A day at 10 mile beach

Today is Memorial Day. It's a sad day for me, a day to remind me of all the lives and limbs uselessly lost by misguided policies and meglomenia. Watching all the grieving families on CNN causes sadness, anger and thankfulness; thankfulness that my children are out of harms way. It's probably inappropriate to inject politics on a bed and breakfast blog but we are all human and one of the greatest benefits to being an American is the right to dissent, to question, to debate and to change course when necessary. It is necessary.

Susan and I took Corky and Cooper to 10 mile beach for a couple of hours r and r. It was Cooper's first foray into water and he was tentative though we did catch a fleeting photo of him swimming. Susan must have taken 100 pictures. The weather was balmy, just between T shirt and something heavier weather. We walked for about two hours and didn't see another soul on the beach. There aren't many places in the world, no less the US, where you can say that.

The holiday weekend was huge but now we are down to two occupied rooms. We had our usual crop of excellent guests with one or two partial exceptions. The housekeepers are happy they're gone but I'm greedy and want all the rooms filled all the time.

I am taking part in Bio Blitz sponsored by the National Geographic Society, in the Santa Monica National Forest. Volunteers, read me and many others, will collect biological samples from designated areas in 4 hour shifts, from noon Friday to noon Sat. The samples will be evaluated by scientists and a biodiversity map of the area will be prepared. I will also help man the National Geographic booth. The real reason for my trip is a meeting of the geotourism working group which is creating a Northern California Redwoods Coast Geotourism area. I am the Mendocino County representative on the group and my job is to make sure as many Mendocino attractions and natural resouces as possible are included in the web site and map being developed. This should be very interesting, entertainly and educational.