Most days on the Mendocino Coast are beautiful, but last Sunday, the first day of Fall 2024, was quite possibly the most perfect day I’ve experienced there yet.
First, the day started under a blanket of fog, which to me is the most soothing sight imaginable. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a coastal fog belt, so the gray feels like home. Or maybe it’s because I know most people don’t like the gray, preferring to stay in bed until the sun takes the stage, so the fog feels like the world is laying out a red carpet — or, yes, gray carpet — just for me.
Second, I treated myself to breakfast at Egghead’s in Fort Bragg, where I luckily snagged a table just before the crowds appeared to eat at this very popular place.
And even better than the good coffee and delicious omelette I enjoyed there was the full Sunday newspaper I found waiting in a rack by the front door, a wonderful trip back in time to the days when most people spent weekend mornings eating in front of newsprint instead of a cellphone screen.
Third, I stopped in Mendocino for a coffee and a sweet treat, happily wandering into the Garden Bakery where I not only found the most delicious-looking little chocolate lava cake to bring back for my friend, but even something I could eat: a peanut butter cookie without wheat, as the baker told me she only uses “peanut butter, sugar and eggs!” It was both brilliantly simple, and simply delicious.
Finally, to work off some of the sugar, I headed to Big River to walk along the water. And while at first I was disappointed to see that most of the fog had floated away, all the people and animals I found enjoying the water made me even happier than any amount of fog could.
The first person I saw in the water was an older woman, slowly and steadily swimming in place, working her arms against the current. “You get to do this every morning?” I called out to her, to which she responded, “Try to.”
Watching that woman enjoying her daily ritual gave me a new life goal: I want to be her when I grow up!
Next I stopped at a bench with a beautiful view of the river below. Sitting on it was a couple just a bit older than me watching a loud video on a cell phone (I guess any view gets old when you see it every day, and while I can’t imagine how many days it would take for me to tire of looking at the Big River, I’d love to find out!) and I tried to ignore the noise and instead focus on the kayakers gliding by below us, which got pretty easy when the last person in the group got slowed even more by clumps of vegetation and declared, “I’m dead!”
“How far did you go?” I yelled down to his fellow kayaker who had waved up at his audience from above, but he said he couldn’t tell me because his watch wasn’t keeping track. So a man and woman walking by just then told me it was a five-mile paddle to where the river narrows to gravel and forces you to turn back.
The man noted that the river had “Great colors, no?” to which I replied, “Yes, but it’s too bad the fog burned off!” A bit confused, the woman said, “Oh, you want the fog?”
Back at the beach again, I loved seeing a dog launching herself through the water with hops like my dog does (too swallow to swim, her owner said) to fetch a ball over and over, but by far my favorite animals to watch there were all the horses a group of women brought to exercise on the beach before heading out on the trail along the river.
As the fog rolled back in, I watched one horse prance on the sand, as entranced by the sight as the little girl standing next to me was. She pointed out the horse to her mother while waiting on the sand as her father paddled up to us on a board named “Serene Life.”
“Ever paddled next to a horse before?” I asked him, to which he said, “No, that was definitely a first!”
Postscript: Yes, Sunday did include a crushing loss for the 49ers to the Rams, but I didn’t find that out until I returned to Ukiah, so the day on the coast was still perfect.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
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