Replenishing Your Soul

For those of you who aren’t aware, I finally took a little vacation, took four days off, and visited the Northern Coast of California. Mendocino, specifically. And I have to say hands down, it’s one of my favorite places ever.

Maybe it’s the fresh cool breeze, maybe it’s the fact there is no “beach” but rocks instead, maybe it’s the quaint town and it’s architecture.

Whatever it is. It never fails me. It always leaves me feeling refreshed, recharged. and replenished.

So when Mark (@sunflowerfarmer for all you twitter people), hailing from North Dakota, decided to fly out, I just had to show him what California was about. I knew this is where we HAD to go.

Not to mention, the drive is gorgeous and takes you across the variety that is California. Farmland consisting of orchards then rice fields, foothills, mountains, and then coming out on the coast. It’s essentially Northern California in a nutshell.

For January, we were blessed with some AMAZING weather. Usually this part of the California coastline is plagued with fog and rain much of the year, especially the winter. It was so nice we even got to eat out on the patio one day!

Although I’d been to Mendocino many-a-times, this year marks a FIRST for me.. This was the first time I’ve EVER seen whales migrating. We walked out to the Headlands State Park to find a bunch of people with binoculars and spotting scopes. Perplexed, we weren’t sure what they were looking at… Soon enough, we saw it. Whales surfacing and blowing. Tons of them, as far as the eye could see, all along the coastline. Needless to say, it was way cool.

If you live near the California coast (or not even close, doesn’t matter) and have never once visited Mendocino or the surrounding areas, do it! I wish my photos could do this place justice. It really is breathtaking to take it all in. Truth be told, I’m not much of a beach person so this marriage of the ocean + no sand = bliss for me.

The coastline is full of National Parks consisting of all kinds of trails and vistas. You could literally spend a few days exploring all over the place. There are also lighthouses all along the coastline like the one shown above, inside the lighthouse is a giftshop and little museum carrying all kinds of shipwreck items as well as history about the lighthouse for those of you history geeks 😉

Coming back to reality is always hard. But it helps to get away. Refresh, recharge, and replenish. This is my place. Never fails me. Where is your place?