Mendocino through the years

Anna Lee writes nostalgia:
We started coming up here in the 60s. One of the family attractions has been the Skunk Train, an old steam train. Jeff was barely walking when we took him on his first train ride. Later, when we traveled in a tent trailer, nearby Van Damme State Park was a long-weekend favorite destination. We’d walk the fern lined trail and wander the galleries of town.
Lumber was the main industry in nearby Fort Bragg and we enjoyed, yes, enjoyed, touring the mill and seeing all the big, loud equipment sawing trees into wood planks for plywood. The mill is gone and in three days I have counted three trucks with lumber. They are still cutting but the industry is not so obvious and tourism has taken its place.
Mendocino, always caught up in bohemia, is still funky. Those of you who have never visited may know it as Hollywood’s idea of a New England village in the opening of the show Murder She Wrote.

Back then the Art Center showed movies. Jeff and Cheryl enjoyed The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm from the comfort of bean bag chairs. Now the bean bags have been updated to semi-comfortable theater seats for plays. Mr. Marmalade, the play we saw, was also a bit odd though well performed: the story of a four-year-old and her imaginary friends who speak and live very adult lives.
When our children grew up, went to camp or became old enough to leave at home, we came up alone and with friends. We enjoyed staying at Hill House with Saul and Donna. There was a great ice cream shop that we always patronized.
Local restaurants continue to be excellent. We celebrated Father’s Day, sans children, at Café Beaujolais where the salmon and sturgeon were wonderful. Margaret Fox, a disciple of Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, emphasized fresh local produce as well as local seafood. She no longer owns the restaurant but works at the Harvest Market, an excellent grocery store, where I always purchase edible souvenirs of our visit.
Jerry made reservations at the Albion River Inn for our anniversary. We have fond memories of dining there with many friends. Even with the fog grey skies the gardens put on a colorful display. Dinner was excellent, mushroom and fennel soup, steak for him and ling cod for me. Then we were compelled to share a chocolate mousse.

Sad to say, Heritage House, an old inn featured in Same Time Next Year and a popular wedding and celebration spot for about fifty years, has closed.
This morning the fog lifted for a while and I returned to Pomo Beach where the bird calls out rang the buoy bells and boats with tourists or seeking fish and crab had returned to the water. When the skies got grey again, I went to fulfill a personal commitment.
One of my favorite places to visit is the Mendocino Yarn Shop. Annelle is a delight and has some fabulous yarns. I was not there to shop but to finish one of three dangling projects. This one was with yarn bought here four years ago. It will be done by the time I return which means I may have bought yarn for another project as a reward.
Jerry writes:
Class is still great. The small table we are going to start on tomorrow is far more complex than it looks. It is based on a 15th century Ming design that Yeung has updated. It is the jointery (how it is put together) that is the important lesson. The idea is that the legs are angled out 1.5 degrees off center so, in order to get everything to fit right, everything has to be cut at a 1.5 degree angle.

That small offset doesn’t seem like much but to get all the parts to fit to fit together is a challenge. By the way, if you look at the photo of the table, it does not look like it is made up of 33 separate parts all dovetailed into each other at that small 1.5 degree angle. To take it apart, you have to do it in the right order, much like a Chinese puzzle.

In class today we were lusting over new equipment. I was looking at a Felder saw that they have here in the shop and thinking about trading my Delta in on one. Unfortunately, when I mentioned the idea to Anna Lee she took a dim view of my spending $14,000.00 on a new saw. Oh well, I guess I will have to live with what I have.
I did finish my chisel and knife.

I have a couple more chisels that I am working on and hopefully will finish them tomorrow so I will have a complete set.
Anna Lee wrote about coming to Mendocino over the years and we all really enjoyed the area. This is the most beautiful coastline I have seen and, in the right light, you can get great photos.
Anna Lee continued:
Jerry invited me to the class lecture and demonstration on the breaking down of the table. No longer can I scoff about it being a little project. The pieces he mentioned are intricately connected and required precise positioning and angles. I will be impressed if anyone in the class can master even a part of this project in the short time they have. This is a lesson in process not project. By the way, Jerry and I traded cameras and I am finding a whole different view out there.