Reno

The half way point between Anchor Bay, CA and home was Reno, NV.  On our way to Anchor Bay we stayed at Circus Circus.  It was fun!   Here they had candy jars full of banana runts!  Who would have thought!  It was awesome.  The boys also had a great time playing in the arcade.  We come away with about 20 bucks worth of stuffed animals and a cool orange mustache ;)  On the way home we stayed in Reno again and went to the live show of Greece.  I love the music, but it was a little risky with two teenage boys.  Not sure I would recommend it.  We will chalk that one up to a good learning experience and a conversation about what NOT to do in school and in life!

Happy Birthday to Mom!

It was fun to be on vacation for my birthday.  The boys were very sweet.  They each found me a cute, singing card, and two very large yummy cupcakes.  It was very thoughtful and one birthday I will always remember ;) 

Kayaking

I was soooooo scared to do this, but soooooo glad we did it!  Definitely something we will never forget!  We kayaked through some neat caves and right out to a nesting spot of some sea lions.  We were only a few feet from them.  We got to hold a starfish pulled right off of the sea cave wall and held a jellyfish.  The boys even tried eating some seaweed.  Some of it is ediable - who knew?   The boys rode together in a kayak and Trav and I together.  The boys fought about how to paddle, and when to paddle, and who was not doing this and that right.  Obviously they need to spend more time together in confined areas so they learn to get along!!!  No, it was quite funny actually.  Trav and I got pushed into one of the cave walls as the tide was coming in out and almost fell out!  It was scary - but I am so glad I didn't go in.  The water here was filled with so much seaweed.     

Bucket List #3 - S'mores on the Beach.....check!

One of my favorite things to do on the beach is to build a bonfire and sit back and relax and watch the boys play in the sand and water and hang out with Trav.  We found a great little cove to build a fire.  it was a gorgeous evening and a moment worth remembering.  Loved it!

Trail Exploring

As we were leaving the lighthouse area, we noticed a little side trail where you could go explore along the cliffs and shoreline.  It was very cool.  I took a photo of Trav standing on this slab of rock with the waves crashing behind him.  Along this shore line were cliffs and little nooks and coves and rocks that went out into the ocean you could climb on and feel like you were standing in the ocean.  You could feel the power and energy of the waves here.  It was neat, but kind of scary too.

Point Arena Lighthouse

Point Arena also was home to one of the oldest standing lighthouses.  We climbed 145 stairs to overlook the ocean.  It was very neat!

Point Arena

 The Chowder House - overlooking the ocean and fishing pier

The Movie House

Point Arena was a small town just north of Anchor Bay, this is where Franny's bakery was, they had a really cool movie theater where we got to see Despicable Me 2, we also wanted to try out the food at a restaurant they called the "Chowder House."  We were really looking forward to good chowder here, but I wasn't too impressed.  However, this is where we got to try our Salmon.  Right out the door from this restaurant was a large fishing pier, the only one we really did see on our trip.  The fisherman would bring their fresh catches right into the restaurant to be cooked.

Playin' in the Waves

The boys really liked playing in the waves.  It was so cooled though!  We stopped on our way back from Fort Bragg at this beach area where the Russian River met the ocean.  Come to find out later that this is one of the areas where they have the most shark attacks!  It has something to do with the fresh water meeting the salt water, the sharks like to hang out here I guess.  We didn't see any warning signs posted and there were lots of campers and people enjoying the beach here.  It was really beautiful and a nice break from the car and from that silly train ride.

Drive Thru Tree

We traveled just under 3 hours on the most windy, magical road ( it was so pretty) all to drive thru a giant Redwood tree.  Worth it you might say?  Oh, yes!  It was very cool.  I have never seen trees so large, tall, and beautiful!  We can say we did it!   One more down on our bucket list!

BEST BAKE SHOP EVER!

About 20 minutes north of where we were staying we found a little bakery shop called "Franny's."  OMG - it was so yummy.  Chocolate filled croissants, blueberry danishes, peach tarts, cinnamon rolls ...you name it she had it.  It was homemade, fresh, and delicious!  The only bummer was that it was only opened Wednesday to Saturday so we only got to enjoy it for two of the five days we were around.  I am sooooo craving that danish Kaden is holding!!

The Skunk Train, Fort Bragg, CA

Remember that ride we took on the Polar Express, kind of along the same lines, although we thought it was going to be much cooler!  Turned out to be a great nap for me - lol :)  Normally the train ride would take you several miles into the forest, but the main tunnel had collapsed several days earlier so it was a shortened trip with not too much to see really.  We did enjoy some popcorn and some on board entertainment by some crazy old guy though.

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg CA

Fort Bragg was about an hour from our cabin.  Driving along HWY 1 is so neat, it is very windy and at times you feel like your going to drive right of the cliffs into the ocean.  I did a lot of the driving because I get car sick easy.  Anyway, in Fort Bragg they had a beach called Glass Beach.  Supposedly back in the day the people of the city would throw all of their trash and unused/unwanted items into the ocean.  It took years to clean up, but you can still find remnants of glass along the shores.  We did find a few pieces, but you are not allowed to carry any of it off the beach with you.  The boys had fun finding crabs in the rocks when the tide would lower.

Clam Chowder

It was our "thing" to try a bowl of clam chowder each place we stopped to eat, ok, not every place, but several.  This was a yummy bowl we enjoyed in Fort Bragg.

Cabin the Redwoods

We found a little cabin on VRBO that was tucked away in beautiful Redwood trees.  It had a great hammock on the deck, a hot tub, and the boys loved the massage chair :)  Anchor Bay beach was a short drive down a steep hill, and then we had to have a day pass to access the beach.  Before entering the beach was a fun little camp ground that was always full each night.  How fun to camp practically on the beach!  Maybe next time...

Anchor Bay, California

Our family vacation this summer was to Anchor Bay, CA.  It was a small town along the Central Coast of Hwy 1.  Anchor Bay beach was a small privately owned beach by the fisherman of this area.  There were all kinds of fishing boats close to shore.  The catch of the day at this time of year was Salmon.  We had several things on our "bucket list" to accomplish on this trip.  1 - to eat some good crab 2 - try Salmon for the first time 3 - cook s'mores on the beach.   We were able to accomplish 2 out of the 3.  Crabbing was not in this time of the year and they didn't really have any docking areas where we could try and crab on our own like we did in Oregon :(  Kind of a bummer, but we still made the best of it!  I can say Salmon is actually quite tasty and we did have a bonfire and cook s'mores on our last "beach" night.