Another misty morning, around 14°C. As usual it was a slow start to the morning, mainly because there was no need to rush! Gotta love the pressures of retirement.
We found out from the office staff that there is a path through the fields and woods down to the beach, so we headed off in search of it.
Very close to the campground on, the way to the beach, is memorial called “The Children’s Bell Tower”. It was erected in memory of a seven year old Bodega Bay boy, Nicholas Green, who was killed by a highway robber while on vacation in Italy in 1997. His parents agreed to donate his organs to seven Italian recipients.
From the memorial hang 140 bells, almost all of them sent by Italians; school bells, church bells, ships’ bells, mining bells, cow bells etc. The centerpiece is a thirty inch high bell, from the Marinelli foundry in Italy, which has been making bells for the papacy for a thousand years. Nicholas’ name and the names of the seven recipients are on it, and Pope John Paul II went to the foundry to bless it.
After the memorial we headed across a couple of fields before following a road in search of the beach. We finally found it hidden behind some high sand dunes. These dunes make an excellent wind break as it was quite blowy in the beach area, but very calm back at the campground. As this is California, there were the mandatory surfers on the beach.
We headed back cross country rather than follow the road, who needs roads when you have a GPS and a geo-cache to aim for. We walked through some redwood groves, the trees here were massive, and obviously very old. We successfully found the cache hidden inside a redwood.
We made it back to the campground after a 2½ mile walk and ready for lunch.
Mid afternoon we drove out to Bodega Head, a few miles down the road. From here you can view pods of migrating whales. From the information that Lyn read, the migration continues through to April, but the information at the headland said the migration ends at the end of January. No whales today, but a few views from the headland.
Flowers Grow Anywhere
Back at the trailer I started to sort out what of my “toy collection” stays here, and what goes home. I have also sorted out the route home and booked the hotels, we stop in Nevada, Wyoming, Iowa and Michigan.
Just had a strange thing happen here. Turned on the TV and no satellite reception. It was raining lightly, but not enough to kill the signal. After a little thinking, I realised that we had put the trailer awning out earlier in the day. It wasn’t the awning per se that was causing the problem, but the 18 ft. metal housing at the end of the awning was perfectly aligned with the path to the satellite. Brought in the awning, picture returned.