Honeymoon Day 5

Day 5
August 5th, 2004
Eureka, CA to Ashland, OR

She Says

Slept deeply, and no ghosties seen. Still no internet signal yet, but there is cell access for me. But Bryan’s cell service hasn’t kicked in yet.

We had breakfast with our hosts, Doug and Lily Vieyra. Very charming people. Its like having a comedy team and Teutonic hospitality rolled into one. Doug told us a story about a couple they had who was on their 60th anniversary having breakfast with a newlywed set of honeymooners. The older man told the that the secret of the happy marriage is to twist in the earplugs, nod and say “yes dear.” Afterwards all laughed except for the elder lady, who make a twisting motion towards her own ears and said “did he say something interesting?” The breakfast was good as well. Slices of ham, havarti, fruit sampler, pastries, banana-orange juice etc.

Doug did say that the ghost “Elizabeth” did all the dusting that was out of their reach in exchange for room and board, but otherwise Elizabeth stays to herself. Apparently she has another name they call her, but they have forgotten it. The B&B is in another book by Robin Mead called haunted hotels. Something to look into later.

Remember Milton from Office Space? He apparently got a job working at a roadside rest stop just North of Eureka.

We drove up to Prairie Creek Redwoods state park and took the coastal drive. I didn’t realize how high up we were until we pulled over and looked down to the surf. Got some really good pics of trees. I talked to a raven there, but he didn’t seem inclined to follow me home.

Lunch: Crescent City taco bell.

Finally we arrive in Ashland.

When we got to the door, Dave Portera, who bought the place off Tony and Rosemary, reservations and all, was at the door, scotch in hand. We must have been the last ones in, since he asked if we were the Reeds. The house is done in a floral country, but our room is lavender and white,(olive carpet) with purple flowers on the bedding and plants hanging from the ceiling.

There’s a neat little touristy area downtown that reminds me of Mountain View’s Castro district. Lots of food places, antiques, books, and 3 bead shops. We ate at Pasta Pianni? Bryan had gemelli, and I had bruschetta and asparagus. After, we went back to our room, fireplace, Jacuzzi and all that. We even have 2 rubber duckies: a purple and a yellow.

He Says

We had breakfast at the B&B with the owners. They were nice. I wish the whole place was in a different city. We stayed longer than we had intended just listening to their stories about guests and ghosts and such. I was sad to be leaving Abigail’s Elegant Victorian, but not so sad to be leaving the city of Eureka. We had read about a very nice Victorian mansion in the city, the Carson House, so we decided to check it out. It was the beautiful. We can’t go inside because it is a private club, but the outside was phenomenal.

After we left Eureka, we headed north to the redwoods. I really liked walking through the redwoods. They were beautiful. We had originally stopped at the information center for the park we were in, but if you stay for longer than a half an hour you have to pay. So we just quickly stopped off at the center checked it out and drove down the road. We parked just about a mile later and got out and hiked, and didn’t have to pay. That seemed odd. Anyways… We had our picture taken next to a large tree that had a sign in front of it that read Big Tree. We continued out drive and detoured along the coast. It was beautiful. We pulled over at one point when the road had become gravel, and looked out at an overlook at the beach and pacific way down below us. It was amazing. There was a pickup and a man down there and they were so small. We stayed for a while just taking in how beautiful it was.

We needed to get going so that we could get to Ashland and Colonel Silsby’s Bed and Breakfast before it got too late.

The rest of the drive was actually nice until we got inland to I5. Then it was fairly boring civilization looking stuff (But I did see a Toys “R” Us) We got to Ashland and the B&B and checked in. It is nice. Not in the main house, again. We have out own Jacuzzi with purple and yellow rubber duckies.

We went out to explore the town and get something to eat. 5 separate people wearing Democratic National Convention t-shirts asked me if I wanted to help get Bush out of office. It was annoying after the second person. I wished they could just stick to one street corner. It was hard to find a restaurant that we could both agree upon, but finally we found one. It was okay.

Then we went back to the B&B. We talked a bit to some of the other guests and then went to the room.

