A Month of Favorites: Day 9

I hail from Northern California wine country. I've worked in pear sheds packing pears and in the office of a cooperage for a large winery. My home town of Ukiah, also the county seat, is nestled in a valley 2 hours North of San Francisco and about an hour and a half from the Pacific. When I was putting myself through school (the first time) I used to take my rare days off of work and school and head to the coast for a day of studying and napping on the beach. My favorite place to go was Mendocino.

Mendocino is an artist colony that features lots of small shops and galleries with small places to eat tucked inside historic buildings.

 

The town is beautifully landscaped and sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 

 This is where I chose to spend my free time before I moved to Seattle. To the right is a small beach where a river meets the ocean and I'd lay down there for hours basking in the slightly chilly Northern California coastal breeze and get my reading done for class. When I finished up I'd head back into town for a bite to eat before driving back to Ukiah or go up to Fort Bragg where I could eat at any number of micro-brewery restaurants. 

If Mendocino looks slightly familiar to you it may be because it has been featured in several movies: East of Eden with James Dean (it's supposed to be old-timey Monterey), The Majestic with Jim Carrey, Forever Young with Mel Gibson, and Dying Young with Julia Roberts.