July 2, Day 24, Wednesday

Time to hit the road again. Of course, it's a beautiful day. No fog this am. Blue skies. Makes it hard to want to leave. We have enjoyed being here so much. It's so relaxing. Have seen LOTS of tourists, many from foreign countries. This must be a destination for many Europeans, back packers, hikers, bicyclists, etc. Lots of outdoorsy people. We enjoyed some time at McKerriker State Park yesterday. Here is a photo:

 

The tide was coming in and the kids (and big people) were having a wonderful time playing! We left the motel about 11am and drove down the coast towards Mendicino. Lon has carved and painted at least 2 pictures of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. He had never seen it so we went looking for it.  After a couple of wild goose chases we finally found it. It looks much smaller in person than we expected. We had taken a picture off of the internet for him to do the carving. Here is a picture of the real deal and his leather picture.

 

 

Then we headed for the hot valley. Didn't take long to reach 90 degrees. In 30 miles we were over the mountain and headed for the heat. Also the smoke......there was a wild fire not too far from where we were. Didn't actually see the fire but sure could see the smoke. I was visible throughout the whole valley. Couldn't see the mountains on the east side - the Sierras and the Cascades.   We arrived at Dee's house about 5pm.  A good trip - a lot of traffic headed for the coast and cool weather for the long weekend. We bought freshly caught salmon before leaving Ft. Bragg so we had baked salmon for dinner. The best I have ever tasted. It was so mild but flavorful. Wish we had gotten more. We also bought 5 Dungeness crabs to have for lunch on the 4th. It's pretty much the end of the crab season so we were lucky to get some nice crabs.