aw, (pea)nuts!

by the time we woke up the next morning, the rain had passed and brought us a beautiful day.  when i opened my eyes and looked out the window, this is what i saw:

while the bean and i got ready, the hub went outside for a stroll and caught a glimpse of mina, the official lighthouse cat.

when i was ready, i headed out the back door to check out the scenery.  it was so pretty outside, and the air was crisp and clean.

after we got packed and locked up the house, we headed over towards the lighthouse and into the gift shop to check in with the volunteers for our tour.  tours aren't currently available to the public, but we were able to have one as guests staying in the keeper's cottage.  this is the original lens that was at the top of the tower until it was finally removed in 2008, and it was huge and heavy and required constant maintenance.

after listening to the spiel covering the history of the lighthouse, we walked out of the store and over to the lighthouse for our tour.

once we stepped inside, we got our first look at the spiral staircase that we would climb.  it's 115 feet tall with 145 steps up to the top.  the ladies in the museum made a big deal about the stairs, but it really wasn't too hard to get up there.

and the views from the top were worth it.

although of course, going back down was way easier.

after picking up a magnet for our collection in the gift shop, we said goodbye to our tour guides and took one last look at the lighthouse before heading out to the next destination.  i took the back seat this time so that the bean could enjoy the view from the front.

more animals along the way:

we stopped at trillium cafe in mendocino for lunch, where we were shoved into a corner in a back room and got really bad service and mediocre food.

a little later, we ended up at russian river brewing where the hub picked up a six-pack of fancy beer.

so i was a huge snoopy/peanuts fan when i was little.  like, i used to go to the library to take out stacks and stacks of peanuts comics and read them over and over again.  snoopy was my favorite, and i'd mentioned at some point during our trip that i really wanted to visit the charles schulz museum because i knew we wouldn't be too far from it.  although it wasn't exactly a convenient stop on our drive, the hub went out of his way to find it for me.  except that we were there on tuesday...and on tuesdays the museum is:

i'd moaned and groaned about it earlier that day when i saw it on the website, and yet the hub still took me so that i could at least see it.  i love him so much.  and so i got out and looked around at what i was able to see.

i probably looked like such a creeper as i stood at the window and took these pictures.

next door to the museum is a snoopy-themed ice rink.  apparently charles schulz was a big fan of ice sports, and so he built this rink in 1969.  it was open, but i didn't go in.

six-year-old me would have died at this.  dorothy hamill was my hero, and i loved her hair.  heh.

because he's the best husband ever, the hub drove us into the center of town so that i could see the snoopy and charlie brown sculpture.  

about 45 minutes later, we crossed the robin williams bridge on our way into san francisco.

then we drove to the top of the hill for a great view of the golden gate bridge.

and crossed it.

yelp directed us to nara sushi, just outside of the haight-ashbury district and just down the street from the painted ladies (you know, the strip of colorful homes made famous by the "full house" opening credit sequence).  we were not disappointed.

and then we stopped here for some dessert:

before finally pulling into our home for the night.

crazy day, amirite?  and we weren't even halfway through spring break yet.  sheesh.