Weekend on the Mendocino Coast

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Mendocino is the perfect location for a weekend getaway from San Francisco. It's just a four hour scenic drive through wine country to get there.  We stayed in a rented house right on the headland of the Pacific Ocean and could see the small town of Menocino from across the tiny bay (see the photos).  Went into town (10 minute drive or so) to get groceries and see the little stores and art galleries there--- there's quite a lot of local artists' galleries there worth checking out.

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We also spent a day exploring nearby Fort Bragg, with its quaint little main street and small-town atmosphere. I really enjoyed visiting Fort Bragg's "Glass Beach," a beach with great little tidepools and rocks to explore, along with an amazing example of nature reclaiming the damage from callous human behavior: little glass pebbles cover the beach in an array of colors-- these used to be shards of glass from broken bottles, cars, etc, because this area was the town dump! Sick, eh, to have a dump on a beautiful beach? Anyway, it's a place worth visiting.  The beautiful pebbles unfortunately are diminishing because so many people take them as souvenirs, so it's good to leave them there.

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Here's a Fort Bragg site that explains more about Glass Beach and other area attractions:  http://www.fortbragg.com/glass_beach/index.html