You would have thought I would have written more as this has been an eventful trip (all good.) Let's recap. Drove to San Jose on Sunday, had dinner with Melanie, after which I got to go to a dive bar with my daughter. Wait is that a good thing? On Monday took the BART to the Embarcadero and hung out with Mel in "The City" waiting to get on the boat to Alcatraz at 3:55PM. The Alcatraz trip was great. I wish I had not made it so late in the day. I was hoping for the magic hour to cast a warm glow on my sure to be spectacular photographs, but we got squeezed for time.
Tuesday I headed for Santa Rosa. Stayed at an Airbnb, and as usual it ended up being great. It was a beautiful little garden home in a quiet neighborhood and the hostess was fantastic, very friendly and helpful and fun to talk to. Found some great stuff to shoot around the railroad station (of course) and enjoyed hanging out in the little downtown area. Julie's house had a garden in the back yard and I spent a fair amount for time there relaxing, drawing and watching the big tree sway in the wind.
Thursday, before heading to my next destination of Fort Bragg, I took a side trip to Sonoma. Whoever said "it's the journey, not the destination" was driving along highway 12 towards Sonoma. The drive through the vineyards in the morning was breathtaking, the beautiful hills, the cute vineyards and rows and rows of sun drenched vines. The town of Sonoma however didn't appear to have much going for it. I'm not sure why I was expecting a cute little glitzy town, but it twernt there.
The drive to Fort Bragg was challenging, about 50 miles of a two lane winding, twisting highway. But it was beautiful with some parts going through deep dark shadow filled tunnels of glorious redwoods. When I got to this small seaside town I was starving, so I found a cute little Japanese place and got lunch. Lucky for me I took my camera. I walked around the town and headed for the railroad tracks. I heard a train whistle and was surprised to find an ole fashion locomotive huffing and puffing at the train station. And best of all, next to it are parked some old, rusted, beautiful railroad cars from the days of yesteryear. I snapped away and can't wait to see how these will look once I HDR them. It was one of those days where things just fall into place without an kind of planning. I wanted to get to the coast and see the ocean, and without even knowing where I was going I ended up finding a place to park and a walk way down to an incredible stretch of the coast line. The wind was whipping up the waves and it was just flat out gorgeous.
The plan was to capture this beach at sunset, which for some strange reason I keep thinking is a lot earlier than 8:30. So after resting up for a while at the Motel 6, I headed back to the beach at 7PM. And I waited and waited and waited as the sun just seemed to just hang in the sky forever. The wind was freezing and strong and almost knocked me and my tripod over on numerous occasions. I gave myself a good talking too and reminded myself that an artist must suffer for their art. So I hung in there, snapping away at every possible angle and f-stop setting I could think of, until I thought the best of the light had gone. With teeth chattering and nose running I ran back to the car and headed off to McDonalds to pick up dinner. Sitting in the drive through, facing the ocean, I couldn't help but notice the SPECTACULAR sky lit up in enormous swaths of orange and purple and magenta. AHHHHH! "Nice sunset" says the woman at the drive through window, to which I reply "Uh-huh".
I'm not sure what it is about this town, but I feel very comfortable here. There's nothing pretentious or artificial about it, it's genuine. I feel lucky here. Today, after the Starbucks thing, I drove north and found some great spots to take pictures. I sat on a black sand beach and did some charcoal drawings and ended up at the Mackerricher state park. Tonight I will go back to the beach at sunset, but this time I will show up, bundled up, at around 8:15. If the trip so far is any indication, it will be spectacular.
