Weeeee! let the games begin!!

Point Arena From the Sky (Google Earth Action!)


Point Arena On the Ground..

Today was the great loop-de-loop road trip up the cali coast. We started at 6:30am, headed past the golden gate and onward onto Highway 1.. Let's say that highway 1 isn't all that friendly to the tummy. Our only error was to head towards Point Reyes even though 1) it was pretty foggy 2) it says 21 miles to the lighthouse and 3) halfway towards the lighthouse a sign says 'closed on tues and weds. We get there and it's a nature hike, saw some deer trampling, some buildings. But to reach the lighthouse you had to go through this locked gate down 300 steps. Both of us were gonna hop the fence but then fluffielady realized that 300 steps is a bit to scurry around.
With our lighthouse hopes dashed i figure we might be able to hit the second one up the road. Point Arena, this one was easier to get to, it was only 2miles off highway one.. and the fog wasn't too crazy. We get to the lighthouse and after 132 steps up the spiraling staircase. We meet up with this pirate looking dood. He's our 'tourguide' who told us some stories and facts about the thing. The only thing i remember is: 1) it's the second lighthouse built 2) it's the first reenforced concrete structure post 1906 earthquake 3) it was powered by this weight that hand to be handcranked back up to the top every 75minutes and 4) the birdcage mechanism which houses the light and prism, which weighs 6000 pounds was sitting on a bath of mercury, and can be pushed with a finger. Talk about 40wt ball bearing fluid.


Going up!

After point arena became a blur as i get knocked out with all this gentle (or not) rocking of the car, as fluffielady handles the corners like a f1 racer. Eventually we got to the town of mendocino, which was like carmel by the sea: Kinda trinkety knick-knack selling city. Walked around, most of these towns are pretty small. All the ones we've passed was even smaller, and easily blown by in the car. It's like.. thats it? wheres the food at??
Got to our final destination, Ft. Bragg and ventured to the glass beach where i hear about it so much. Come to find that i think everybody's picked at the beach so much that theres not much glass left. And it's not really a beach with sand and all that. Theres bits of glass the same size as the gravel, and some bits are still sharp! woo!


Glass mixed with pebbles.. Hmm

Now, do i wanna put these glass bits into the aquarium.. hmmz..