A Beautiful Day in Bodega Bay

It’s another spectacular day in Bodega Bay! The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the water is sparkling. There’s a slight breeze and families are flying kites down on the beach.


Flowers are starting to bloom so I took a few shots on my walk today. Yesterday was the first day of spring. We’re not in full-blown wildflower season yet, but it’s coming. (If you click on the photos, they will enlarge.)



While shooting this field of wildflowers, a bobcat jumped out and darted away. Rather than running in a straight line, he darted back and forth, looked back at me, and zigzaged a few more times until he disappeared in the meadow. I often see bobcats this time of day so I was on the look-out but nevertheless I think we startled each other. The local bobcats usually ignore people and can be aloof, but this guy didn’t feel like sticking around for a photo op today.

Looking toward Tomales Point, Tomales Bay, and Dillon Beach.


Check out this tiny red hummingbird!

A neighbor and I were marveling about the amazing weather and how it’s one of Bodega Bay’s best-kept secrets. She and her husband attended the Barrel Tasting events here in Sonoma County recently and someone commented to her, “Oh too bad it’s so foggy in Bodega Bay.” We both laughed because we used to think so too, before we moved here. The truth is, it isn’t foggy nearly as often as people seem to think, and when it is, it comes and goes. The weather here is dynamic, changing frequently throughout the day. Sun, fog, wind, rain, it’s all part of the wonderful, vibrant life at the coast.

Wave Therapy at the Coast

We’re finally getting some rain this week and it’s wonderful! In addition to the obvious benefits, out here on the coast it also brings wind and big waves. The sun came out for a while this afternoon so my daughter and I decided to drive up the coast for some “wave therapy.”

There is something calm and soothing yet powerful and energizing about watching huge waves crash against those rugged rocks. Or watching rows of surf roll, curl and break onto the beach. It’s mesmerizing, meditative. Some say it’s the negative ions produced by the crashing waves that make you feel so good. Whatever it is, it works!


I found out it’s hard to take good photos of waves, and I now have a much greater appreciation for photographers who catch wave spray in mid-air. It’s difficult to time, plus my little camera doesn’t shoot immediately when I push the button. There’s always a few-second delay. What’s with that?


There are many beaches along the Sonoma Coast. In Bodega Bay, there’s Doran Park and because it’s on the bay, the waves are much calmer. If you’re looking for action, it’s better to head up the coast a bit to the ocean beaches. We drove north on Hwy. 1 and stopped at Salmon Creek, Arched Rock, and Schoolhouse Beach. My favorite is Portuguese Beach but we didn’t venture that far today. My parents used to take us on family outings to Portuguese when we were kids and we have photos that go way back. We’ve all changed with time but the beach hasn’t.



Many thanks to my friend Shona Weir at Business Services Unlimited for this map. One day when I was dropping off some UPS packages at her shop, I mentioned I wished I could find a map of all the Sonoma Coast beaches. She smiled and said “Here you go!” Ask and you shall receive, thank you Shona! If you click on the image, it should expand so you can read the names of the beaches.



On our way back from the big waves, restored, refreshed, renewed, we saw some deer with beautiful coloring. We have a lot of mule deer around here and they’re usually a sort of grayish buff color. But this afternoon, we saw two that were a beautiful warm, reddish brown color instead. The photo isn’t that great, I couldn’t get very close. We pulled over to the side of the road and observed them across a ravine for quite a while. At first they were grazing in the shrubs on the hillside, then settled down to rest in the wet grass. Another beautiful encounter with nature.

Landing in Bodega Bay

I feel like we sort of crash-landed in Bodega Bay last spring and we’re still in a stage of recovery. We have a beautiful lot here and had been planning to build a house for nearly two years. Our youngest daughter was graduating from high school in June 2008 and it seemed the perfect time to fulfill a life-long dream of moving to the coast. We were consumed with the process of working with architects, engineers, contractors, the county, mortgage brokers, realtors, and financial consultants, painstakingly planning every single detail of the new house. Our new family home was coming to life, we walked through it daily in our minds, visualizing our new routines, imagining where we’d place all of our family’s cherished furnishings and personal belongings.

Everything was going smoothly. We got our building permits and were almost ready to break ground. We sold our family home in Petaluma and secured a temporary rental in Bodega Bay in which to live during construction, when suddenly it all began to fall apart. A series of red flags began popping up in alarming succession. The subprime mortgage mess was looking bigger than experts had initially predicted, real state values started dropping rather than stabilizing as expected, construction loans started going up, building costs weren’t coming in at the prices promised, and so on. We suddenly realized we had to pull the plug and reevaluate everything.

So here we are and not sure what our next step will be. The place where we're living is lovely, it’s really perfect for our family and work. But I’m still adjusting to the fact that it’s not at all where we thought we’d be right now. We’re grateful we got out when we did, thankful we didn’t lose our home as so many others did last year. So for now we'll just sit tight, make peace with the situation, and see where this leads.