is Mendocino a real place?

Three hours north of San Francisco is a town that I've visited twice now, but am still not convinced that it actually exists. Jutting out from redwood forests into the rugged Northern California coast is a town filled with quaint victorian houses and storefronts from the 1850's. As legend has it, the first white settlers discovered it after their shipwreck stranded them in this beautiful spot full of huge trees that were ripe for logging. Migration followed from Maine, Norway, Denmark and other areas with strong logging industries and they helped support the infrastructure for the gold rush. This combination of coastal beauty, dense redwood forests, and wooden structures from the 1800's combine to create something that feels to me like a fairytale. Especially when you arrive there on the same day of leaving the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles. To me, it's basically Brigadoon.

After the logging industry dried up, Mendocino fell on hard times economically (I imagine it still remained beautiful). Then in the 1950's the Mendocino Art center was built and attracted a different sort of crowd who wanted to preserve the town's natural beauty and historical significance of it's architecture.

In 1971 residents established Mendocino as a historic district which protected all of the facades of the town's buildings to keep them looking the way they did in the 1850's. As at least 90 percent of this blog's readers know, I grew up in Carversville, PA which is also designated as a historic district with similar rules about keeping the buildings in town looking the way they looked in the mid-1800's. I think that combined with the New England feel of the town is part of the reason I feel so comfortable there.

So after a solo trip a few years ago, I've been wanting to return with Lynn and after a couple delays, we finally made it this week. Here are just some of the things I love about it:

The Corners of the Mouth food collective that has been in operation for 50 years.

Goodlife Cafe & Bakery

the quiche and carrot ginger soup lunch combo at Goodlife cafe, and it being chilly enough for me to enjoy a hot soup

The Fern Canyon trail, just south of Mendocino. I passed ONE other person on this beautiful hike.

I also downloaded AllTrails pro for the first time since I knew the area would have no cellphone coverage and wanted to be able to download the trail map ahead of time. One thing it didn't tell me was that I had to ford a small stream, it felt very Carversville, PA. I took off my shoes and socks and walked through the cold water, like a real nature boy!

When it's not cloudy, the Mendocino Sunsets are pretty nice.

Lynn and I also like watching movies and TV that were filmed in the place we're visiting. Chat GPT wasn't too helpful on the Mendocino filming locations, but this book I saw at the increcible Gallery Bookshop was quite helpful on the topic.

We really enjoyed watching a Murder, She Wrote where Mendocino plays the Maine town of Cabot Cove.

Just south of Mendocino is the Heritage House Resort, filming location of the Alan Alda / Ellen Burstyn movie from 1978. We're in a big Alan Alda phase right now after watching his movie Four Seasons 1981. If there's one thing I've learned from watching a bunch of Alan Alda movies it's that he really loved having affairs

The website even advertises the room where they acted out their affair! Speaking of affairs, I'm currently enjoying The Ten Year Affair, by Erin Somers. I bet they'll make it into a movie or show, but it won't be with Alan Alda and that's a shame.

Back to Mendocino, one more thing I love are these water towers that are all over town. You can even stay in one that was converted into a hotel.

Considering the fact that tourism is now the main industry in town, I don't have to sell anyone on visiting this unique village. But it makes me happy to know that with a short flight from Burbank, followed by windy but beautiful drive from Santa Rosa, I can go back and visit again someday and be charmed all over again. Unless I was right the first time and it's not actually real. If you see it, let me know.

Blog Post, He Wrote.