My Trip to California, Post 2: Heading to Fort Bragg

When I arrived at the San Francisco airport, Laura picked me up and we drove north toward Fort Bragg, which is on the northern California coast. The route took us through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The freeway going north up the peninsula doesn’t continue straight across the Golden Gate, instead, it turns east and crosses the Bay Bridge to Oakland. To keep going north you have to get off the freeway and take surface streets through an older section of San Francisco to get to the Golden Gate Bridge.

On top of that, the main route was backed up, so we made a slight detour. The next few pictures are taken on a street one block off of, and paralleling, the slightly larger surface street route towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Of course these photos, taken out the window of a moving car, do not do San Francisco justice. But you get the idea.

I enjoyed looking at the old houses while Laura navigated the traffic.

Here we are, driving on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge – shrouded in the iconic San Francisco fog.

The day then turned sunny as we headed north on Hwy 101.

The curvy mountain road from Willits to the ocean proved rainy, just as John had predicted. It was the final gauntlet between me and the beach – we were nearly there.

Finally we arrived in Fort Bragg. Our airbnb was a large loft above an old warehouse that had been converted to shops.

The loft was truly a set of pros and cons. On the plus side, it was one block from shops and restaurants. It had an expansive view of the ocean in the distance. And it had a full kitchen plus two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and one of the bathrooms had a sauna! What’s not to love?

For starters, I had a migraine coming on and I was unhappy with the distinctive smell of an old building in a damp climate. Also the white carpet was spotted and stained everywhere, in all the rooms.

I sent a polite text to the owner suggesting he clean it as soon as he had time between his guests, but he basically said it was a wool rug and there was nothing he could do about it. So I will mention it in my review. I thought it was a real downer. But Laura didn’t mind too much. She was just like, “Sauna!!!”

So yes, it had a sauna in one of the bathrooms.

We did use the sauna, although I think I would have appreciated it much more in the winter. Still, between the sauna and the unexpectedly warm temperatures, and the fact that we were in an upstairs, sunny loft, I was comfortable the entire time. Which is saying a lot! Usually when I go to the beach, I’m freezing the whole time. This time I didn’t even use the coat and warm hat that I brought all the way from Tucson.

The expansive ocean view from our loft included, in the foreground, warehouse roofs, dumpsters, parking lots, abandoned railroad tracks, abandoned rail cars, chain link fence, etc.

I will spare you the photos of the dumpster area just below our windows. Garbage was scattered around, attracting crows and who knows what else.

Here is looking east out the living room, over the warehouse roof.

Immediately out our north window was the depot for the Skunk Train.

The tourist train was fun to watch, but got a bit loud after awhile.

(I win the award for most boring videos – we know this already.)

We were hungry after the trip, and it was great to be able to walk two blocks to an excellent restaurant, Mayan Fusion. I loved that it was warm enough outside to eat out on the patio under the tent. Yay, vacation with Laura!

Of course we ordered fish. Mmmmm.

The food was as good as it looks.

Here is a picture of the outside of our Airbnb that I took the next day. When we first arrived, we had trouble finding it. Our door was hidden under this little awning:

We walked all around the building but couldn’t find anything that looked like the entrance to our Airbnb. Here it is, an unmarked door between two other doors:

The loft had its downsides but it turned out to be a fun place to stay. Up next – all our beachy adventures!

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Life Coaching for Neurodiverse Professionals