Guerneville...

We had planned to visit Jim during Bryan and Peter's stay, but sadly, Jim got really ill with bronchitis, and missed almost two weeks of work! It was clear that a visit was NOT what he needed, so we decided not go go. We had a trip to Mendocino already planned, so we decided to break up the long drive from Moss Beach to Mendocino with a two-night stay in Guerneville. Guerneville is located in the redwoods, along the Russian River, about 40 minutes from Bodega Bay, on the coast.


We found some little cabins online, which sounded nice, so booked one for Sunday and Monday night. Sunday we packed up the car and the ice chest and headed up to Guerneville. The weather was perfect! Blue skies and sunshine, and temps in the 80's. We got to Guerneville about 2 pm, and check-in wasn't till 4, so we wandered into town and had a late lunch at one of the restaurants. We checked out some of the shops, then went back and checked into our little cabin - operative word: little! It was a wee cabin with two rooms, two queen sized beds and a tiny bathroom. Actually, the bathroom was bigger than the one we had at the cabin in Lee Vining, on our trip with John! Roughly the size of a closet, and not a walk-in closet! But, we made do.

We had two days in Guerneville, enjoyed walks, browsing through bookstores, eating ice cream, reading and just generally relaxing! It was wonderful!

Our little cabin in the redwoods.  We filmed a video of our cabin.  After watching the video, click the back button on your browswer to return to our blog.  Click here to see the video. 

This was our "dining room" for lunches, munchies, G&T's, etc.  We were the only ones in residence, so it was nice and quiet.

This is the view of the trunk of a huge redwood tree outside of Bryan and Peter's room

Monday morning we headed off for a trek through the Armstrong Redwoods.  There were lots of old growth redwoods there, and it was a great walk.

The beginning of the trail

Strolling through the redwoods

The redwood canopy - you can see the beautiful blue sky beyond

Bryan and Peter with the Armstrong Redwoods sign.  We took this one for you, Richard!

Beautiful redwoods

A beautiful spot for a rest and a picture

Mushrooms!  No, we didn't pick them.

Happy wanderers!

Colonel Armstrong - the tallest tree in the Armstrong Redwoods.

Another shot, with some of the height and size of the tree.

Dense, sun-dappled forest

Peter, Bryan and Lee

Lee and I in front of the network of roots of a fallen redwood.  It looked very artistic.  Apparently they are fairly shallow-rooted trees, but the roots spread out and hang on to the roots of trees around them, which helps them withstand strong winds, etc.

Peter and Bryan

There is a huge amphitheater deep within the redwoods, with free concerts.  Unfortunately, the last one was held the Saturday before we got there.

Another view of the amphitheater

The guys!

Peter and Bryan, peeking out from the hollow trunks of two redwood trees.

It was a great walk, nice and cool within the redwoods.  After our walk, we went back to the cabin for some lunch, and some reading time.  Then there was more browsing in shops, more ice cream, and dinner at Chef Patricks - yummy!  Tuesday morning, we were off to Mendocino!