More information on Abigail’s Elegant Victorian can be found here.
More information on Colonel Silsby’s Bed and Breakfast can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 4

Day 4
August 4th, 2004
Mendocino, CA to Eureka, CA

She Says

Had breakfast in the garden room again, yesterdays food was better.
Just before we hit the road towards Eureka, I got to talk to a local Raven. He was clicking and laughing.

Unfortunately he was too high in the tree for me to reach. As we turned to leave he laughed some more. Silly birdy.
I read just earlier that there are no crows in Mendocino. Just ravens. No wonder I like the place!

Also I found out that he reason we have no cell signal is because the townsfolk chose to pass when it was offered. Apparently they and the tourists prefer to not be constantly interrupted and leashed whilst in the town. Most of the Mendo workers live in Fort Bragg, so they have cell service there.

The drive up the coast, of course, made me sleepy. I got about a 45 min nap. Bryan and I detoured over to Victorian Ferndale, where they host a murder mystery weekend 1 or 2 times a year. I bought some candy. Big shock, eh?
There’s some really lovely Victorian homes there. The Gingerbread Inn looked very nice. Maybe if I ever get the time off again, we can stay there.

Back to 101, and we arrived in Eureka, which seems a bit rundown. Being too early to check in, we drove about the blocks surrounding Abigails Elegant Victorian Bed and Breakfast. Some Victorians are newly restored, but a lot of places are still shabby, or near falling to pieces.

When we got back to the B&B, we were amazed with the interior. It is such a drastic change compared to the neighborhood.
The exterior is a nicely kept Victorian, but the inside is like walking into a Victorian era home!

Every nook and cranny is filled with Victorian nik-naks, books, games, fabrics, statuettes…
They even have Vic era movies to show in the public room! There’s a scrabble game board I’ve been eyeing in the front room… But hunger calls.

Old town Eureka is…mixed. Some nice shops, scary residents. People talking to lamp posts, beer drinking bums and hard used(looking) women.

We found food fairly quickly. Scallops for me, gnocchi for Bryan at Roy’s(Italian food).
And even though I found a nice vintage clothing store it had modern day robbery for prices. After seeing Eureka, we decided that staying in our B&B was a good idea for the rest of the night. It was a much nicer place.

We spent the evening in the common rooms exploring, reading and playing scrabble. Bryan won, of course. It’s a very nice place. Its easy to forget the outside world of Eureka looks so downtrodden.

He Says

Had breakfast at the Mendocino Hotel, again. Afterwards I went to the post office to mail some post cards and Kryis found a bird up a tree. We explore the garden area of the Hotel and then hopped in the rental car and took off up the coast north towards Eureka.
I have always wanted to participate in one of the murder mystery weekends they have in Ferndale California, and as it was only a short side trip over to the town, we stopped off on our way up the coast.

It was a neat town– not quite as neat as I had hoped, but it did have some neat Victorians, and a neat doll house with a unique story on the main street.
I hope that Kryis and I are eventually able to come to one of their mystery weekends and stay in either the Gingerbread Mansion Inn or the Victorian Hotel.

I found it, but I don’t know why. Eureka is an odd town. It seems as if the bad parts of town and the good parts of town are all thrown together in a jumble.

We got there before the check-in time, so we drove around the neighborhood marveling at how one house could look like a crack house, and the next a very excellent restored Victorian. It was amazing, and yet very frightening.

When we got back to the B&B, I was almost afraid to leave the car parked on the street. We were given a tour by our lovely and gracious innkeeper, and then we explored a little ourselves.

We asked for suggestions on where to eat, but I was definitely skeptical and frightened. We ventured into “Old Town” Eureka in our quest to find a suitable eating establishment. It was not an easy task. The only thing of interest we found was a fountain.
Most restaurants looked like they were on their last legs. There were some we saw that were nice, and finally settled on an Italian restaurant. We walked quickly back to the car and drove to the B&B.

After ensuring that all of our valuables were not in the rental, we took advantage of all of the wonderful books to read, and paraphernalia to explore in the common areas.

There were no other guests around all the way until we went to bed.

