alegria ~ heaven

hello! how are you? we are back from our northern california adventure|getaway. in a previous post, part one and two happened, this is part three (favorite part!). we celebrated our wedding anniversary staying at our favorite bed and breakfast, alegria oceanfront inn and cottages.

 big river beach, mendocino

~ alegria inn ~

 we stayed in the driftwood cottage

 indeed the most charming place we've ever stayed on this continent. alegria has several cottages to choose from (that is the hard part, how to choose?) and a few rooms in the main house as well.

the driftwood gives a feeling of coming home, even though we don't have our own loft

bedroom, wood burning stove, private garden and a kitchen with a hand hewn wood table...

some of the ways we celebrated while in mendocino...

went sea glass hunting, found lots of treasure on the beach right out in front of alegria!

 saw the extremely photogenic Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

 wandered around town. across the road (behind me) is the 'love bench'

where couples sit and take in the spectacular ocean view

(no photo because it was always occupied) :)

visited the mendocino yarn shop

 watched the many migrating or wintering birds. {anna's hummingbird}

walked along the trails ~  mendocino headlands

stood among favorite trees, navarro river redwoods (a short drive from mendocino)

ate delicious organic breakfasts at alegria, complete with (stunning) ocean view

 collected treasures

a wonderful coincidence happened! this is one of my favorite knitting books,

'shear spirit' by friends joan tapper and gale zucker. 

gale,  photographer of the book, told me the lovely girl in the brown hat on the cover,

is the innkeeper's daughter (of alegria) 

and gale had stayed here while shooting the mendocino part of the book.

 eric and elaine, owner's of alegria were tickled to know this and said to 

say 'hi!' gale! 

and treasures for one reader of this blog. 

oh my goodness i found a lot of sea glass on this trip. the surf came up and there was even a little stormy weather. perfect sea glass collecting conditions. i found a book at the gallery bookshop that seems very helpful in finding your own treasure. it's filled with sea glass collecting tips. 

i'm giving away 'the official sea glass searcher's guide' and the sea glass shown here,

and a post card of alegria, to show where the treasure was found.

 to either add to your own collection, or start one.

{a small way to say thank you for all your kindness}

giveaway begins now, happy november 1st! and will end tuesday november 4.

leave a comment with an email, if you would like a chance to win

open to the world 

good luck everyone! 

mendocino links in this post:

alegria oceanfront inn and cottages

point cabrillo lighthouse

mendocino yarn shop

gallery bookshop

visit medocino

traveling

hello from california's central (and northern) coast! we are traveling, on a road trip (and boat trip). this adventure is a bit different (for us) and is actually three adventures in one. part one and two are complete (mission accomplished!) and so the most fun part, part three is left, which we are on right now!

part one ~ 

a few hours up the coast, san simeon ~ we spend the evening watching the surf, the sunset and eating fish and chips, and waiting for friends to arrive.

next morning, we all head north to big sur

 in big sur, we cart and carry one kayak, two paddleboards, paddles and several days of equipment and food over a mile down to the beach

making preparations

there they go, can you see the 3 of them out at sea? i watched and made my wishes for nearly an hour, and then slowly began the hike back alone.


part two ~

on my own in big sur i went to my favorite place, nepenthe. such a beautiful day! i ate lunch, knit and watched three acorn woodpeckers and one stellar's jay in the tree directly in front of me!

this is the bathroom at nepenthe. the art painted on the walls is so lovely, everytime i see it it's a thrill. 

 went to the henry miller memorial library next

found a couple books and a tote

 at the hotel (one of the books, and the tote, and knitting!)

 another day i went to hearst castle

 even though i've taken all the tours a few times, i could take the upstairs tour a dozen more (or even more!). the library is amazing. each guide offers something a bit different too, different stories and anecdotes. this time i learned that first lady grace coolidge was once trapped in the elevator. when she was finally found and asked if she were okay, she answered yes, she could yodel and she had her knitting.

part two and a half ~

the adventurers arrive! they'd kayaked and standup paddleboarded 36 miles of big sur coast. returning safe, healthy and happy = successful adventure.


part three ~

patrick and will head back to their homes and families

and now, time for chucks and my adventure together. we spend time with the elephant seals

central coast zebras, and then head north...

to san francisco

then marin county

our bed and breakfast came with chickens  :)

this place!

heading further north still, point reyes seashore

point arena lighthouse, mendocino (we are in the top of the lighthouse!)

and because this happened nine years ago today, we are staying at our favorite place on the entire california coast to celebrate...

here. we'll be back soon, there is so much to share about mendocino and magical alegria!

thank you, as always, for coming along! xxx lori

finding moonstones

it was a surprise. he had a plan.

"can you get three days off work?" my husband slyly smiled when he asked...

we celebrated our anniversary last week (thank you for the sweet comments on our wedding post! and a very happy anniversary to all those with october twenty ninth weddings!) with a getaway on the central coast of california, in cambria, on moonstone beach...

rain fell as we drove up the coast, and was falling still when we arrived. so we donned waterproofs and went looking for rainbows, for romance...

our cozy room had a fireplace and whirlpool tub :)

haha

it's cool enough to wear my sweater :)

we visited elephant seals

elephant seals are endlessly watchable

an elephant seal nursery

they fled when chuck climbed down

only to reappear, curious creatures they are

they came close

they looked

and then they posed

hee hee

we found a snake. chuck always has to touch the tail (non poisonous ones). when he reached out to this beauty, it turned and slithered towards us. in all these photos, chuck stood still as a statue. the snake slipped around his shoe while we watched fascinated. for a moment we thought it might go up his pants (hee hee), but instead it surprised us by going down a hole we hadn't even seen

william randolph hearsts castle is just visible on the faraway hill

at sebastian's, the store/ restaurant was closed for the day, but the winery was open, so when in san simeon...

hearsts zebras

killdeer, sweet shorebirds

a first, seeing this majestic buck

well we never did see that rainbow, but the romance and the so much more, yes and yes! it was so much fun to be surprised, moonstone beach is so lovely (and it was where we spent our first anniversary, thank you so much honey!!) we wildlife watched, on the ocean and on trails. we beach combed, hand in hand, we clinked glasses (even in the afternoon!) and counted down as the setting sun slipped into the pacific. we tide pooled and then briefly, we tucked into town, he to the sports store, me the wool. we dined on shrimp crostini, new england clam chowder, and macadamia crusted wild alaskan halibut. and each morning continental breakfast. and the desserts... they were almost more delicious than the time we spent, sharing, planning, dreaming, just being, together   :)

thank you for coming along, it is always such a pleasure to share! 

love, lori and chuck