Final Days on the Mendocino Coast

Gary's sister and her family came up to visit us for a week. She has three beautiful daughters who are always a joy to have visit. They have so much energy and we have a hard time keeping up with them...but it is fun trying. The first day Gary took the two older girls on a three mile through the woods just north of the campground. They had fun pretending that they were being followed by mountain lions (they had their stick swords to keep the beasts at bay) sampling some wild huckleberries and trying to catch a wild rabbit that happened across our trail.

The second day we all went out to the lighthouse at Point Cabrillo. Gary took the older girls for a hike down on the rocks above the ocean and we all took a tour of the exhibits in the lighthouse. That afternoon Gary took them to Mendocino and we went down to Portuguese Beach where the girls had lots of fun picking up shells off the beach and trying to avoid (although not always successfully) the incoming surf. We came back to the trailer that day with the girls very wet and sandy but with lots of shells for those 'later projects'.

Yesterday we went on about a seven mile hike up Russian Gulch to the 36-foot waterfall there and beyond. We were all very exhausted by the end of the hike!

They will be all leaving this weekend. We will then have to work our butts off to try and get ready to leave by August 1. We have a few stops to make up in Oregon before pulling into Cascadia for a long visit with our good friends the Ryders. Below are just a few of the many pictures that I took during our travels.

New Member of the Family

We finally decided to take that big step and add a member to our traveling family. Her name is Mittens and we adopted her a couple weeks ago from the Fort Bragg, CA Humane Society shelter. From what I understand, this is a no kill shelter and Mittens had been a resident there for quite some time. The shelter people said that she was four years old but, having owned quite a few cats in the past, we think that she is much younger. She is definitely Cecile's baby as they have done a pretty complete job bonding with each other.

Visit From Friends

Dennis & Elaine Evans braved the windy roads to come visit us here in Mendocino. We have a big enough site to be able to park another big rig in front of us so our little community grew by one. We all did some sightseeing in the area, had breakfast at the Heritage House (site of the movie Same Time Next Year), went to the Anderson Valley for some wine tasting, had a taste of classical music at the Mendocino Music Festival (from outside the tent) and played lots of Pegs & Jokers. Dennis even went to our only local golf course, at the Little River Inn, and had a good round of golf. They are leaving this morning, heading to the RV park adjacent to the Benbow golf course and then working their way on up into Oregon. We hope to catch up to each other again in late September at Winchester Bay when we go crabbing.

Mendocino Fourth of July

One of our favorite times of the year to be in Mendocino! The Ford House, where we volunteer, always has a big hot dog sale. Being right there in front of the Ford House gives us a ringside seat to one of the most unique 4th of July parades we have ever seen. Ain't life grand!

Close Call

No, this wasn't our next Christmas tree. This 12 foot long Douglas Fir limb dropped from a tree directly behind our rig. From what I could see, it dropped at least 50 feet. We were not here at the time but our friends next door, Scott & Pam, were home and said it made quite a nasty crash. It missed us by only six feet! Would have been quite a nasty surprise if it had hit us.

A Morning at the Beach

DL came up to see us in Mendocino with CJ and JR for a two-day visit. The kids always like to go out to a beach when they visit us here so we took them to the nice little beach at Russian Gulch State Park. It was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to have fun.

Thompsons Travels

We are just back from our most recent cruise. This cruise was a 4-day trip out of San Pedro, CA and visited San Diego, Santa Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico. Our main goal for this cruise was to see if we could stay in and inside cabin and still enjoy the cruise. The experiment was a success. Cruising in inside cabins will enable us to go on more cruises, which we are deciding is a great way to travel. Our good friends Ken & Janice went along with us, this being their first cruise on a big ship. They seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

Local Lion's Club Breakfast

This morning we took our friends to the local volunteer fire house to have a delicious breakfast put on by the Mendocino Lion's Club. This was the last breakfast that the Lions would be putting on at the fire house. Next year they will have to find a new home for their fundraisers.

Our Maine friends come for a visit

Our friends, Guy & Joni, are visiting with us from Maine. We had a great dinner at the Albion River Inn last night, a place where we love to take friends for a wonderful meal experience.