Kryis and I played a game of Scrabble and read some books before retiring to our room.

This was a great town on the inside of this B&B. So much to look at all around. I would stay here again if I ever found a reason to return to Eureka.

 

More information on the Mendocino Hotel can be found here.
More information on Abigail’s Elegant Victorian can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 3

Day 3
August 3rd, 2004
Mendocino, CA

She Says

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.

More information on the Mendocino Hotel can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 2

Day 2
August 2nd, 2004
Healdsburg, CA to Mendocino, CA

She Says

As of 1pm: Had a hard time sleeping at Madrona Manor. About 11:30 I woke up in that weird state where I am aware, but can’t move or even open my eyes. When I did, I had an afterimage of a very dark green sphere.

My allergies kept me awake, as well as the pillow being too fluffy. Eventually I did get sleep. I did dream of Bryan, Chris, Amanda and ABC being in a car together, but Amanda looked like Leelu from 5th element, but with darker red hair. Like Chiana’s when she had blue skin.

We had breakfast at the manor. Continental style: I had Brie on Ham with hard boiled eggs. Yummm.

The manor is filled with antiques. The carriage house has many Asian and Japanese looking things. Beside the check-in desk is a print of a Caucasian girl in a kimono by Conrad Kiese.

Bryan wrote my mom a letter on manor stationery. We mailed it today. Mom should be even more enamored with him than she already is!!!

Since then we have mostly been driving along the back roads and seeing the wineries. We saw a lot of sheep. We both thought of Chris.

 

He Says

We woke up on the second day and spent some time hanging out on the semi-private patio connected to our room. Then we headed to the main house for breakfast. This was one of the best continental/buffet style breakfasts that I have ever had. We talked for a while with an older married couple from Arizona that was sitting next to us during breakfast.

After breakfast we walked around the grounds and snapped a few more pictures. Including some purple flowers.

We then went driving aimlessly through the wine country. Not being big wine drinkers, we did not actually do any wine tasting, but just enjoyed the natural beauty of the ambling hills and fields of grapevines.

Eventually we headed up towards Mendocino. There was a great deal of construction or maintenance, or something, going on along the windy roads to the coast. We had to detour numerous times, but eventually we ended up in at the Mendocino Hotel for check in. We walked down the main street on the coast of Mendocino. Kryis saw a shirt that she liked in one of the stores. But, more on Mendocino tomorrow.

More information about Madrona Manor can be found here.
More information about the Mendocino Hotel can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 1

Day 1
August 1st, 2004

San Jose, CA to Healdsburg, CA

She Says

Bryan didn’t sleep well. I got more sleep, but kept waking up. We woke, had breakfast. Nice comp breakfast… We visited with my Aunt Jeanette after breakfast. After we were packed to go and were waiting for our ride, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tom were going back to their room, so we got to visit with them as well.

We got our rental car, visited the Schmitz clan, had our family pic taken, and ate burgers.

We drove up the 880-980-580-101 to Healdsburg and got to Madrona Manor after 6pm.

Burnt out and tired, we took a walk about the Manor, the gardens and the carriage house (where our room is) and crashed. The room came with free cookies, but I am chocolated out! OoOoo Bryan just used the word “dichotomy.” As in “The dichotomy of the bathroom is odd.”

He Says

After a rather unconventional start to our honeymoon (namely getting our picture taken with the extended family on my Mother’s side and having a barbecue with them afterwards, we headed up towards the wine country in our rented Chevy Malibu.

Most of the ride was not really that interesting, as we had been through Oakland California before. It is an ugly city from the freeway, but once we got north of the Bay Area it turned much nicer.

The Madrona Manor was nice. We were not actually in the Manor itself. Our room was on the second floor of the carriage house. It was nice, and had it’s own balcony overlooking trees and the parking lot. I set up the video camera in our room in the hopes that we might discover a supernatural presence there while we went to explore the manor house and the grounds.

The house was nice, and there was a nice garden that we walked through. We sat on a bench and enjoyed the view until it was time to go to bed.

More information on Madrona Manor can be found here.