Fort Bragg Vacation

I love traveling in October. As long as we have kids not tied to the school calendar, I think we’ll always opt to take vacation time in the early Fall season. There are four main reasons for this: 1) The weather is usually still decent 2) the off-season prices have plummeted 3) you’ll usually escape the crowds and 4) Fall foliage. 

I remember one time my mom gave me permission to miss a week of school to take a trip to Disney World with my grandparents and all of their granddaughters in October. It was awesome! The weather was cooler and there were hardly any lines for the rides, the total opposite of our usual summer and spring break trips to Orlando. We went back to Disney with my parents, sister, and nephews 2 Octobers ago and we found the same results. 

When Jonathan started his new position in San Ramon, he and his small team of co-workers had to divvy up vacation time to make sure someone was always manning the office. Though at the time we didn’t have any plans, Jonathan requested a week off in October. When the heart of the San Ramon summer started to get to us we knew we wanted to use his week off go somewhere cool. 

We were saving the mountains for a winter ski trip and sort of had Oregon in our minds as a fun out-doorsy getway. However, when we discovered the drive just to get to the Oregon border was 6+ hours we decided to set our sights on the Northern California coast instead, where the landscape and climate  is very similar to that of the Pacific Northwest. 

We’d heard good things about Mendocino but couldn’t find any good housing options suitable for a baby and a dog, so we set our sights 15 miles north to the larger (but still teeny-tiny)  town of Fort Bragg. We found an awesome 2 bedroom townhouse that was located right on the ocean in the midst of a state park. It also walked right out onto an extensive paved coastal trail which lead us in both directions to Merkerricher State Park. 

Upon arriving to Fort Bragg we were not fully impressed. The town was sleepy (probably partly due to the October timelime) and just seemed a bit dingy and depressed. The first full day we had was Scottish-style weather. It was sunny one minute but pouring rain with hurricane force winds the next. We spent the majority of the day in our car, just driving along the legendary Highway 1 to the little coastal towns to try to get an orientation to the area. 

Luckily the weather and the scenery were both giving off a Scottish vibe, so of course the views were beautiful. 

For a vacation locale where literally every attraction is outdoors, we were feeling very cooped up and wondering  how in the world we were gonna spend the next 4 days if the rain didn’t cease. The whole ‘there is no bad weather, only bad gear’ motto doesn’t really hold up when you have a baby and an elderly pooch to think about. 

We really wanted to see the Avenue of Giants, known for it’s massive Sequoia Redwoods. On the map it was only 70 miles so we figured we’d make a daytrip. What we weren’t expecting was that those 70 miles were on tiny, windy, mountainous roads that google maps was estimating  to take 3 hours to drive one way.  With an antsy teething baby and a car-sickness prone momma, we just didn’t think a 6 hour round trip was worth it. We found some similar attractions within an hours drive (on the same treacherous roads) and decided to stay a bit closer to Fort Bragg. 

Literally this place is littered with State and National Parks that are chocked full of redwood forests and coastal hikes so it was a little hard to choose. We were very unorganized and unprepared for this trip and had more of a ‘let’s wing it’ attitude. As we got close to our chosen hike at Standish-Hickey State Park in Leggett we saw a sign for the WORLD FAMOUS drive through tree. Since we had our hearts set on seeing some giant trees and I was 2 curves away from puking we decided to pull over and see the attraction. 

We paid our 5 dollars and were told to pull our sideview mirrors in so that we could drive thru. We did that and were still comically too big in our Acadia to even come close to fitting. 

We just pulled into the parking lot, ate some lunch and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine while we watched Ford Fusions barely make it through the tree tunnel. 

Since I was still feeling queasy we took our time at the pit stop and let Forest practice his rapidly improving walking skills. 

Once my stomach settled we were on to the next attraction. Jonathan had picked a 4 mile loop trail called ‘Big Tree’ so we figured that would be a good route for sighting more giants. We easily found the park, paid our 5 bucks, and started on the trailhead. However, about 5 minutes later, the trail seemed to disappear into a river. 

