Hey Guys! Remember when we had to change all of our plans because of engine trouble and eye surgery? Bodega Bay wasn’t originally in our plans, but when I was reworking our schedule I added it in on a whim. It’s just north of San Francisco and I don’t usually have such small travel jumps, but something about the area called to me…so I answered.

Bodega Bay is, as you might guess…right on the water. It’s kind of a white knuckley drive down highway one to get there, but Guys, we loved the area! The RV park we stayed in was near enough to the coast that we could hear the boats and water, but far enough that we were somewhat protected from the wind that seems to be a constant on the west coast.

We only had one week in Bodega Bay. That means we really only had one full day of exploration. We started out early in the morning and headed down to Point Reyes National Seashore. When we took off that morning it was a gorgeously sunny day with just a few specs of clouds but as we drove south to Point Reyes NS the clouds and fog started creeping in.

By the time we made it to Point Reyes it was sooo foggy and windy!! We tried to go out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, but Guys…it was so incredibly windy and foggy we could barely see the road that you have to walk up to get to the lighthouse. We talked to the Ranger sitting in his car up at the lighthouse gate (it was bad enough that even he didn’t want to get out of his car) and he let us know that the lighthouse was open, but it was about a half mile walk to get to it. We opted out. As much as we love lighthouses…it was just too windy, wet, and cold. We did stop at Drake’s Beach! Love those cliffs!

I always try to give you a size comparison. Here’s a shot of the boys standing next to those cliffs on Drake’s Beach. With the weather being kind of…miserable…we didn’t have to share the beach with too many people. I mean, really, what kind of a nutter goes to the beach when it’s in the 40s and is super windy with fog? Well, the nomad nutters do. Yup. When you have a set time at a location, you go explore no matter what the weather (within reason) does or you miss out.

We found several sand dollars, a few shells, and some tide pools! They weren’t big tide pools, but we did enjoy the little sea anemones in them.

While I prefer to have beautiful sunny days to explore, I have to admit…I’m kind of digging the moodiness that the fog gave my pictures of Drake’s Beach. I guess it’s ok to have mood…sometimes.

The weather was so miserable that day we almost gave up on adventuring and went home. I’m so glad we stuck it out and headed up to Fort Ross State Historic Park which was about an hours drive north of where we were staying. We got there later in the day and only had about an hour to explore it. We do love our forts. It’s not unusual for us to get lost in a fort for half a day or more. So, we really had to rush through this one.

Fort Ross was established in 1812 for the primary purpose of finding food and hunting sea otters for their furs to support the Russian outposts in Alaska. Some of the buildings have been reconstructed and decorated to look close to what they would have looked like during the time the fort was up and running. There’s so much history that can be learned at forts like this. Most of what we’ve learned by visiting all of these forts isn’t taught in the general history books, but history is an important lesson.

On our way home from our foggy day of exploration we stopped at this pull-off to take in the view of the spot where the Russian River dumps into the pacific ocean. We noticed a crowd of people down on the beach all ogling a particular spot on the beach in between us. Guys! Seals! There was a ton of them! We found out later that the beach is called Goat Rock Beach and apparently, the seals are there often.

This is another shot of Goat Rock Beach on a different day. We tried to get out each afternoon during our week in the Bodega Bay area to get some more exploring done.

There are tons of pull-offs to take in the amazing views all along this section of highway one. We spent most of the afternoons at one of the pull-offs or beaches in the Sonoma Coast State Park. We loved our week along this rugged coast. I don’t think any of us were really ready to move on.

Let’s talk foodies. Right in front of where we stayed was this great little Mexican restaurant. We stopped in our first night and kind of wished we hadn’t. It was really good and way too close…we walked there. We also found a place right on the wharf where we got some great fish-n-chips! We’re getting our fill of all of the coastal fish-n-chips while we can.

I started seeing these in the supermarkets when we were in San Diego, but I kept resisting. We found them for sale singely at a little market in Bodega Bay though…so we tried them. Guys…do you see the two oatmeal cookies? These were so wrong that they were so right. I thought I’d be safe enough…we only had one more week in California at this point. I was really hoping I wouldn’t be able to find them once we got out of California…but, we’re in Oregon right now and…I saw them in the grocery store here! I may have to grab a box before we leave…I’m trying to be strong…but y’all know I’m a sugarholic… The struggle is real.

I love love love these pink and purple pretties! We found these at Fort Ross.

We had a great week exploring the coast here!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018