Mendo and Such

After a night of 'camping' in the abandoned lumber yard, I headed expediently down the coast and a bit inland to Mendocino County. Talk about beautiful country, Mendo is one of those rare areas that has just about every geographical feature that one could imagine. The rolling hills in Potter Valley, Lake Mendocino, and the beach at Ft. Bragg -- Just about everything a man could want!

After driving around the area for a while, I arrived at my cousin Elizabeth's house in the hills of Potter Valley. As I stated before, this area is really gorgeous, scenic, and worth spending a good amount of time in. Although I only spent a night there, I easily could have stayed weeks/months. The area is filled with local farmers and the like, and is mostly rural with the exception of Ukiah, a few miles away from where I was staying. The house that I was staying in was perched atop a great hill, with views for miles around.

I arrived at Elizabeth's a bit before my anticipated arrival, and decided to take a walk through the hills. I walked about 1/4 of a mile before realizing that I really needed to bring my camera along for said endeavor. I retreated back to the car, grabbed my gear, and set out on my hike. It was a gorgeous California day with the sun shining, and a slight breeze blowing at my back, propelling me as I went. I was really glad to have my camera along with me to capture the beauty of the area, and if you haven't checked out my flickr page already, jump over there and check out the rest of the pics to know what I am really talking about!

After getting back from my hike, I met up with my cousins, and shared a nice vegetarian meal. We talked for hours about family, life, and radio lab -- easily three of my favorite things to chat about -- and the night rapidly slipped away. These people are very interesting artists types, so inevitably there are always lots of cool things to talk about. Elizabeth is actually a little famous, as she has done mosaics around the country for different organizations. Michael, her husband, is a music teacher at local school, as well as an independent artist with a new CD scheduled for release in the near future. Simply said, the conversation was stimulating, and it was quite a surprise to learn that is was well after midnite before I said my goodnights. 

I slept well that night, even though I was a bit restless, tossing and turning with thoughts of impending travel to my favorite city in the U.S. -- San Francisco -- and that's where this blog ends and the next begins!

A.S. Bloom

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