Col and I spent a weekend on the coast recently. This was our first experience with a formal B&B and didn't quite know what to expect, but we gave it a try on the recommendation from some friends. We stayed 2 nights in the historic lighthouse keepers' house (on the right in the photo above). I must say, I was seriously impressed :) the house was in great shape for being well over 100 years old, and had a ton of neat historical stuff from back in the day.
The breakfast was an amazing 7 courses, with crab cakes, awesome local fare, berries, home baked bread; basically just awesome. Each plate was pretty small, but after 7 of them you area really full.
What to do the rest of the day? There was a good trail network there (its national forest for several miles in either direction) which allowed us to go for a nice little 6-ish mile hike through the Spruce forest and down to the beach Saturday. The woods there are really interesting and varied due to the steep terrain and extreme winds. The headlands have some severely stunted and windblown spruce, and 50 ft away there might be old growth 6 ft across in a sheltered gully. I also decided that I want some coastal evergreen huckleberry for my yard. It has a really neat look when it gets big.
The place is just a mile or so from Sea Lion Caves, but after finding out it is 12$ to see the little buggers, we passed. Instead we decided to bring kayaks next time so we can paddle over to the mouth of the cave. Much better that way.
We attended the tour of the lighthouse, and I must say, lighthouses are really neat. Finding out how they were used, and what went into maintaining them is really impressive. Factoid: every lighthouse has its own visual signal, a combo of flashes per minute and color of flashes told mariners where they were along the coastline. The handiwork that went into creation of the glass prisms used to focus the light also blew my mind!
We wrapped up the evening with a sunset and champagne on the lawn next to the lighthouse. I really recommend this to any of you who are looking for a mellow weekend away from home.
We attended the tour of the lighthouse, and I must say, lighthouses are really neat. Finding out how they were used, and what went into maintaining them is really impressive. Factoid: every lighthouse has its own visual signal, a combo of flashes per minute and color of flashes told mariners where they were along the coastline. The handiwork that went into creation of the glass prisms used to focus the light also blew my mind!
