The ride on Sunday was unremarkable – eight hours from Trinidad to Merced, CA. We stayed in a perfectly adequate Holiday Inn Express.]

Tuesday’s drive was similarly unremarkable – 6½ hours from Merced to Twentynine Palms, CA right at the north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. (We have never been to the Park.) We are staying at the Campbell House Inn for the night. We might just have to come back here for a longer stay and visit the National Park. It is off the beaten track and is quite alluring. We are in the Palms Room, one of three in the building that was once a barn. It’s beautiful!

The grounds are lovely too! (And I expect breakfast tomorrow morning will be good too – no pictures of that).

Dinner was at the outdoor-seating-only Kitchen in the Desert – a Caribbean themed restaurant in the desert. Exotic cocktails. Local beers. Great appetizers. Jerk Chicken Skewers and Lamp Pops. Key Lime Pie and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. OMG. Great finish.

Our last full day in Trinidad. And maybe the last post of the trip. We will spend tomorrow night in Merced, CA and Monday night in Twentynine Palms, CA. We’ll be home on Tuesday. If we see something exciting, we’ll post. If not (more likely), we won’t. Next trip is Elaine’s girl trip to Portugal for a river cruise. She doesn’t blog, so I’ll post about her trip when she returns with some of her photos. Then it will be Christmas in Dingle.

Saturday broke cloudy. Alarmingly, we got Google warnings on each of our cell phones about a 4.6 magnitude earthquake 45 miles away at about 8:26 am. We felt nothing, and there was nothing on the local news on tv about it.

We went back again to the Sea Scape Restaurant for breakfast. It was very busy, but we had a great breakfast. As we sat there, the skies began to clear. Skillet for Elaine. Hangtown Fry (oysters) for me with a side of bacon.

Trinidad Pier is right outside the door to the Sea Scape, so we walked the pier. The fishermen are fishing for rock fish and small sea bass. They weren’t getting any bites while we were there.

On the small nearby beach, there was an painting class going on. No oil spills or rough tides today. That’s on the cove side behind Trinidad Head.

Just a short walk away is Trinidad State Beach on the open ocean side of the head.. Much rougher surf. We had a nice walk. That’s not me fishing (although I am in one pic).

The afternoon was at home during another perfect weather day. Overall the weather on the trip was grand! One rainy day and one storm day. Otherwise, pretty darn good. We had cocktails on the deck under sunny skies and dinner at home (leftovers). We’re packed up and will be off at about 7:30 am for Merced. Some final pics from the deck. I shared my vodka tonic with the seal.

Thanks to everybody for viewing the blog and for the comments. All are appreciated.

Bye for now.

Well, almost nothing. It was cloudy all day and rained as predicted. We went into Arcata and had lunch again at the Kebob Cafe. It was excellent. And then we visited the Moonstone Crossing Winery right in tiny Trinidad (population less than 400 people). At dinner last night at the Laruppin Cafe, we enjoyed a bottle of 2016 Moonstone Crossing Pinot Noir and we loved it. The winery has three versions of pinot noir, so we bought two bottles of each to take home.

Other than that, it was stay at home, watch tv, run a wash, and take naps. The camera never moved. Perhaps tomorrow, our last full day in Trinidad, will be more exciting.

Clear and sunny when we got up. Rain coming tonight, so we’ll make the most of today.

I thought my hiking days were over. Walking, OK. But hiking? Well, remember Trinidad Head, that big land mass across the water from our Sea Cliff House? It’s pictured just below. There’s a hiking trail on it and in a weak moment I agreed that we’d do it. So we did it. Here are way too many pictures from the hike on Trinidad Head (split into part one and part two).

Here’s a bonus panorama picture from the hike showing Trinidad from up on the head (click to enlarge).

After the hike we stopped for breakfast/lunch at the Sea Scape located right there where we parked for the hike. Elaine had breakfast (eggs over with sausage and hash browns. I opted for lunch. A nice stout beer with chowder and an open-face crab salad sandwich. Yum. I got a piece of blackberry pie to go because it was so good last time we ate here. I’ll eat that tomorrow.

Then it was home to rest. Just below Sea Cliff House is Indian Beach. Well, it was Indian Beach until someone decided that was politically incorrect, so it was renamed. But everyone calls it Indian Beach and I can’t find the new name anywhere. It’s a steep climb done from our house (and seemingly steeper back up). what possessed me? Here are pictures from the beach including quite a few of birds and a couple of a surfer on a motorized surf board. Who knew they existed. The beach is sort of in a cove so the seas are not as wild as you saw in previous pictures. In one picture you can see our house if you have sharp eyes. It’s almost invisibly camouflaged from below.

Dinner tonight at Laruppin Cafe, an eclectic fine dining establishment in Trinidad. Great local wine. House appetizer platter. Six Humboldt Bay oysters for me. Delicious lamb chops for me. Locally caught red snapper for Elaine. For dessert, I had crème brûlée, Elaine had lemon tart. Yummmm!

First off, one picture from yesterday that I forgot to post and then promised videos from yesterday of the mighty Pacific from a few different stops along the way.

Wednesday dawned cloudy after rain during the night. But we decided to trust the forecast for clearing and head 30 miles north to view the Redwoods. Good decision! If you don’t like tree pictures, fast forward. No four leaf clovers. Elaine looked for one. The Redwoods are magnificent.

Heading home, we saw some elk by the road. Just females and youngsters. No bucks. Still, we stopped.