 We circled around the river area for about 20 minutes without ever finding where the trail continued. 

We were perplexed and just kept thinking ‘woah, if we were on the Amazing Race right now we would totally lose this leg and people would be screaming at the TV 'look, you idiots, the trail is right in front of your nose!’. Not that we heckle the partcipants on the Amazing Race or anything...

We were certain we were missing something obvious but just could not figure it out. Finally we called it quits and hiked back up to our car where we found a sign that warned that the trail required a seasonal footbridge to cross the river and continue the loop. We are guessing that due to the rainy week the area had, this footbridge was under water. We were a bit frustrated that we had driven all that way and paid 5 smackers to basically hike .6 miles and not see any ‘Big Trees’. 

So far the whole trip felt like a bust. Our teething toddler was not sleeping well and was having a ball finding all the things that could kill him in our non-childproofed townhouse. We were feeling really discouraged and felt like we’d have had a much more relaxing time just staying home! We considered leaving but decided to give it one more day to see what the Mendocino coast had to offer us. 

We started by focusing on what drew us to our townhouse location in the first place: MacKerricher State Park.  The next morning we took a brisk jog in the stroller and saw some beautiful sights, including my favorite- harbor seals! 

The weather was perfect, like a crisp clear Scottish day in Fall and the air was almost as fresh. It was so invigorating to jog in and Forest must have also been channeling his Scottish days because he fell asleep in the stroller for the first time since he was itty bitty. 

Once we got home we put him down for a proper nap and got ready for an afternoon excursion to Glass Beach, which was only about 1 mile from where we were staying. I had read about Glass Beach in an article listing the most unusual beaches in the world. This particular beach made the cut due to its abundance of sea glass, which resulted because of its prior use as the town dump. We drove down to the trailhead and made the short walk down to the beach. 

Sam and I went treasure hunting while Jonathan and Forest played on the beach. I was a tad disappointed in the amount of sea glass left, since apparently due to its recent publicity people have been removing it by the handful when visiting. 

Still, Forest didn’t know any different and had an absolute blast running on the beach toward the waves. We would scoop him up just before the water reached his toes and bring him back up the beach where he would rush right back to the surf. 

I have never seen him so happy. 

The weather was perfect so we just stayed at the beach until he got tired, at which point we went home and put him down for a *2 hour* nap! In the pack n play! It was a much needed miracle. 

After his siesta we headed back down to the quaint town of Mendocino for a sunset hike among the coastal bluffs. 

For our final day on vacation we were on a mission to watch some whales and do a proper redwoods hike. We went bright and early to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse which we read was an optimal place to spot whales nearly year round. 

We weren’t so lucky and didn’t spot any during our hike, but it was still a pretty walk and another sunny day. 

After Forest’s morning nap we headed to the nearby Russian Gulch State Park to do a redwood/waterfall hike. We brought Sam along but felt bad for him when we got to the trailhead and saw that this particular trail didn’t allow pups. 

It was probably just as well that he stayed in the car though since it was a 4 mile hike and we were trucking it the whole way. It was a really pleasant walk along a river, and reminded me once again of Scotland and what I envision the landscape of Oregon to be like. 

It was certainly our favorite excursion of the trip and I wish we’d gone sooner so that we could have known to come back and do a few more of the hikes around there, especialy since it was only a 15 minute drive from our place. 

We finished off the trip with dinner at the North Coast Brewing Company Taproom. 

We enjoyed sampling all the beers and Forest had fun chowing down on zucchini and squash and chumming it up with the waitstaff.  Towards the end of our meal another family with a baby his age came in and since the restaurant wasn’t very busy, we let them walk around on the floor a bit together. It was a nice spontaneous play date and a good way to end our trip. 

The next morning we packed up and headed out early so that we could make the 4 hour journey back to San Ramon before Jon’s parents arrived that evening.  I’ll write more later  about Forest’s actual birthday fun. Forest has been averaging about an hour of napping a day plus waking up obnoxiously early so I've been having a hard time blogging recently. I wish these teeth would hurry up and get a move on so that hopefully my baby can start sleeping normally again!