The Wedding

B & K got married on June 24 in a beautiful setting on a gorgeous summer evening. The happy weekend began with a bridesmaids dinner on Thursday followed by the rehearsehal dinner hosted by the mother(Picture #3) of children that B babysat a couple of years ago. The Saturday evening wedding was on the lawn of the family where B has stayed for the last 12 years as a caretaker. All of the H family were in the wedding but J was sitting on G's lap when this picture was taken (#2) as they walked down the isle. These are the first of the pictures... the reception and its incredible spread of food deserves its own special time. The happy couple left for a week of honeymooning in Hawaii. We are so happy for the new R's!!

Abalone & Family Visit

Ken & Janice's sister and brother-in-law (Rick & Jackie) came to visit and stay overnight last Sunday. He is a former professional diver and still does a lot of recreational abalone diving. The fact that Ken had an experienced partner to go with along with his determination to get some abalone got him up to the dive shop to rent an outfit. They ended up going down to Van Damme and out in Ken's Zodiac. The stories were many but when all was said and done, they both came back with their limit of three abalone apiece. Rick & Jackie had to get back on Monday.

On Tuesday our daughter Dana came up for a visit with the grandkids, Carol age 3 and Jack 16 months. Carol was a lot of fun and curious about everything. Jack was a very typical toddler and wanted to stretch those new-found legs of his. It was a full-time job for all of us, just to keep an eye on him. It was great to have them up here.

On Tuesday night, the night before they left, Ken & Janice treated us to an abalone dinner. One of the abalone that Ken caught on Sunday was enough to feed all of us. Was it ever good! On Wednesday they started making their way on up to their summer place in Cascadia, Oregon.

The rest of the day Wednesday was spent with Dana and the kids. We went to Big River Beach and let the kids run in the sand and play in the surf. The water up here is cold but they didn't seem to mind. On Thursday we went for a little hike here up behind the big water tank. However, the trail had not been cleared this year and some of the weeds were over Jack's head so we didn't go up very far. Then we went into Mendocino and went into some of the shops, had some lunch at the Bay View cafe and then went into some more shops before Dana headed out with the kids at around three.

We are now on our own until we travel down to the SF Bay Area on Wednesday to start getting prepared for Bobby's wedding on the 24th.

Mendocino continued

We are finishing up our second week here in Mendocino. The weather has been great...quite a few sunny days but the temps never above 70 degrees. Our good friends, Ken & Janice Ryder have been staying with us this past week. They are enjoying the area while also helping out at the Ford House. They were here last year for three days and helped Cecile make abalone shell wreaths which are sold in the Ford House. The wreaths they made last year ending up selling out by Christmas so they are trying to double their production for this year.

We have been enjoying their company a lot...having lots of campfires and good BBQ meals as well as exploring the area. We took a long trip to Usal Beach on the Lost Coast which is about fourty miles north of here...the last six of which are on a narrow one-lane dirt road over the mountains. Ken and Gary enjoyed the adventure a lot but Janice & Cecile said that they would stay home the next time we decided to go there. Since it is so remote we didn't meet very many cars along the way.

There are about six days in a row of minus tides coming up starting this weekend so we are hoping to get a little abalone to feast on. We shall see.

This is our new fifth wheet at our summer home in Mendocino.

We just bought a brand new 37' Montana fifth wheel this past week. Decided against getting a toy hauler since we will no longer be doing our eBay business full-time. The Montana is much more of a home than the toy hauler. It is now in the shop having a water leak repaired but we should get it back tomorrow. We will post pictures as soon as we get it back tomorrow.

We need the trailer back soon as we need to do some more packing to get ready to head out to Mendocino on Sunday. We are looking forward to going back there for another summer of hosting and of cool weather. We are also hoping for a steady stream of friends and family to come and visit us while we are there.

Cecile & Gary 

Park Sierra Coarsegold, CA

Cecile and I are currently on our lot here, just south of Coarsegold, starting to get prepared for our trip south to the Blythe Bluegrass Festival, Quartzsite and beyond. We are only going to be gone for about three weeks but are really looking forward to the trip....getting away and hooking up with travelling friends that we have not seen for many months.