Looking out into Bodega Bay from the Tides Restaurant.

Christmas always seems to bring up memories of great times spent with family and friends.

When we lived in California a special part of the holiday season was a trip to Bodega Bay and a delicious meal at the Tides Inn. When I first began going there it was located in very humble, almost falling apart, digs. But that didn't matter the fish and chips were the best ever. Sitting, inside or out, watching the seals playing in the water and the boats coming and going was an amazing experience for a person who had been landlocked for eight years. Somewhere along the line it underwent a huge renovation and got all spiffed up but it always maintained the same magical feeling of sea and nature and great food usually being shared with special people.

California can fool you. Where we lived in Santa Rosa a wintery day might be breezy and in the 60's at our house but at the Coast, well, drop that down a dozen or so degrees and throw in some blustery breezes and it could be very cold.

From late December on the seals would begin having their babies on the beach at Goat Rock Park. That was special to see. Volunteers were there all the time to keep curious adults and children at a safe distance so neither pup nor mom were too disturbed. If you got to the coast often, you could watch those pups grow up. One of the funniest things I ever saw was watching the pups, now almost grown, slide down a waterfall which had been created to help drain the Russian River. The pups were swimming in a little bay between a spit of beach and the ocean. Heavy rains had blocked the outlet which normally would drain the river into the ocean so the Coastal authority folks had dredged out a channel. The pups would swim over to it and then let the current take them over the top of the outlet and out into the ocean. They would be shot out as if from a cannon, hang in the air for a second or so and then drop into the ocean. And back they went time and again, just like kids. They were obviously having a wonderful time and so were all of us watching them.

My painting of Bodega Bay from Bodega Head...a high point along the Coast which is a perfect spot for whale watching.

And, after about an hour of this, it was so cold that it was time to head for the Tides Restaurant and something hot or back home.

A fence on a ridge along the Coast.

Well, I have searched through all of the photos stored on this computer and have found none of the California coastline. One photo of the restaurant and some watercolors of mine will have to do even though I know I took hundreds of pictures and that they are here somewhere. I may just have to make a trip west to get some more photos.