The Great Mikegration

Cover Photo: Fun woodcarving greeter at Grandfather Tree;

Adventure Map Days 5-8;

Day 5: 07/09/22

• Woke up later and admired the view from our room at the Embassy Suites this morning.
• Went to breakfast at hotel and had a great one meal of banana pancakes and omelets. YUM!!! Top notch breakfast!
• Drank our hotel coffee by the old mill and water feature at the hotel. Sadly was time to go all to soon. I could get used to this hotel!
• Went to three bakeries; ButterCream Bakery & Diner, Winston’s Cafe & Bakery, The Vintage Sweet Shoppe, and finally Sweetie Pies Bakery so guess that makes it four! All were good bakeries so you can’t go wrong with any of them.
• Then Oxbow Market and did spirit tasting
• Dashed to ZD winery. Very good as always. Was Olivia’s first tasting ever in Napa Valley. Had a great time and was even able to have a taste of Abacus and a quick tour!! Thanks ZD!!!!!!

• Jelly Belly factory tour and museum – great. Wine tasting eh
• The Jelly Belly artwork was pretty cool, it was all made out of jelly bellies! Lots of time and patience involved in the process. I never even knew there was such a thing!

• Headed to Santa Rosa for dinner at Lococo’s Cucina Rustia. This is a great place for an Italian dinner. Staff is great, food is great and the atmosphere is wonderful! I got the Pappardelle Con Cinghiale dinner (housemade wild boar sausage with mushrooms). OUTSTANDING!!!
• They were closed by the time we got there however we wondered around the surrounding area of the Charles M Schulz Museum and Research. Had a total blast! I really want to go back and go through the museum and areas around it. Looks so fun!
• On to the DoubleTree by Hilton Sonoma Wine Country to spend the night.

Day 6: 07/10/22

• Woke up refreshed at the Double Tree by Hilton Sonoma Wine Country this morning and had breakfast there.
• Hiked a foggy Bodega bay and saw two seals this morning. Learned this is a Gray Whale migration zone however nothing for us! Timing was wrong.
• Drove onto Highway One and enjoyed the scenery.
• Getting hungry so stopped at the iconic Stewart’s point for calzone and drink to help us on our way. Fun chat with motorcycle dude while we were there. He drives a little farther on Highway One every weekend to see the sights.
• Disappoint that we didn’t have to to go on the forbidden path that led back into the forest and much windiness/adventure. PS.. it’s the intersection where Highway One meets with Stewart’s. Fun back way to get to Sonoma. Just takes a little while longer.

• Drove by St. Orres. A fine dining and lodging place just off Highway One. Looked like a super intriguing place to eat and stay but alas……no time on this trip to do. ONWARD!!
• Next stop up was the Point Arena lighthouse or California Coastal National Monument originally built in 1870 then destroyed then build again. Make sure you see the museum and take the tour. It is so worth it. Huge Fresnel lens in the museum.

• Cider stop at Gowan’s Heirloom Cider. Very yummy cider and just all around beautiful place to stop, stretch your legs and try some cider. Yes, we bought some to go too. lol.
• Refreshed from the Gowan’s cider stop we saw the Toumey winery tasting room but alas, it was not meant to be. They were just closing as we walked in so next time. Drive to the tasting room is really cool; was well worth it for the drive even if we didn’t get a tasting.
• Next stop up is the Pigmy Forest in Van Damme State Park for a quick hike. Interesting place for a hike. The soil here is between five hundred thousand and one million years old. This is because the flatness of the coastal terrace prevents new soil formation and there is not a higher terrace draining into it to bring new soil through erosion. Due to all this flatness there is little drainage so the rain leaches most of the basic nutrients away, creating an extreme acidic soil. Extreme acidity of the soil limits the ability of plants to grow and created an iron hardpan which prevents root growth. The slow growth and poor drainage creates wet soil, that limits oxygen available for roots. All of this create the environment that causes extremely stunted plant growth; hence the Pigmy Forest. Make sure you look at the picture that has the evolution of the forest on it. It makes you start to look at mountains differently trying to figure out why they look as they do.

