To commemorate another successful trip around the sun, my mom and I made a somewhat spontaneous, really relaxing and completely awesome trip up to Bodega Bay.
On the way up we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit my grandparents and uncle and cousins. We had a great time visiting and a tasty dinner before heading over to Bodega Bay.
I'm proud to say that my mom handled the ride to Bodega Bay remarkably well. It was dark (but not stormy) night and I don't know that I've ever driven on such a twisty, unfamiliar road, at least not in this country*. Mom was a great navigator and kept calm through all the twists and turns.
We arrived around 10 at night and checked in at the Bodega Bay Lodge. The room was spacious, but still cozy. And unbeknownst to me, my mom had arranged for a little surprise to be waiting for us: a bottle of sparkling pear cider and happy birthday wishes from the hotel staff! We quickly got the fire going, and made ourselves comfortable in our luxurious room.
I fell asleep early and slept great in the comfy bed. We both spontaneously woke up around 8:30...just minutes before the anniversary of my birth (8:36am) and continued the celebration with more sparkling pear cider and presents! I got the coolest camera ever! A Canon SX230HS. It's compact, slim, with a bunch of features (both automatic and manual), plenty of megapixels and a 14x optical zoom. I think I'm in love! Now I can run around and pretend I'm a photographer like everyone else is these days.
And by the way...when we woke up in the morning, we discovered we had a pretty sweet view.
After spending far too long lounging in the hotel, we checked out, ready to begin a roundabout, detour filled drive home. The first detour - a mini photography session in the lobby of the hotel...and outside the hotel...and next to the sign for the hotel...well, you get
the idea.
Our next stop - the beach! Where I got to play with the zoom capabilities on my camera.
By the way, any beach with a sign like this one, should probably be avoided:
Then we moved on to the harbor (with more pictures, a little shopping, and some lunch).
We had planned to drive up to Armstrong National park and spend some time with the redwoods, but time got away from us a little, so instead we just drove past on our way back to Santa Rosa. We saw some beautiful trees (and again, my mom did great as a passenger on some very twisty roads).
We made a brief stop at Duncans Mills - I couldn't resist this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I had take a few pictures!
We made it home to Walnut Creek just in time for a delicious steak dinner from Tahoe Joe's and a few more surprises.
All in all...not a bad way to celebrate another year.
*I had a particularly harrowing trip from Bayreuth to Erlangen on a very dark, very twisty German road. If I can survive that...I can survive anything...
