However when we went out to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant in Gualala, we met up with the owner and he informed us that we opposed and I had a much, much nicer room to stay in. All in all it was quite nice to have a real room, one where I could catch up a bit on this travel site before I fell asleep...

I woke up early to a beautiful frosty morning. The cabin I had overlooked the ocean through the trees. I could only imagine what the sunset would have looked like from here, but even the sunrise was quite nice. I went on a short hike down the hill through some pines and redwoods photographing all the while. Again, I like bark & textures of frost covered tree roots ;-)

Karen had dropped me off here last night. Well, I followed her up. It was such a windy drive through dirt and gravel roads that there would have been little chance of my finding this place or finding my way back -- so I needed to wait for her to come out and pick me up. She is not a morning person, for that matter nor am I, at least not at home. When she came out to get me I was chatting with the owner and she joined in the conversation for a few minutes, looking at some of the wolf photographs I had brought alone with me and chatting. We then stepped outside to leave, I was putting my equipment back into my car when she came over with a somewhat perturbed expression and was NOT happy. One of the dogs had locked the car! Normally she takes her keys out but she was not planning on being away more than 30 seconds, but as things go 30 seconds turned to many minutes and one of the boys had stepped on the lock all latch locking them securely into the car, windows rolled up and no spare key! Fortunately it was a cold morning because it took 90 minutes for the AAA guy to come out and find us, which was not easy...

While we waited we explored up the hill to the other more remote cabin which was really cool. It was also nice to sit by the fire chatting away. The dogs really enjoyed that fire too ;-) I tried out a B&W setting on the camera - I like the effect here... Finally the AAA guy came out and got the car open. The boys were happy to get out for a pee.

We drove back to Gualala and did a quick run on the beach where I took a bunch more photos of fun on the beach, cliff climbing & and a bunch of simply goofy shots...