• Off to the Beachcomber Motel and Spa in Fort Bragg to get checked in for the night and then dinner at Noyo Inn. Great place for dinner and very scenic. Nice marina right there and good food and better yet outstanding deserts!
• Back to the hotel and decided we needed to take a walk as was just to pretty not to. Right beside the hotel is MacKerricher State Park. We walked over the trestle bridge and then along cliffs and beach. Was a great evening walk  
• Back to the hotel about 9:30pm to call it for the evening.

Day 7: 07/11/22

• Walking to/on Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Named because off all the glass fragments you can find on it. Helpful hint that I didn’t know. Their is no such thing as natural sea glass. All sea glass comes from people dumping glass in the ocean. It gets broken up, polished by the sea, and finally washed up onto a shore. This is important regarding Fort Bragg because they used to burn and then let the waves wash their trash out to sea. Glass Beach was actually the town dump site from 1949-1967. The rock formations around Fort Bragg are unique in that they set up wave patterns that keep everything on the beach. Hence, it is one of the world’s largest natural tumblers and that’s why it’s a great place to find sea glass!
• Drank some coffee and ate leftover lemon pie for breakfast
• Got our morning exercise in as we tried to avoid waves as we dashed from beach to beach to avoid getting caught in the waves rolling in.

• Got some new sunglasses for the daughter
• Found a memorial from 1945 to Charles Johnson who founded Fort Bragg. It was a section of the largest Redwood tree known to have grown in the county. It was estimated to be 1,753 years old. 334 feet high. The diameter of the stump was 21 feet. It took them 60 man-hours to cut it down using a 22 foot saw. Make sure you look at the picture and the facts about the tree. It was alive in AD 190.
• Went to a sea glass museum discovered secrets of the universe.. Yeah….you’ll get it if you’ve been reading the adventure blog…. Good information here though and some wonderful examples of sea glass.

• Back on the road to drive more of Highway One to drive the Avenue of the Giants. FREAKING AWESOME DRIVE!!!!!!
• First stop is the Chandelier Tree in Leggett, CA. It’s 315 feet tall, 21 feet in diameter and about 2400 years old. While you can drive through the tree we weren’t able to drive Jaws through it as we were to high for the hole but there was a whole line of cars that did!

• Back on the road we saw the World Famous Tree House Believe It or Not but it was closed so we chose not to believe. lol
• On to Piercy, CA and Confusion Hill. Home of the worlds tallest free standing redwood chainsaw carving that is 44 foot tall according to Ripley. While we were there we couldn’t not go to the Confusion Hill house where neither plumb bob’s or levels seem to work well. Highly magnetic area for some reason that makes for some interesting fun and effects. We had a blast trying to walk through it; everything is really off kilter!

• Got tickets to see the One-Log House and did a quick self-tour. As you can imagine it didn’t take long but it was cool! They used to haul it around on a Semi Trailer from place to place whenever they needed a change of pace.

• Just across the parking lot is the world famous Grandfather Tree and incidentally the home of the happy Bigfoot fellow on our Day 5-8 cover photo! Several other cool wood carvings there also.
• Legend of Bigfoot was the next stop. So much potential as we are Bigfoot lover’s however this stop just didn’t do much for us.
• Quick swingby to see The Living Chimney Tree because we could and trees are cool.

• Hiked in the redwoods in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
• Derby ille giant
• Hiked to Founders grove. Impressive stand of giant Redwoods. The Founder’s Tree is a monster among giants! 346.1 feet tall. 12.7 feet in diameter. 40 feet in circumference and height to lower limb is 190.4 feet!

• Drove to see the Gingerbread Mansion in Ferndale, CA. Sadly it wasn’t made of gingerbread even though it was beautiful. Got pranked by a couple foreign tourists but it was all in good fun and they took our picture for us in front of the Mansion.
• Stopped by Hadley Gardens on our way out of Ferndale. Very nicely done! Couple of cools “small” houses and some beautiful gardenscaping there.
• Oh wonderful daughter of mine thought that the town was so clean and perfect that it had to be a cult town or one of those towns you see in a horror movie where everyone is the same and the town is perfect. To many movies dear child!!!!

