Honeymoon Day 4

Today we started exploring the Mendocino area. We got up not-so-early (8:30-ish) to enjoy the nice bed in our cottage (#2). After breakfast (quiche-of-the-day: mushroom swiss. eww) we headed out to check out the countryside.
First, we went to Point Cabrillo Light Station. We gave the actual lighthouse a miss completely, and just spent our time looking at the ocean. On our way out we saw some deer, which was pretty exciting. We just hung out at clifftop for awhile, taking some pictures and enjoying the sights, and waiting for a whale to swim up to us. Alas, that never happened, we got bored, and we left.
From there we headed just south to Russian Gulch State Park, which was given to California back in the 30's, and they haven't done anything to it since. The roads were kind of bad, and there was nobody at the check-in station, but we dutifully put our $6 in the envelope like good little kids. I wonder how many other people in the park that day did the same.
First thing in Russian Gulch we did was the long hike to the waterfall. That totalled around 5.5 miles round-trip. This hike was definitely up my alley, with lots of gigantic redwood stumps and other pretty vegetation. Alison wished she could see farther. But some of the stumps must have been 35 feet in circumference. And many of the stumps had smaller trees growing out of them. We ate lunch at a little picnic area (bagels stolen from breakfast, and cheese and crackers from the basket Alison had put in the room for me), then continued on toward the falls. The falls were shorter than Arethusa (N.H.), but there were about a hundred fewer people there (just us). So it was still pretty nice. We took some pictures, then decided to go back the way we came, rather than continue on the long way around. On the way down we came across a slug (banana?).
After the falls hike we went to the headlands and had a snack before wandering around and taking some more pictures from the seacliffs. There was a blowhole there that was connected to the ocean through a tunnel, but the tide was pretty low so it did not do anything impressive. We did see a lot of tunnels in the rock on this coast, and took pictures of more than a few.
After the headlands we headed down to the park's beach. We took some more photos there, and I almost got stranded by the rising tide and a creek. I nearly died, especially when my foot got slightly wet during a high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled river crossing. It was very dangerous.
We left Russian Gulch satisfied, and moved on to the Mendocino Headlands State Park, which is pretty much located in town here. Apparently, way back when the citizens of Mendocino decided that they shouldn't let any crazy person try to live out on the headlands, where the winds are stupid strong. So they parked it all up. We wandered around there for not a lot of time, taking pictures and freezing our kiesters. We stayed in town for dinner, going to the Mendocino Bakery and Cafe, where we picked up some food (Quiche Lorraine for me, some other kind of quiche + green salad for Alison). They were about to close, so we took our dinner to go and headed back to the B&B to eat on the porch.
After this we decided to act on the many recommendations in the journal in our room and head over to Cafe Beaujolais to see what the dessert fare was like. We had already looked at their dinner menu, and decided not to spend all our money there. We shared a Ghirardelli Lava Cake ($7, and really small) with waters all around. I don't think that our waitress was amused, as it was likely a record for least money ever spent by a couple there. Not a place to go for the un-moneyed.
Dessert was the last thing in our day. After that we headed back to the B&B to watch us some Office and fall asleep.