The Perfect Weekend! - Pt 1

Warning - this will be a very photo heavy blog and not of Drew.

For Christmas last year, my parents gave us a gift - a night out. Well the gift card was originally supposed to go toward a San Jose Sharks game last season, but with our schedule and theirs, it never worked out. We tried again since hockey season has returned - same problem (or the tickets are $$).

After tossing around a few ideas, Dave and I finally figured out what we would do with the gift card - a weekend on the ocean. Sure Grammy & GrampC got Drew for an extra night out of the deal, but who wouldn't want an adorable 2 year old (note I didn't describe the tantrum throwing 2 year old... gotta sell it you know).

After several weeks of considering where along the coast we wanted to go (Dave had several stipulations: no more than a 3 hour drive, somewhere we've never been, and a nearby town we can walk through), we finally decided on Jenner. Actually we were located about 12 miles north of Jenner past Fort Ross here on this map.

Talk about the middle of no-where! Our GPS actually had us ending up, about 3 miles before we really should've been. We were starting to panic since we had no cell phone service, it was dark, and it's very windy roads with no one nearby. Luckily we happened upon Fort Ross, and I remember the owner of the place we stayed at mentioning he was a few miles north of the fort.

We finally made it, and heard the waves pounding on the cliffs. Of course at 8:45pm, you can't see much, but the owner's wife was very hospitable despite our late arrival (their office is only open from 6-9pm). So we made our way to our room at the Fort Ross Lodge. I'd read online reviews, and heard the decorations were circa 1970's , so I was prepared for the worst and while they were right, I was so over it within minutes...

I mean seriously - wouldn't you after the man of your dreams builds you a fire like this... you know with firewood that the lodge provides? The blinds were dirty/dusty too, but I quickly figured out it was ash from the fire. No biggie.

And then the room's outdated decor was even more lost after waking up to the breathtaking views from our back patio....


Yeah that would be the Pacific Ocean that we heard crashing against the cliffs the night before. Amazing view. We just had to set out and explore the surroundings.

Here's Dave armed with his morning cup of coffee...

And we had some unexpected guests at the lodge....

I missed the buck who was galloping along so beautifully... I was too awestruck to pull out the camera. But I managed to catch the rear-end of this fawn for your viewing pleasure.

And since Dave's feet were getting soaked in the morning dew, I decided to walk down and see more of the cliffs... of course armed with some coffee.


After a few showers we drove up the coast to Gualala, which is about an hour north of where we were staying... all along the way, breathtaking views - and incredibly windy roads.



We enjoyed the town of Gualala, had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the crashing waves. Visited many of their shops... the whole town consisted of 2 "blocks" along Highway 1. I'm sure there may have been more, but we decided to head back and enjoy a winery.

Since this entry is obscene with the number of photos, I'll stretch our weekend adventure to another blog! So stay tuned.. still to come, the winery... more ocean shots and of course our highlight... the sunset!