Birthday Vacation, Mendocino/Humboldt Counties, California

Since it's been over a month now, I figured I should finally find the time to share a few quick images from our birthday trip. Devon and I drove up to beautiful Leggett in Northeastish Mendocino County for a few nights at the funky and awesome River's Run Lodge. It looked like it hadn't been changed in several decades, but was surprisingly cozy and clean inside the cabins. It's well off the beaten path (several miles from the already rural part of 101, then about 10 minutes down a dirt road), and is right on a big, beautiful bend of the Eel River which carves through a canyon, making the lodge grounds totally private and amazingly beautiful.



All I really wanted for my birthday was to lounge by and swim in some beautiful, clear water, so even though it's a bit of a drought year, this place was perfect because it has its own swimming hole and beach, amid millions of smooth river rocks. The whole place was fairly quiet during our stay, mostly because the other guests there that week were either attending a Buddhist retreat somewhere, or a reggae festival. So, we had the place mostly to ourselves.











There were fat and spoiled resort chickens who ate all of the guests scraps - I've always wanted chickens of my own, so it was fun to see them cluckin around and pigging out.



We went to Richardson Grove to dip our feet in the water and picnic among the redwoods:





I made us pretend to be redwoods (what a hippy) for the camera:





Devon's so cute in his sun hat:



We also drove way out to Shelter Cove, gateway to the Lost Coast, (hoping my breaks weren't burning themselves out on the steep, dusty, bumpy hills) and to our surprise, it was really warm, sunny, and clear, with hardly any fog or wind. On the coast. In Northern California. I don't know if you East Coasters/ Southern Californians can appreciate how rare that is!



Here's Devon, an expert stone skipper, thinking, "I am surrounded by millions of perfect skipping stones... this is awesome!":





We wished we could stay longer but we were worried about getting back to the Benbow Inn on time for my surprise birthday massage (thank you, wonderful Devon!), and delicious dinner on the terrace.



It was a lovely birthday trip that went by far too quickly.