Redwoods, Beach Glass and Wineries: A day trip

I'm one of those people who lusts for travel but in the end does very little of it. I can't afford big travel (other countries & whatnot) but there are many places in the vicinity that I haven't been to. Have I made that homage trip up to Bodega Bay yet? No. (Don't worry, Steph, I'll wait for your next visit for that.) Have I driven up to Crater Lake? No. The problem with travel for me is, well, me. I tire very easily. I've never had vast stores of energy or at least what seemed to me like the vast stores I've observed in others. I would love to go places but getting there and home is so fatiguing! I think it's just a me thing. A couple of hours of shopping and I'm dead.

It is for this reason that I accepted David & Dana's invitation for the following trip with equal amounts of enthusiasm and hesitation.

The concept: The thought was to drive up to the Fort Bragg area (in Northern California) to go to Glass Beach and then hit (as in go to, not rob) some wineries on our way back. Glass Beach got its name in a fairly obvious way. There's a lot of beach glass. I never got the complete story but either there was a glass factory there at one point or it was just a dump, either way there is a lot of wave smoothed glass lying on the beach. C'mon, how cool does that sound? To get to this beach, we need to drive through the Andersen Valley, famous for its wineries.

This is about a three-hour trip, one way.

That almost put me off immediately. But I gave myself a kick in the ass because:
1. We always have fun with David & Dana.
2. It sounded really cool.
3. I can act like a zombie in front of the tv any day, and that's getting really old.
4. I'm 31 years old and life is short, and getting shorter.

So we hauled our cookies up at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning and met David & Dana at a restaurant in San Rafael for breakfast. After gorging ourselves on the delicious fare, we were off in my car. The plan was that Dana drive up and I (being the ultimate designated driver in wine country, seeing as I hate wine) would drive back.

Talk was animated and varied on our way up with Rick and Dave sitting in back. Rick and Dave have a strange effect on one another; when put together, they tend to drive each other to new heights of hilarity. So there was lots of laughter. About 45 minutes into the journey I thought I'd be annoying and ask, "Are we there yet?" only to find I'd been anticipated when Dana answered, "20 minutes." This is, apparently, her staple answer on car trips, no matter where you are in the journey the answer is "20 minutes."

About an hour and a half into the drive, we got off the 101 and changed to the serpentine (128). If you are untroubled by motion sickness well, bully for you. I, however, am not and this is a twisty-turney road and you are on it for at least an hour and a half. What it has in gut-wrenching, inner ear disorientating turns, it makes up for in beauty. I had never been to the Anderson Valley and it is GORGEOUS! Vineyards, green fields, hills of green, cute little sparse towns and redwoods. My gods, the REDWOODS!

We stopped half way into the serpentine for a pit stop and so I could drive, which made the rest of the trip much more tolerable for me. It was not long after we went into an area so littered with redwoods that the sunlight (when it could make it's way through) hit the windscreen like a strobe light. Both sides of the road were just lousy with redwoods. I wished I had my "Vertigo" soundtrack with me.

After the redwoods, we hit the beautiful coast, crossed a couple of rivers and over some very pretty bridges. At last we hit Fort Bragg, which in itself was nice but not so amazing. Glass Beach was just beyond it so we were literally 20 minutes away!

Glass beach itself was lovely. Of course in my minds eye I (always) idealize things. I imagined a beach glittering with glass. While this beach was not the dazzling spectacle I'd pictured, it was great nevertheless. Dana was practically salivating. She'd been wanting to come here for quite a long time and was by no means let down. She practically plunged head first down the dune to get down to the beach to collect the precious beach glass (which she LOVES). We all collected glass for a while and then I just started to climb around and enjoy the scenery. It was a gorgeous day! The sun was screaming in the sky. I have to say Glass Beach is a bit weird. There are huge piles of what look to be ironworks debris, some embedded with glass bits, out in the cove. From a distance they just look like craggy, dark rocks. They lended a post-appocalyptic vibe but interesting as hell. David and I climbed around for a while as Rick, who had caught the beach glass lust, and Dana continued to collect. After a while I was just happy to sit, smelling the sea, feeling the breeze blow through my hair and the sun on my face. Eventually we (meaning David and I) decided it was time to go and physically removed Dana and Rick from the scene.

We had lunch in a local pizza place and started the long journey back. While in the car, we listened to our David Cross comedy cds, otherwise we were stopping at wineries. David, Dana & Rick all did tasting while I enjoyed the scenery. This I totally didn't mind. The area is so beautiful and quiet. Those are two of my favorite things. I wasn't even tired at this point, which surprised the hell out of me. The wineries were in revoltingly idylic settings to the point of bordering on cliche. I watched them taste all that wine with a mixture of disgust and envy. I mean wine is pretty gross on the whole but they're obviously getting something that I just don't get. I like smell of the wine. In fact the odors made me yearn for the only wine that I like, Lambrusco, which I ended up buy the next day. Otherwise it all tastes the same to me; bog water. So I left them to it.

Eventually we got back in the car for good (except for one disgusting bathroom/gasoline stop), and ended up dropping them off at their car around 7:30 p.m. and drove ourselves home. I have to say I had a great time!

Now I want MORE!