bed. We quickly realized we needed to take a nap and unfortunately slept through what we didn't know would be our only visible sun set. When we finally awoke we decided to go grocery shopping to pick up a few snacks and food for a meal or two.
The next morning we decided to call the Ricochet Ridge Ranch to see if we could go on a horse back ride on the beach (something I always wanted to do). Sure enough there was a ride at 11am so we booked it. It was really cold out that morning but we wanted to go explore so we decided to walk into the woods behind the cabin where we saw some wild Turkeys. We stalked them into the shallow part of the woods for about in hour until it was time to go. It was hilarious and really fun to chase the Turkeys! How often do you get to do that?
We headed out to the ranch as it started to sprinkle outside. When we arrived we were asked if we still wanted to ride because of the weather and we bundled up and said of course. My Love was given a horse name Nikita and mine was named Night Cap. We both had riding experience so the ride guide didn't spend very much time going over how-to and
We headed out to the ranch as it started to sprinkle outside. When we arrived we were asked if we still wanted to ride because of the weather and we bundled up and said of course. My Love was given a horse name Nikita and mine was named Night Cap. We both had riding experience so the ride guide didn't spend very much time going over how-to and
safety, so we were on our way. The guide was a bit chatty but very nice. We rode down the road about a mile and then onto the beach. There was almost no one on the beach except the abundance of seals right off shore. We talked and enjoyed an hour or so ride and had our guide take our picture. The ride was great though a little cold and wet so when we headed back we were both ready to go. We asked our guide if she could give us a suggestion on where to eat and she sent us to Noyo Harbor, which was back towards our cabin, where we found Silver's at the Wharf.We were seated at a window side table with a view of the harbor out to the ocean. We ordered crab entrees and clam chowder appetizers. The clam chowder was "award winning" and really deserved it. It was fantastic! The crab was served cold with mayonnaise which we were not used to at all. It was still good crab and surprisingly the mayo with lemon juice was a fantastic condiment. But we both decided at the end of the meal that we still prefer crab hot. Throughout the meal we watched the boats come and go and the seals swimming in the harbor, it was great.
After lunch we went back to the cabin to warm up and relax it began to rain outside and spoiled My Love's "special plans". We decided instead of having a fire out on the cliff and watching sunset we would go out for a sushi dinner instead. We got ready to go but when we walked out
to leave we realized it had stopped raining. My Love asked if it was okay if we stayed and had a fire, even though it was past sunset. I said sure, secretly knowing how anxious he was. I didn't know when or how he was going to propose but part of me knew it was going to be on this trip so I didn't want to accidentally sabotage my own proposal. He went out and started the fire, and asked me to bring out the stereo and the Martinelli's sparkling cider. The fire was lit and he had made a special CD of songs that reminded him of us or me. We danced next to the fire, we are big dancers, and sat and talked as we sipped the cider. As a new song started he asked me to dance and within that song there is a line that says "marry me" and at that
moment he knelt to his knee and pulled out a ring and said "will you marry me?" and I said "of course"! And that was that, we were engaged. We turned on the video camera and explained what just happened in all of our excitement. We looked up and saw, as all the clouds had opened right above us, a lunar rainbow. We were so excited and I could not stop looking at the ring, telling him how much I loved him, and smiling from ear to ear.
We went to bed happy and woke up feeling just the same. The rest of the trip we were on cloud nine, newly engaged. The first thing we went to do was take a ride on the Skunk Train. I had checked the schedule online which said the train was running but when we got there the store was open but they said it was too slow to run the train. The man inside was quite rude to us and even though we were bummed it was closed that man surely turned me off from the Skunk Train experience. We didn't let that get us down so we decided to walk through the little town and check out all of the cute stores... and call our family since we had little to no reception at the cabin (which we loved). When we decided it was time for lunch we back tracked to a sushi place we had seen driving through town. Off the Hook Sushi and it was excellent. It was second only to the sushi I had in Maui on a family vacation. We ordered about six rolls and unagi and were stuffed but it was all so worth it. When we were finished it had started to rain again so we found a toy store called Spunky Skunk. They had tons of puzzles, games, and crafts. We bought a puzzle and Skip-Bo and headed back to the cabin. We had a wonderful time
being stuck inside by the rain and spent the evening working on our puzzle.
The owner's husband happen to get home that night from a boating trip, it was New Years Eve, and he was a crabber. Lucky for us they were having a crab boil for New Years Eve and when My Love went over to ask for more towels they gave us two whole crabs right out of the pot. We were ecstatic and dug right in to the hot crabs, especially since you couldn't find hot crabs anywhere in town. We ate them both for dinner. When it got closer to midnight we snuggled in bed turned on the TV to watch the ball drop and cracked a bottle of Martinelli's (our new years tradition). We brought in the New Year together so relaxed and care free it was perfect.
The owner's husband happen to get home that night from a boating trip, it was New Years Eve, and he was a crabber. Lucky for us they were having a crab boil for New Years Eve and when My Love went over to ask for more towels they gave us two whole crabs right out of the pot. We were ecstatic and dug right in to the hot crabs, especially since you couldn't find hot crabs anywhere in town. We ate them both for dinner. When it got closer to midnight we snuggled in bed turned on the TV to watch the ball drop and cracked a bottle of Martinelli's (our new years tradition). We brought in the New Year together so relaxed and care free it was perfect.
On New Years day we went down the road about a mile to the
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. It was sprinkling on and off but not too much to cancel our walk. We took the video and regular camera into the gardens and began to explore. There was a huge variety of plants, some not in bloom because of the season, but there was still plenty to see. Most interestingly there were many varieties of mushrooms, and some of the brightest ones I had ever seen (like the one my ring is sitting on above). We spent about 2 hours walking through and taking lots of pictures. When we finished we went back to Silver's at the Wharf for lunch. After having some more fantastic clam chowder we went back to the cabin to explore the woods. We trekked into the woods, much deeper than the day we chased the Turkeys. There was a lot of land
between the house we were staying at and the next so we had lots of room to explore. We saw more mushrooms, birds, and rabbits, and found a skeleton of what was either a deer or coyote...eek. My Love, is into photography so he took lots of pictures while we were out. After exploring for about 2.5 hours we went back in. We worked some more on our puzzle and began to pack up since this was our last night. When dinner time rolled around we decided to try one of the nicer restaurants we had driven by in town called the Cliff House. We tried their "award winning" clam chowder as
well and it was great with a different flavor. The rest of the food was just okay and for the price not good enough. We went home and built a fire, as we had every night, and then went to bed and woke around 9 to be out by 10. On the way home we had one more adventure as we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. Neither of us had ever been to San Francisco so this was exciting for the both of us. We waved goodbye to the bridge and made the long drive home already dreaming of our next trip.
During our trip we had kept an eye out for magnets but could not find any for Fort Bragg. We decided to snag this little end cut of a branch and My Love created our very own magnet that turned out beautifully and means so much more than any other trinket we could have purchased.
Destination: Fort Bragg
Ricochet Ridge Ranch http://horse-vacation.com/
Noyo Harbor http://www.mendocino.com/?id=469
Silver's at the Wharf http://www.wharf-restaurant.com/
Skunk Train http://www.skunktrain.com/
Off the Hook Sushi http://www.yelp.com/biz/off-the-hook-sushi-fort-bragg
Spunky Skunk (toy store) http://www.spunkyskunktoys.com/
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens http://www.gardenbythesea.org/
Cliff House http://fortbraggcliffhouse.com/
Destination: San Francisco
Points of Interest: Golden Gate Bridge
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