Slept very soundly. Woke up fairly early. No ghosties yet, but I didn’t think there would be any since we are in the back houses and not the main house/bordello.

Breakfast was awesome. We ate in “the garden room”. Bryan had eggs and bacon, I had eggs Benedict. Awesome bacon!!! Real hollandaise sauce!

Still no cellular signal. Today is Mom’s birthday. I want to buy her something whilst on this trip.

Bryan and I wandered Mendocino streets until I decided to veer off and go traipsing through the bramble trails(and a few mud puddles) until we got closer to the cliffs. The view is magnificent and considering that the beaches are mostly surrounded by cliffs, they are fairly virgin.

We wandered up main st again, bought the shirt I wanted. I justified it in the fact that I haven’t seen anything like it for sale since London. After, we had our free wine tasting at Fetzer, which is beside our hotel. I liked the 2003 Rousanne(apple pear and honeysuckle).
Bryan liken the 2003 Viognier(apricot and ?) I also liked the sirah port, but all of them would be better with cheese and crackers!!! Too much alcohol for me to drink w/o nibbling!

The botanical gardens were HUGE!!! It took about 3 hours to walk through and my right ankle didn’t seem to enjoy the rougher terrain. Lots to see however.
The gardens range from backyard type plants thru the woodlands to the rocky cliffs above the ocean. There was even a small family plot. (Too small to be called a graveyard) There was a fushia called “quasar” that was lovely and a “moonlit ?” dahlia as well. Both lavender and white.

After having wandered the gardens we drove thru Fort Bragg (which has cellular signal!) and into MacKerricher state park. Having been burnt enough for 1 day, I was a bit hurried, but the views were nifty. It’s always fun to watch squirrels play, but I’m always surprised to find them on rocky coasts.

With sun and windburned skin and eyes, I eagerly got into the car and drove back to Mendocino. We went back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner… and fell asleep. We woke up about 10 min before our dinner reservations and rushed to the restaurant.
Bryan tried the Victorian Salad and the free range chicken sauteed in thyme butter, pine nuts and shiitake with polenta and spinach. I had poppy seed crusted salmon on a bed of wilted spinach and a blackberry port reduction sauce with garlic Yukon gold potatoes.

The waitress asked my opinion on which was better: swordfish or salmon? Turns out to be the salmon. Surprised me that. I tend to favor light fish! But the blackberries really made the dish. I told her that all it needed was some pralines- and she got me some! She also helped out with trying to find me a drink that wouldn’t be to alcoholic tasting. (Bryan got a lemon drop martini. )

After dinner, bed, Law & Order and sleep.

He Says

Woke up to eat breakfast. It was okay. We went wandering the streets of Mendocino and find out that there is no cell phone coverage because Mendocino does not want cell phone coverage. It is okay. I broke the belt clip for my cell phone.

As we are walking back towards the Hotel, Kryis starts trailblazing through brambles and weeds and mud and such. I reluctantly follow her all the way to the precipice of the escarpment. That was okay except, as I had assumed, there was a much easier way to get to the lovely view.
Got a good picture of the Mendocino Hotel from the distance We eventually, taking the easier way, make it back to civilization. There were some neat rocks with caves or tunnels in them out on the water also.

Next stop the Botanical Gardens and more purple flowers for Kryis to take pictures of. It was very large, but most of it was not a cultivated park. The gates they use to keep the deer from the wild part out of the formal gardens were very cool looking.
They did have some neat looking flowers and a nice view of the Pacific.

Drove through Fort Bragg, which is apparently where the civilization is, but I still did not see a Toys “R” Us. (Civilization, in my opinion, requires a Toys “R” Us.) Went back to the Hotel to rest and wait for dinnertime.

After dinner Kryis took pictures of the stained glass windows high on the wall to the community bathrooms in the main Hotel while I wandered around with our tape recorder attempting to get E.V.P. We eventually wandered back to our room and went to bed.