Holly's Blog Jan. 15

So it started out right on the January the 8th 2009- a meeting, some red beans and rice and watching OU get beat…those were good tidings for the weekend to come…we took Friday off from work, woke up late, packed up the rental car (which we got because we carted the entire house except the kitchen sink- some highlights are the Penzy spices, our new pajamas, 4 fishing books and maps, two iPods and four phones, the Batali pot, a skillet, knife roll, clothing for three days, fishing gear for two, Bose iPod speaker system, blankets, pillows, etc…) and headed up the Mendocino coast…What a beautiful drive, no traffic, Claude slept/watched the scenery….in about 3 hours we pulled up to the most beautiful place Mar Vista which is right between the Gualala and Garcia rivers…Dana had gotten me, which I opened Thursday morning, a Northern Rivers map for California with GPS, a new 2009 annual fishing license, a 2009 Salmon Steelhead license for fishing on rivers (requires a separate license) and a waterproof bag for my pack since I tend to fall a lot….and of course she picked a place with cottages that are right by the beach, so I could go surf fishing or steelhead Salmon fishing. Turned out the rivers were closed because of Los Angeles (long story but essentially all our water is diverted to LA for them to have a million golf courses and 8 million people live in a desert, we’re not bitter though) so I ended up surf fishing which I used my new fishing books for advice on how best to do that…but let me describe the Mar Vista cottages…it sits on several acres- there are chickens for fresh eggs delivered in little baskets to your cottage every day, pygmy goats and a garden which we used each night for fresh salads…the place is right off Hwy 1, so its got amazing views of the ocean, sunrise and sunset as well as beach access…of course Claude goes bounding out of the car and runs around, scoping out the rabbits which are right by the office..here is a map of the place- we were in cottage 8 which has the best views of sunrise and sunset, sun all day and of course a very warm fireplace...I didn't get to really take many pictures because the camera was not charged :( so here is their web link to see the cottages...www.marvistamendocino.com

and within the first 20 minutes we had broken just about every rule they had…let me explain...
First, after inspection of the rabbits Claude finds the chickens and proceeds to bark at them (there is a rule about not terrorizing/barking at the animals), then we are in and out of the cabin and the owners dog comes into the cottage (unbeknownst to me, their dogs are not allowed in the cabins), then we go and pick some fresh salad for our dinner (and instead of clipping the leaves, I pulled them up from the roots) and finally, Claude ran off and I started screaming like a banshee (forgetting of course that I was disturbing the owners and other guests)….so surprisingly enough, we didn’t get kicked out…I apologized to the Gardner the next day but she did not let me off the hook…After breaking all the rules, we headed down to the beach and took some sunset pictures…


It was a full moon and amazingly warm for this time of year, ended up we were having record high temperatures…so we took a walk, Claude explored the beach and we headed back to cook dinner which was a standard for us with a little flair...pork chops, fresh salad from the garden and Romanesco… …

which is a Dana favorite, it’s a cross between cauliflower and who knows what.. we do it with some garlic in a cast iron skillet, sauté an then throw into the oven to crisp it all up and roast the garlic, its de-lish !! a picture of Romanesco…Anyway, the next morning we got up and had a delicious breakfast of fresh eggs from the resident chickens…this is a Chilean something and a Rhode island red in the background…they have about 75 chickens in total...


now Dana is totally obsessed with having chickens although the HOA doesn’t allow them…she even picked out names for them- Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria (apparently you have to have more than one or two because they are social)..anyway…for breakfast we had the eggs and the best hand-made sausage from the local grocery store with homemade pH preserves and Tartine Bread !! Truly delicious, I had two helpings of everything knowing we were heading out to fish….which brings me to the sausage which I had just pierced on my fork while I ate the bread with the over easy egg with my hands and accidentally while trying to get a piece of sausage I bit down on the fork and there went my tooth, or half my tooth which was already fake from 2^nd grade when I broke my nose…so I now look like a total red-neck ready to fish. The proprietor lady brought us lunar and tide maps, apparently there is a beach called bowling ball beach which at low tide has rocks that look like gargantuan bowling balls but we missed that…anyway, we packed it up and drove about an hour north to a pretty secluded beach where Claude and Dana could hang and I could fish…which Claude didn’t really do well leaving me in the surf, so Dana had a full time job and I had a blissful about 5 hours of surf fishing which is very different than river fishing, for one you have to keep moving because the sand caves in and two because the tides were the highest they have been all year (which of course I didn’t know beforehand) and so I didn’t catch much but I only lost one fly and only used one leader/tippet, so it was much improvement as I usually lose about 3-4 flies and go through about 3 leaders per trip…I think I only fell into the artic water three times, maybe four and we had fun relaxing in the warm weather….so after about 6 hours we headed back to Mar Vista to get dinner ready and I had to wash all my gear….which I then proceeded to wash my fly line and get my line into the worst knot you’ve ever seen….Dennis said, he looked at it twice and said “Unfreaking believable” …I think that meant it was pretty bad but Dana of course was able to get it out the next day…amazing truly !!

so after much frustration we go ahead with dinner which was steaks, sautéed mushrooms and baked potato with fresh salad and poached eggs….the whole thing was so amazing the proprietor woman came over and asked what we were cooking it smelled so good and we were all famished…so after our big meal, Claude got a big ole bath and we slept very soundly.

The next day we slept in, had another big breakfast and started packing up…we ended up going to the Stornetta Farms Public Lands which is about 200 acres right on the coast that no one apparently knows about, we saw some people off in a distance but otherwise were alone the whole time, there were sea caves, a stream that ran into the ocean, an island, a huge sink hole and just amazing right on the San Andreas fault beauty…Claude kept edging to the cliffs so he had to be on his leash most of the time but he was happy nevertheless….so we were there about 4 hours running around and enjoying the fresh air before heading back to the city at sunset along Hwy 1, not a bad view which makes the drive bearable…so Monday afternoon at 2pm the tooth was fixed and all was well…sure did have a great time, already picked out everyone’s cottages for the Rodriguez family reunion !!