Spent three nights at the Glendeven Inn in the Briar Rose Room with a fireplace and a balcony with a view of the ocean. The inn is great and the innkeeper is really helpful, but getting there was a long trip over the mountains, across the valley and through the woods. There was no phone in the room, but there was a phone available for guests in the storage area. Since they had VoIP, they offered free long distance, too. The wi-fi service was difficult to use at first, but the innkeeper and one of the employees worked with Philip to make sure that he got the service he needed.

We had a great dinner at La Petite Rive the first night that we were in Little River. It's a tiny restaurant with a limited menu, but every dish was wonderful. All five courses were just perfect. If you go and they are serving lobster ravioli, be sure to try it. Yummy! The service was nice and the chef/owner stopped by the table to ask if we were enjoying the evening. They have only two seatings a night so make reservations if you want to go to this one.

On the first full day in the area, we drove up to Mendocino. We found a jewelry store where I bought a necklace made from Roman glass--a pale bluish green piece in a silver setting. We drove around the town and stopped at the Mendocino Headlands State Park. The cool ocean breeze felt great. Not too many people were out that day. We had a chance to walk by the ocean almost by ourselves. I expected more tourists to be out.

We went to dinner at the MacCallum House Restaurant in Mendocino and sat at a table by the fireplace. Very cozy.

The second day we drove up to Fort Bragg and stopped to buy sweatshirts in town. The breeze was a bit too cool, although still nice. Found a great sock shop in Fort Bragg and ended up going back a second time the following day. I wore a pair of socks that I purchased there and liked them so much that I wanted to go back for more.

We visited Glass Beach, but didn't find the glass pebbles that give the beach its name. There were several groups of kids looking for the glass or something so we decided to go in a different direction. We saw several tidal pools and a blow hole.

We drove north of Fort Bragg looking for the Pacific Star Winery that the Glendeven Innkeeper had recommended. It was farther away than we thought, but we finally found it a few minutes after we started talking about turning around and going back. The view from the winery right on the coast was beautiful. The man working at the winery was less than friendly. I don't know why he just wanted to help the Brits that arrived a little bit before us. He did finally offer tastings, for a price.

On the way back to Little River, we stopped to see the Point Cabrillo Light Station. It's about a half mile walk from the parking lot to the lighthouse, but worth the time. The lighthouse is one hundred years old this year and has been restored carefully.

The third night we had dinner at the Little River Inn Restaurant. The food was good, but the service was very slow. The manager offered an apology for the slow service, even though we hadn't asked, and comped us a dessert as a way of making up for it. We just enjoyed the people watching while we waited for our food.