In late June, MaryAnn and I did a short trip up the coast for a few days to escape from the valley heat. Our friend Cyndy had told us about the Point Arena Lighthouse just south of Mendocino and how they rent cabins in the lighthouse grounds.
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| Sea Ranch Chapel |
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| Sea Ranch Chapel Doors |
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| Chapel Interior |
We drove from Sacramento over to Bodega Bay and then headed north on Highway One, a spectacular road. Sea Ranch is a community of homes just south of Gualala and I had heard of a rather unusual chapel that had been built there that looked worth checking out. What we found was this wonderful structure sitting in a clearing just off the highway. I must have passed this way many, many times before but I had never noticed it. It is an amazing chapel. It is so typical of what you would expect from the artisans of that area - an interesting shape like some sort of snail shell, some very fine carpentry (perhaps produced by some of the fine craftsmen from the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg), and beautiful stained glass.
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| Point Arena Lighthouse |
We arrived in Point Arena in the late afternoon. The lighthouse sits on the cliffs at the end of the road and in its grounds are half a dozen cottages once used by the lighthouse keepers. We were in the Keeper's Apartment - a small apartment with a full kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. It looked like it had been renovated quite recently and it was really very nice with ocean views to the front and back and the lighthouse itself just at the end of the road.
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| Point Arena Beach |
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| Point Arena Harbor |
We settled in and then went down to the pier in Point Arena (actually quite a way from the lighthouse) for our evening meal. There are not many places in Point Arena and not many open places in these Covid days. We dined at the Chowder House restaurant which was down the road from the town adjacent to the pier. The clam chowder was good but the non-chowder menu items left a lot to be desired. The pier is in a beautiful setting with high cliffs on both sides and a still active harbor and pier. They were unloading fish as we walked on the pier after dinner.
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| Cliffs to the South of Point Arena Lighthouse |
The next morning we went for a nice run along the cliff tops into Point Arena - probably around 6 miles each way. It was a spectacular run with most of it overlooking the ocean and the waves crashing below. How refreshing it was to be running in the cool and windy weather after all our hot dry runs in the mountains.
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| The Arena Market |
Point Arena offered us a coffee roaster, a bakery and a vintage motorcycle repair shop. The roaster really only specialized in roasting and not making coffee to drink and the bakery, Franny's, was closed. Still I made do with a half hearted attempt at a latte and one of the prior day's scones. The motorcycle shop had some nice old French motorbikes from the early 1900's that were being worked on.
The run back was invigorating with a nice wind that always seemed to be in our faces. A 12 mile round trip - just what we needed.
After our run we had a pretty lazy afternoon. Then in the evening we went into Point Arena once more, only to find that even more restaurants were closed. Nothing was open so we bought food from the local store and went back to the lighthouse to dine in our room.
Next morning it was cooler and foggier but we made it out for another run. Shorter this time. The lighthouse which was only 200 or 300 yards from our cottage was hidden in the coastal fog.
After checking out, we went to visit the lighthouse museum before starting on our drive back to Sacramento and the awaiting heat.
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| Bowling Ball Beach |
On the way back we stopped at Bowling Ball Beach. On this beach the cliff contains rocks with sandstone concretions in them. As the softer rocks are eroded by the sea the harder concretions are left lying on the beach and hence the name.
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