• Stayed the night at the Bear River Casino Resort. Lost some money at the casino which wasn’t a big deal. Service at the restaurant there wasn’t very good though. Very slow and the food was only ok. Wouldn’t eat there again although the room was great and we had a wonderful nights sleep.

Day 8: 07/12/22

• Woke up at casino . I was jealous as my daughter slept in and had the audacity to snore……Kinda like I did to her in Hawaii. Paybacks….. Ughhhh
• Golden Harvest for breakfast. Potato pancakes and eggs Benedict with fresh squeezed juice yummy
• Drove into Eureka, CA this morning full of adventure.
• Victorian houses – Carson mansion, the pink lady, Annie’s victorian 
• Stopped at Ramones bakery – it was okay. Apple pudding and the gingerbread great

• Foundry tour at Blue Ox Millworks and Historic Village. Found dream home super friendly people. Very neat place. I didn’t realize he had his own TV show and that he was the man that had redone most of the old houses around town. If you want something restored exactly he is the man you want to use. His workshops all contain original machines that he uses to make it exactly like it was originally. Also, really to much to mention, but typesetting, weaving, bookbinding, foundry, and potter to name just a few. He’s simply amazing and very nice and humble. I was really impressed when I met him. Do yourself a favor and take the tour here!

• Drove from there to Arcata to Cafe Mokka which is a Finnish Country sauna and tub that also did espresssos, teas, and juices. Was a neat place. Not sure how it all got there but it seems to work! We got a mokka and a funky drink for dad (vanilla, lavender, double espresso, and lavender whipped cream). I’d never had one before and it was a brainstorm that Olivia and I had. It sounded fun when we talked about it and I decided to give it a whirl. A funky drink is where I ask them to make me something “funky” at their coffeehouse. I never know what I’ll get and I don’t have them tell me in advance. Spoiler alert as I do this all the time now….I’ve yet to be disappointed as there is some cool combos out there that I’ve never even heard of much less thought of. I like it!!!!! Adds a little zest to life.
• Drove by the Bair-Stokes House and saw another Victorian. It was quite lovely

• Got stuck on lighthouse trail
• Drove on to Redwood National Park and hiked the Ladybird trail down to Lady Bird Johnson Grove. Make sure and click on and expand/look at the pictures. Pretty impressive on the “ring” around the tree.
• Pause and drive back to Orik, CA for weekly Russian lesson as only place could get an internet signal. I hiked around outside the vehicle while she had her lesson. Not much to do in Orik…..
• Drove the scenic drive back and hiked some of the Elk Meadow Hike/bike Trails. Very prehistoric feeling with the ferns and such.

• Finished up and stopped by the Prairie Creek Redwoods SP Visitor Center on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Pkwy to get bearings, but they were already closed.
• From there we drove about an hour and half up Hwy 101 and took the Humboldt Rd turnoff. Follow it and turn to the right onto Howland Hill Rd. and drive carefully down to Mill Creek Trail or to Grove of the Titans Trailhead and hiked to the Grove of the Titans – WOW!!! Words and pictures really don’t do it justice. I need to come back and camp out in this area. This area was one of the coolest places I’ve been. Just had that “feel” about it.

• Sadly our time allotted for here was soon up so we had to hop back in the vehicle and drive on to our next stop, Jedediah Smith Redwood’s State Park Stout Memorial Grove. Funnily enough Stout Memorial Grove was donated by a lumber barons widow. Maybe she didn’t agree with everything he did on these old redwoods??? The Grove was pretty but after having just hiked the Grove of the Titans not sure how anything would stand out. We did hike around a bit and managed to scare myself again with hippie chick that was back in a log that started playing a guitar. Not what you’d expect at dusk in the forest all by yourself!
• Crossed a stream!!!
• Headed on our way into the misty drive and saw some elk from the road. Dang, those are some big majestic animals.
• Entered Oregon! Made it!!! About 8:00pm when we crossed over.
• Got to the hotel and stayed by the ocean at the Pacific Reef Hotel & Light Show. Seaside beach with a little projected movie they play on the evenings included the lost mine claim of Nugget Tom, a local legend. They play Mamma Mia in the evening but only the songs and only for about 30 minutes so don’t get to excited. Was a nice place to stay though. I really enjoyed it.