WE thank you all who contributed at Albion to the Whale Watch Inn

We finally used the gift certificate that was presented to us at Albion last year by John/ Bird. Thank you thank you thank you! We left Petaluma at 10 am and headed north to the Whale Watch Inn in Anchor Bay. We took our time going up and took the ridge road up to Kruse Rhododendren Rd and drove down to hiway 1 that way. We love that road and it goes through am little hamlet called Plantation. Beautiful. We than parked and went to the overlook trail above Horseshoe Cove where I had spent so many years diving and fishing. The wind was howling and huge whitecaps were raging out there. It must have been blowing over 30. I miss that place terribly.

On to Gulauala and Anchor Bay! We checked in and were treated right away to great hospitality. A tour of the grounds and hot tea or coffee on all the time in the lobby. What a beautiful room it was. A huge indoor whirlpool tub, fireplace, big comfy bed(hehe) and views of the water that were spectacular. At 5 pm they hosted a wine and cheese tasting and we met some other folks from all over nor cal. There was an almost full moon out as we drove south into Gulalala for dinner. Not really much in the way of fine cuisiune in Gulalala but it was decent at the Shoreline restaurant. We went back to the Inn and chilled and read sipped hot tea while the wind and surf were making us feel pretty darn cozy. At first light I woke up and opened the sliding door to hear the ocean and put my bare feet right by the heater and read my book. Awesome. At 8am breakfast was brought to the room in the form of two beautiful frittas, fresh fruit, homemade cranberry muffins, coffee and juice. Heaven!

We left at 11am and went north to the Pt Arena lighthouse. We paid the 7.50 each for the tour and the climb to the top of the lighthouse. If youve never done this, its well worth it. Standing in the top glass room after 145 steps was pretty neat. All around galls view of the points north and south and beyond. The ocean was smoking rough huge swells crashing and spindrift blowing off the crests. The original lens is in the museum and its really quite amazing in itself. It also has the original staircase that was put in the 1870 lighthouse. The original was destroyed in the 1906 quake. The light keeper at that time was in the lens room at the top when the quake struck and we were briefed of his recount of it. What held it together was the steel staircase. Then the old staricase was used in the constrution of the new light you see today in 1907. The whole lighthouse was restored in the 80's and repainted at a cost of 450K just for the painting part!

After that we wound our way south on hiway 1 stopping to get sandwiches at the Gualala grocery store(big and thick) and we ate at the county park overlooking the Gualala River to the north..

Thanks again to all of you who had a part in the gift certificate for us at Albion. We really love that event and feel that when we are there we are all one big family on a camping trip. I love my life, my wife and all our freinds. Peace to all and FISH ON!

The lighthouse.

The old lens.

Very cool Craig!  Living the good life.  You two deserve it.

You are more than welcome Craig. Thanks for all you do for this tournament.

One more pic. the last one of the trip. on the sly it was. i call it the snatch tree. hehehe

Wow... so cool!!!! Thank you Craig for all your hard work and long hours organizing the Albion Events!!!!

Looks like a great get-a-way for the both of you!!!!

Great write-up. Not sure if I'll show my wife, she will ant to go Fo Sho!!! great pics to go along with it, of course i LIKE the last pic!!!!