| my happiest of all happy places |

For Christmas, Ken gifted me a trip to Mendocino. We returned yesterday and I am experiencing the blues, big time. Like blues as blue as the blue ocean.

Whereas I gifted Ken a "canvas-covered, heated tent" in Yosemite (trip details to be published in late-March post-trip), Ken found an artist's studio inside a renovated barn on the central coast of California where we could spend 3 days celebrating my birthday.

When we weren't hiking or filling our stomach's with oysters and fancy, locally-brewed beer, we were drinking coffee in the suite,  reading in bed, playing Scrabble, drinking wine and listening to jazz, and watching the rain through the cabin's skylights.

(VRBO)

(VRBO)

While on our trip, I finished reading Anthony Doerr's, "All the Light We Cannot See." I came across the following quote that made my heart do a quick somersault and perfectly translates my emotions about about our escape to the coast.

“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.”

I want so badly to return. When I was walking on Main Street, in an out of shops, cafes, and pub all with an unreal, Pacific Ocean backdrop, I couldn't help but wonder how I hadn't already discovered this town I am convinced resembles heaven. The entire downtown is surrounded by Mendocino Headlands State Park and all of its rugged coastline and quiet beaches. 

I couldn't be more thankful for this mini vacation, away from the hustle and so close to the sea. 

| i'm actually a mermaid |

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." -- Isak Dinesen

Spending four days at the beach makes a high-rise office setting a bit difficult to return to. There are few things that beat lounging ocean-side in a hot tub. And, I did just that. All. Weekend. Long. 

Quick background: since there are so many kids, significant others, babies, etc. in the family, my parents gift us all a weekend get-away to a quaint coastal region of California for Christmas each year. Last year we explored (and fell in love with) Inverness. This year we made an adventure out of Stinson Beach. It really is the most wonderful present. Hopefully, one day, I'll cary on this same tradition with my family. 

I am the happiest at, in, and near the ocean. I even went thigh-high into the water, wearing a bikini, just so I could feel the Pacific in February. 

I'll let my photos do the rest of the talking now. You'll find pictures of the beach, of the house we stayed in, the dining table we feasted at, the famous fog, Mama Bear, the small and sweet town of Stinson, little boy Henry, a big brother, and dad + dog. 

XO,