Day 21: Tiptoe Through the Dahlias

I woke up this morning to the soft sound of my phone ringing. It was across the room, so I ignored it. But since I was expecting to hear from my cousin, Chelene, I figured I better get up and check for the message. No message, so I called her back. She and her son, Sebastian, were on their way from Pope Valley (near Lake Berryessa) to Willets, a drive of about 1-1/2 hours or so. 

We were almost ready to go when they arrived, around 9:45-ish. We sat at the campsite and talked for a while (which was quite a hassle, you have to pay for EVERYthing in this KOA, including visitors). We decided to pile into Chelene's truck so we could catch up, then went to breakfast at the Lumberjack restaurant. We stopped and picked up some ice for our little travel cooler, then off to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens we went. 

The drive from Willits to Fort Bragg to the botanical gardens was beautiful and slow. While the coast is only about 30 miles from where we are staying, the drive took almost an hour. It would have been a challenging ride on the motorcycles. 

The day was perfect. Little wind and no fog on the coast, quite a change from the chilly days we spent riding down from Port Orchard, WA. 

When we got to the gardens, we wandered the 47-acre site out to the cliff house and back. We probably walked a mile and a half this afternoon. It felt good to get out and take a nature hike. 

We walked out to the beach, catching up and smelling the various flowers. 

When we finally got through the gardens, we treated ourselves to an ice cream before the drive back to the KOA. We chatted a little more before Chelene and Sebastian had to head home. It was a good visit. I'm glad we were able to spend the time with family that I haven't seen in a very long time. 


Mileage today: 0.0
Jae's trip total: 3336.3
Donna's trip total: 3328.7