Working Vacation...Northern California

I'm back from my working vacation. What experiences I never planned happened! First was the unexpected fog that settled in just after we arrived at Stinson Beach. It was a sparkling sunny day and we were eating some lunch at the Surfers Shack when it began to creep in and surround the land. I asked the young lady behind taking orders at the window where the Farallone Islands were from the beach. She came out and took me to a grassy knoll and pointed to the horizon. They were slipping away fast into the gray murk, gone in a flash. I marveled more at the kindness of the waitress to take the time to show me the Islands. I realized they were very important. We finished up and Mom went away to the car to read and I settled on a blanket to sketch. It came up fast and wonderfully, full of the meaning of the area with the red triangle for shark warnings, the jagged outcropping of nearly deserted islands at the horizon and the heavy fog settling in changing the aqua water to gray.

It was a windy road that brought us and one that took us away through redwoods and eucalyptus forests, past geodesic domes and other contemporary houses scattered along old Highway 1. Once in awhile, huge vistas would open up as we crossed through mountainous terrain.

Our destination was Bodega Bay in the north and maybe stop at Pt. Reyes Station. However, the latter was a 36 mile roundtrip and we already had a late start. We reached Bodega Bay which is the top of the Marine Life Sanctuary. It was gray and cool from the enormous fog bank that had settled in over the entire Sanctuary area. Again mom, stayed in the car and I went on to shoot some photos and get some dark impressions. I later decided it would be a poem. It is a whole other entry what happened on my little trek through the sand dunes to the coast. I did find out that the Sanctuary is marked by an invisable? wall and like a marsh land dark and light battle side by side at the edges.

Then we drove on to Santa Rosa and sunny warmth for the night, refreshed the next morning for our visit to the Fan Museum and Healdsburg. Unfortunately, the Museum was closed. But the town of Healdsburg was wonderful. Pictures in the Flickr badge on the sidebar show emty chairs in the town square waiting til evening to be filled with their owners, full of trust throughout the day. We asked some people having lunch there and they said everyone knew each other and just left their blankets and chairs. How refreshing!

We meandered around the square, looking in at the wonderful shops, stopping here and there to pick up something unusual. Mom got a peacock kite for her carport and a big paper star for her front porch. I got a string of Monarch butterflies that flutter in the wind on a strand of invisible string, plus a rhythm instrument from Africa.

We had some coffee drinks and then headed home. It was good to get home.

A working vacation...where I found a painting or two, a poem and maybe a short story and also found a most charming little town in Northern California.

This watercolor is of the Marin Headlands where the fog comes in at the end of the day like clockwork to pass through the Golden Gate. Marin Mammel Rescue Center is here.