Posted by Karen on 23-Apr-2010
(Click photo for all 77 photos)
This weekend took me back to the Castles & Kites Celebration in Bodega Bay. I met up with Tersha, Vic and Brianna at the campsites on the beach at Doran Regional Park. Funny it was at this festival last year that Tersha debuted her new popup trailer and this year she’s debuting an even better new one and I’ve now got a trailer now too… my how things change in a year. Friday was a lazy day spent hanging around camp, chatting, playing games and watching wind surfers learn to windsurf in the harbor (where the water is only a foot or so deep at low tide). Saturday morning before the festival, we took a walk along the beach and I enjoyed photographing some sand textures. It was much windier this year than last, and it didn’t seem that as many kites were being flown as last year, but it was still a nice and relaxing weekend. At the end of the afternoon, while the wind may have been a bit much for kites, it was just right for a guy kite surfing in the bay. Definitely coming back again, I really do enjoy this weekend.
Posted by Karen on 16-Sep-2006
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When this trip was originally planned months ago, it was supposed to be a kayaking weekend, but life intervenes and plans change and so I took a solo trip to the Mendocino Coast and enjoyed a nice quiet weekend exploring. I arrived at Van Damme State Park late Friday night and quickly fell asleep to the sounds of the babbling creek next to my campsite and the sound of a fog horn regularly sounding to make the night safe for ships. I woke up nice and late and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast while a couple of deer nibbled their breakfast right next to my campsite. I then decided to go check out the Pygmy Forest, which is biologically interesting, but not very exciting to look at. Next I went in search of the “Sea Breeze” geocache. In the parking area, I met a very nice lady, Eryka from Brooklyn (who is part of the Red Tent Project), who told me the tale of the trail’s name. As the story goes, Rachel, who used to owns the inn this trail is next to, would take politicians who were less than eco-friendly on the trail and change their minds about environmental issues; so it is known as Rachel’s Congressional Trail. I didn’t have the cache hints with me and when the GPS said 30 more feet over the edge of the cliff, I said hmmm, maybe not… LOL! I enjoyed a beautiful walk and ogled the views, but didn’t find the cache. Next on my exploration of the area was a stop at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg. There was a wedding going on, so I enjoyed calypso music as I strolled the many gardens and enjoyed the flower displays. As evening approached, I headed over to Glass Beach in enjoy the sunset. I’d heard wonderful things about the beach and how it had been a former trash dump and all kinds of colored glass had been smoothed down over the years. Unfortunately, the tradition is for people to pick up any piece of glass they find, so I was disappointed that my visions of a multi-colored shiny beach weren’t to be. But it was a lovely sunset. 
