Point Arena

Hello all, we are back from our short trip, tired but happy. Friday went in lots of packing and we started at around 10 on Saturday morning through our favorite scenic US 1 Hwy, stopped at few locations to click some pictures and reached the beautiful room at the lighthouse by 2. We had booked the Keeper’s room right beside the lighthouse overlooking the awesome views and with full amenities (we specially loved the old style wood heater), this was the best part of the trip.

We relaxed for few hours and drove to the nearby Elk village, were back on time to catch the sunset views. It got chilly and we could not go out for a walk and just spent blissful time sitting by the huge window listening to the roaring waves having hot maggi. I dreamed that we missed the sunrise and woke up many times to confirm 😛 and it would be still dark outside, I could not sleep past 6 and dragged a chair to the window to see the stars on the clear sky. Finally, the sun rose at only 7.15 and Ims set out with the camera and came back freezing.

Then we checked out at 11, climbed the lighthouse for a short guided tour and tried spotting whales, but I wasn’t satisfied with such far views, must go on a boat tour next time. Then we visited the museum which housed an old huge first class Fresnel lens, grabbed some souvenirs and bid goodbye. We next went to the Point Arena pier which was another calm place, nothing great but we spotted many birds here.

Our must see was the unusual Bowling ball beach, there are 2 hike routes to this place. We started on the first, which was muddy and reached a small beach area with no one around, we had to cross one side of the rocks to reach another beach, it was scary and I dragged Ims back. Then we did some research and set on the second route which had a broken wooden ladder to climb down to get to the beach but we had some company at least. After another short walk, we reached the Bowling ball beach area which is to the end of this beach. Phew ! This is inaccessible during high tides, we were lucky to be there on a good time. We spent lot of time here clicking pictures, collecting shells and chilling out.

The trip could not be complete without me feeling uneasy and a fight. Now, I’m convinced that I have this mountain sickness, because my head was spinning when we reached an elevation but subsided soon. Then the fight, we had actually booked a safari at the Bryan Preserve for 3.30 on Sunday.

Jazz: We can miss it as we would get late.
Ims: Hmm, 75% I want to miss it and 25% I want to go.
Jazz(sarcastic): That seems a tough choice.
Ims: Basically I want to go so that you don’t feel that we did nothing on this trip.
Jazz(still sarcastic): Right, because I told you so, did I ?!
Ims(confused): What ??!!!
Jazz(angry): Did I tell you that I wanted to roam, did you not tell me that this is supposed to be a relaxing vacation earlier, I came with the same intention, why would I complain later ?
Ims(guilty): Ok

After sometime

Ims: Why aren’t you talking to me ?
Jazz: Because we just had a fight.
Ims: When ?? I thought we were having a discussion.
Jazz(confused and guilty): 😀 Peace !

And we cancelled the safari. We started the journey back home at 4 and reached early by 6.30, went to a nearby Pakistani restaurant and had yummy lamb biryani, Ims had garlic naan and the lamb shank for the first time, it was delicious.

Lighthouse in the evening

Lighthouse in the night

Early morning

We stayed here

Gazebo

View from a vista point at Elk

The Bowling ball beach, like it ?

View from the top of the lighthouse

I also recorded a video early morning to capture the lovely sounds around.