Road Trip Day 4: Fort Bragg to San Jose

We checked out of the hotel, had breakfast, and headed down Highway 1 to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens. We found the place okay. We grabbed the map of the place and headed for the Heather Garden. I saw a picture of that garden in AAA's magazine, and that's what started me planning this whole trip.

The Heather Garden was even more beautiful in person, so I was satisfied. We managed to walk through most of the Gardens in short period of time. There was supposedly a Lavender Garden that we couldn't find, but we found everything else. We took tons of pictures.

After we got back to the building at the entrance to the Gardens, we had some lavender ice cream. No, that's not a typo. It was good, but we kept burping lavender much of the way back.

We really liked Fort Bragg. There was some sites that we didn't see, such as the Glass Beach, and I really would like to come back. Besides the sights, Fort Bragg seems like a good place to hang out.

Anyway, we hit the road south on Highway 1. It had a few hair-raising turns, but wasn't nearly as bad as Hwy. 20. Then, I took the wrong turnoff and wound up on Hwy. 128. It turned out to be a really nice drive. Part of it meandered through a redwood forest. It also went through some really small towns, one of which was hosting the Mendocino Country Fair. There were a couple of hair-raising turns, but not too bad. We decided that this should be the route of choice for the future.

We picked up I-101 where it intersected Hwy. 128. We backtracked to Santa Rosa for lunch and to get gas. Then it was smooth sailing down I-101 to the Golden Gate Bridge, through San Francisco to I-280, and at that point, I knew where I was going. We got home with no problems.

Here are a couple more pictures from the Gardens. (Also, the picture of the ocean on Day 3 was taken in the Gardens.)

The end of Mom's trip

We got back from the Wine Country on Saturday, and Mom left for Detroit on Wednesday. When she was in San Jose, she agreed to help me with some chores that would be easier with two pairs of hands.

The rods and one of the shelves in my closet had collapsed, and we put them back up. (Well, Mom put them back up. My contribution was to haul all the clothes out of the closet, and put them back in a orderly manner when the rods were up. The closet looks nice and organized now.)

Then I had a wall hanging of a celtic cross that I wanted to put in a meditation/prayer corner of my bedroom. Putting up the wall hanging turned out to be a pain, but Mom persevered. After she left, I built a small bookcase for that corner, and tossed my meditation cushions there. It's good to have that corner finally built. I came up the idea for it in Fresno, and bought the hanging and bookcase then, but then I had to move so I never built it.

It was a great visit with Mom. I hated to see her go.
( Prayer/meditation corner pictures )