Perched Above the Pacific: A Mendocino Sojourn

I chose Mendocino for my pre-70th birthday getaway. This small coastal town has become my retreat—a place to absorb natural beauty and simply be. I planned to reflect on seven decades of life. I wanted to fit memories together like puzzle pieces to understand how they brought me to this milestone.

Then Mendocino’s rugged coastline and crashing waves came into view. It was a refreshing 30 degrees cooler than the triple-digit temps at home. In town, we drove past well-preserved buildings from the 1800s. Unique shops and restaurants now occupy those spaces, reflecting the town’s creative spirit.

Surrounded by all of this natural beauty and creativity, I was exhilarated by the promise of new discoveries. Why look back when the present has so much to offer? What brought me to this moment now seemed far less important than the fact that it had.

Please join me on this reflection of my Mendocino sojourn.

Room With a View

Our home for three days was the Agate Cove Inn. From our cottage, we had this mesmerizing view of the ever-changing weather and tides.

The inn sits on land that was once home to Mendocino's first brewery. The building on the right, built in 1860, was the brewery founder’s home. Not surprisingly, he chose the site for its stunning views.

Today, the glass door on the left of the homestead opens on to a cozy coffee and tea area. As if by magic, every afternoon fresh-baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies appeared on a side table under a glass dome atop a wooden platter. This soon became one of my favorite places on the property.

But one does not live by views, coffee, and cookies alone. Although this one gave it a really good try. There were shops and restaurants waiting to be explored. I was more than happy to oblige.

The Gallery Bookshop

There is no such thing as having too many unread books, as proven by my collection of nearly 100 unread books. Therefore, one of our first stops was the Gallery Bookshop & Bullwinkle’s Children’s Books, which opened in 1962:

Proper browsing of their large, diverse collection of books, journals, and creative gifts is a leisurely pursuit. That’s why there are little stools and comfy chairs placed strategically throughout the store, ready and waiting for the exact moment you need more time to page through a book.

If that wasn’t enough to make me love this bookshop, their manifesto definitely did:

WE BELIEVE IN THE BOOK. We believe in quieting the noise and listening to the stories. We believe in traveling far and wide between paper pages. We believe in touching the words, scribbling in the margins, and dogging the ears. We believe in surrounding ourselves with books long finished and books not yet read; in revisiting our younger selves each time we pull old favorites off the shelf.

We believe in five-year-olds inking their names in big letters on the flyleaf. We believe in becoming someone else for four hundred pages. We believe in turning off the screens and unplugging the networks once in awhile. We believe in meeting the author, reading the footnotes, looking up the words and checking the references. We believe in holding our children on our laps and turning the pages together.

We believe in standing shoulder to shoulder in comfortable silence with our fellow citizens before a good shelf of books; we believe in talking face to face with friends and strangers in the aisles of a good bookstore. We believe that together, readers, writers, books and bookstores can work magic.

If you believe, please join us: SAVE THE WORLD. BUY A BOOK.

And so, we did—buy books. I don’t know if we helped save the world, but perhaps we might like to think we did.

A Feast of Food, Wine & Place

After returning to our “home with a view,” we turned on the gas fireplace, poured ourselves a glass of wine, and snuggled down with...our books, of course!

Yes, that’s my glass on the left because one of us (that would be me) was already enjoying the wine before Steve had a chance to sit down. Not to worry—he caught up with me.

And no, we did not have just three books. By the end of our stay, after visiting the bookshop a second time, we had nine books between us. We’re doing our very best to save the world. That takes some energy, of course.

Fortunately, we had dinner plans.

First up—the Trillium Café & Inn. We sat at a fireside table for two with a view of the outdoor patio.

Perhaps because I needed something healthy to counteract the aforementioned chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, I had the Point Reyes Blue Cheese Salad with dates, apples, and roasted hazelnuts. It might have been the fresh sea air, the delight of buying books, or the sheer joy of being in this stunning place. Whatever the reason, I found myself waxing poetic about the salad. A response I typically reserve solely for desserts.

By the next evening, I was over my need for a balanced diet. Thank goodness. Because if there’s a good Italian restaurant in town serving homemade pesto, I need to be there. Especially when the dishes are based on the owner’s family recipes from Northern Italy. And so, our last evening found us at the Luna Trattoria with “Over the Moon” Italian cuisine.

From our table upstairs, we could enjoy the entire natural light-filled restaurant with its views of the surrounding trees, the downstairs dining area, and quirky art adorning the walls. What a delightful and delicious way to wrap up our time in Mendocino.

A Fond Farewell

My reluctance to leave was evident the next morning as I took this final picture. The inn’s property manager walked past me and said, “You don’t want to leave, do you?” No, I did not. I was doing so only after promising myself a return visit before another year went by.

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I had intended to spend these days in Mendocino looking back over seventy years. Instead, I discovered the simple pleasure of being exactly where I was. Sometimes the best way to honor a long life is to be completely present in the moment you're living.