On 101 between Trinidad and the Redwoods (35-ish miles) there is one place to stop for food. We stopped at the Snack Shack in Orrick. Well! It was sooo good. Elaine had a hamburger with tots. I had a double elk burger with onion rings. And we chatted up an old resident who told some good stories. And we met a friend of his, a Yurok native American. It was fun. Before lunch there was a brief stop at a beach.

Then it was home for reading, naps, rest, and relaxation. Then cocktails on the deck. Dinner was home cooked – Italian sausage on the grill with peppers and onions. Yum. The views from the deck were, as usual, magnificent including a gorgeous sunset. See the seals on the rock in one picture? Look closely.

Quite a day. And tomorrow looms. Big dining night out tomorrow.

Tuesday was supposed to be more storm, but after the sunset last night, we were hopeful. Hope won! Tuesday was beautiful from start to finish. Some fog, but enhancing fog. I’ll let pictures tell the story today. All these pictures today are taken within three miles of Sea Cliff, our house. Wonderful day. LOTS of photos including panoramas and videos.

Luffenholtz Overlook

Beautiful area. Met some nice girls who took our picture.

Houda Point

Moonstone Beach

Lunch was at Trinidad Beach at the Seascape Restaurant. Great beer. Great food. Stunningly great blackberry pie a la mode. Great views.

Trinidad Beach and Pier

A couple of panoramas – click to enlarge – check tomorrow for surf videos

Quite a nice day. See you tomorrow!!

Well . . . . .

Sunday night after dinner at home we watched some football and went to bed. There was no rain and light wind. As we slept the storm arrived, mostly in the form of wind. At 2:20 am the power went off. We might not have noticed, but it caused the security system in the house to start beeping madly. (Elaine heard it – I kept on sleeping until she woke me.) I finally managed to get it to shut off, and we went back to sleep. The power came back on at 4:30 am. I left a light turned on and it woke me when it came on. Kudos to RCEA (Redwood Coast Energy Authority). When we got up at about 7:30, the heavy rains started. It continued all day. Supposedly the rain will continue into tomorrow and then we will see some sun on Wednesday onward. In any case, for Monday we are hunkered down.

Since sightseeing is out of the question in this weather, we decided to drive into Eureka to the closest Costco (20 miles). So much for hunkered down. Alas, in messing with the security system to shut off the beeping earlier, I somehow armed it. When we went out the front door, the alarm sounded – very loudly! And I don’t have the alarm code. Visions of police and fire arriving with sirens blaring passed through my mind. A quick call to the property manager got me the alarm code and instructions how to unarm the system. Fun, fun, fun. Problem solved.

Since we going out anyway, we decided to try the little Kebab Cafe in Arcata, midway between Trinidad and Eureka. The owner, raised in London after his family emigrated there from Cyprus, came to the US with his English wife in 1997. They opened Kebab Cafe, unpresuming and small and located in a strip mall, in 1977. The food is delicious. I had a delicious gyro pita sandwich and Elaine had a favorite of hers, the falafel sandwich. It was so good, in fact, we may go back for another lunch this week.

The horrible weather continued until, magically, we saw patches of blue sky and signs of a sun as darkness approached.

After indoor cocktails in front of a fire in the fireplace, dinner, courtesy of Chef Elaine, was pulled pork with barbeque sauce and veggies and Costco French bread (and, needless to say, a nice wine).

The weather for last night and today was perhaps the worst we have ever had on vacation, but it was a bit of an adventure. Tomorrow is another day.

I said no post, but surprise! It was raining when we awoke and when he headed south to Trinidad. We stopped for America’s breakfast at McDonald’s – sausage egg mcmuffin and hash brown. Yum. It rained for a good part of the 6.5 hour drive, but mostly light rain. When it wasn’t raining we stopped for a couple of pictures of the OR/CA coast.

We got to Trinidad about ½ hour before we could check in, so we went to Murphy’s Market in town to pick up dinner – enchiladas and salad – and some ice in case there was none in the house (for cocktails). We already had wine and vodka (naturally). Then we checked in and unloaded. Here are some pictures, all taken from inside the house. It’s cloudy and chilly – no cocktails on the beautiful deck – but no rain. See you tomorrow (which is expected to be very rainy).

Pics from last night at the Thai restaurant. That’s the view from our table. That’s Thai beer I’m drinking.:

It was cloudy and rainy off and on all day. We had to pack everything up as we’re off for a week in Trinidad, CA tomorrow morning. We did go into Newport for a final lunch at Local Oceans. Again, that’s the view from our table.

It was dreary and cold back at the condo. The view from the balcony is very different when the sun isn’t out.

Oddly enough, it cleared way off in the distance for a final sunset as we sipped cocktails on a chilly balcony.

The blog will probably take a day off tomorrow as we will be on the road most of the day. Or maybe not. In any case, I’ll be back on Monday from Trinidad. Forecast is rainy for Monday but decent the rest of the week. We’ll see.

The weather continues to be fantastic. Clear this morning, no fog. Sunny and cloudless all day. The Pacific mellowed dramatically and looked more like a mirror than an ocean. We did our separate walks as usual. I took a photography day off, so no pictures. We did a lot of reading and had lunch at home.

Cocktails were on the balcony as normal.

Our last dinner out in Depoe Bay was at Bay View Thai Kitchen. It’s very good Thai food from a nice young family from Thailand.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be our last full day in Depoe Bay. If the forecasters are correct, the weather is going to turn wet during Saturday and stay wet for awhile. We leave Sunday morning for the 6½ hour drive to Trinidad, California.

The weather for our two weeks here was remarkably good as compared to last year when our last week in Depoe Bay was cloudy, rainy, and foggy. We went eight days with no sign of the sun.

No pictures today. Boo!