After our first overnight stay at the Best Western Plus Hilltop Inn in Redding, California, we carried on up past the mighty and stunning Shasta Lake and through Grants Pass arriving at Bandon around 5pm just in time to walk along the beach and view the sun setting on what was a beautiful day - bliss!!.  Our time in Redding was short and as we had stayed there in the past when it was 111 deg we knew there wasn’t much to do actually in Redding but is really the gateway to lots of outdoor adventures, the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay and the magnificent Shasta Lake where I enjoyed the Caverns and a restful and peaceful day boating on the water. With 375 miles of shoreline and 40,000 acres of calm water, Lake Shasta is the largest lake in California, and I would love to hire a houseboat sometime with some friends and party...whose with me? (These adventures are featured on a previous blog). 

We had a good size room at the Best Western Plus Hilltop Inn and it was easy to unload the car and take all the luggage to the room before having a quick walk along the road which had a grass verge so I had places to ‘go’. There are a number of other chain hotels similar to the Best Western along that stretch, so other choices around, but we were looking for somewhere that had a restaurant close by or on-site that we could all go to, as knew we would be late arriving into Redding and needed a quick and easy meal. C.R. Gibbs American Grille helped us out there. We were happy when we pulled up to the hotel and we saw the attached restaurant had a large pretty nice looking outdoor patio and encouraged when the hotel concierge said he thought it was pug friendly.  We rolled up to the hostess desk and was informed the patio only allowed service dogs,  This was rather unexpected and disappointing, but with a little discussion, we were seated and enjoyed some lovely drinks and were well fed, so it all worked out well.  However, we did raise all our eyebrows (me included) at having to tackle the old age problem of where do we all eat together when travelling.  The hotel is pug friendly but says I am not allowed to stay in the room unattended and I wouldn’t like that anyway, and there is an on-site restaurant with a sizeable outdoor space, why would you not make ‘all’ your guests welcome and have the patio as a section 4-legged friends can accompany our hoomans. After a good nights sleep, we tentatively skipped down for Breakfast where the staff could not have been nicer or more welcoming, so goes to show...it’s often the person who greets you at the door who makes or breaks your experience.

The hotel pet policy is up to two dogs in a room, with a size limit for any one dog at  80 pounds and their rate is $20 per day. 

Arriving at Windermere on the Beach, our chosen lodging for the next few days, we sighed with relief...it was still light and if we were quick, we could unload and get to the beach to enjoy a sunset walk together, a bottle of wine and a tasty homemade dinner before a good nights sleep.  The Windermere consists of a number of beach cottages and their website indicated clearly which ones are pug friendly.  We had a cottage which slept 6 so was a pretty good space for the 3 of us, but a very small bathroom.  We had a kitchen with oven so we knew as the weather may get cold and wet we could at least cook meals for ourselves if driving off into town at the end of a day on the beach sounded a bit more like hard work than we intended. We did this 3 nights out of the 4 and it worked well as we found our evening dining options a little limited in the town.  I admit, we didn’t go to every restaurant (and there are quite a lot when you start to count them) and ask if they were pug friendly as we knew the lovely people at the Bandon Brewing Company were super welcoming to me in the past so we knew we would be rolling up there for sure (a nice welcome breeds loyalty...and this counts); but we also didn’t see many other places that made it very obvious that I was a welcome addition to their eating establishment - many did not seem to have outside space.  I did enjoy a few pieces of fresh cod at the Bandon Fish Market one lunchtime (Pops likes it when he sees his food coming in fresh from the boat - mum does not!), but the chips were not a patch on the ones the hoomans get in the UK, and we did spy that Foley’s Irish pub had a very small but cute space outdoor space which I would be surprised if I wasn’t welcome at, so next time we will pop there for a pint, but instead we went back to the hotel and a bottle of wine was popped open so no one had to worry about driving back after a drink.

I had a wonderful few days here, day long romps on the beach, with so many cool rocks and driftwood to climb on or hide along, and often only seeing a handful of people each day.  The beach was so clean (except for the last day where they had been rain in the night and there were quite a few birds that had been washed up :() There were times when I had to wade through water to cross little tide pools but this added to the fun and was dependent on the tides.  Face Rock is great to look at especially at Sunset and there are a few parks inc the Kronenburg County Park and Devils Kitchen which are on the bluffs if you don’t want to actually go on the sand.

Oh my….so the 45 min/23 mile drive from the 101 to Shelter Cove was like being on a Disneyland ride, but boy was it worth it once we pulled up at the Inn of the Lost Coast. 

I could see this place had a fun vibe, a Beatles yellow submarine gas tank and such amazing views...and I was able to help myself to homemade cookies from the jar at the reception ... thank you, yes I will stay here...something for everyone right!  After we had pulled ourselves away from our balcony, the vast expanse of the dark blue sea and the crashing waves below us, we had a delightful dinner at the Venezuelan restaurant opposite the hotel. The pizza place on the hotel premises which we thought we may try was closed on Thursdays, but we were all very well looked after at Mi Mochima where we enjoyed the heated patio and some great drinks and they looked after our vegetarian very well making her something not on the menu ... and I had countless tickles.  I hope the lovely waitress who looked after us lets her boyfriend get a pug - I think I sealed the deal!  Just another pug duty perfectly executed!

All too soon, after a cautious waltz on the Black Sands Beach as you don’t want to get too close to the waters edge as the rip tides are extremely unpredictable, we tackled the 23 twisty miles back up to the main road to continue our journey, catching sight of a few wild deer along the way.  Mendecino was next on the list.

Our original plan was to stay in Mendocino at the very pug and vegan friendly Stanford Inn but when we realised we actually wanted to spend 2 nights here so we could canoe on the wildlife infused Big River, we decided to stay a few miles down the road in Fort Bragg in a more motel style lodging right on the beach - Surf and Sand Lodge.  I say right on the beach...it was but there was a path and some bluffs before the beach, so although it was easy access, we didn’t feel like it was steps away, but was less than a 5 minute walk away.  The beach was pug friendly but on-leash, but I saw many others off leash and I did find a little area tucked behind some rocks where I was released and happily played with my ball, so I actually thought in the end after a little disappointment with our lodging choice, I thought it was pretty cool.  The pug friendly rooms are in one ‘cottage’ so in a way this worked well as all our ‘neighbors’ were friendly and felt very relaxed.  The property next door (owned by the same family) had a little dog grassy run so I was allowed to go in there too.

My mum loves lighthouses and so we were on a mission to find some along the way.  The Bandon ones were not up to scratch as far as the iconic tall white tower at the end of a long pier mysterious look goes, so the search continued which means we visited a few inc the one on Shelter Cove and Point Arena. This was a good spot as we timed it so we stopped here in time for lunch so had a snack at the Rollerville Cafe by the lighthouse. The actual lighthouse is a short drive away.  You park but then have to walk about 1 mile along a path to the actual lighthouse.  There are some cottages that you can rent along the road which would be pretty cool but quite remote.  I will check out if they are pug friendly.