Village of Mendocino

On one particular afternoon we decided to head up the coast and visit the village of Mendocino. Joel and I had been years before and it was filled with quaint little shops and fun restaurants. When we arrived we saw that there was a music festival going on and there would be performances in the evening. Holly liked the flags waving in the wind of this bright and colorful tent.We found a place to park near the main street right next to a farmer's market and began to explore. First off we found a quaint little toy store and Holly had a wonderful time exploring this.She found balls to bounce and fruit to wash and slice. I thought this little kitchen in all wood was so beautiful.She even made a friend playing with the ironing board. I'm amazed they even knew what to do with it, Holly has never seen a real one in her life.
She browsed the isles and found lots of ways to make trouble, but since it was a toy store we didn't much mind. We found an old fashioned California Licence Plate with her name on it and a green sparkle ball that looked like hidden treasure. There was a section that had music toys and she loved banging on the drums.Later we found a place to eat. It was a little bakery cafe. Mommy had a slice of Pizza and Holly had a few bites. I don't recall what everyone else had, I know Nana Mary had some type of veggie plate, and the Grannies were happy to share bits of there veggies for Holly to try. Mommy was on a quest to find a floppy sun hat, as a few weeks earlier my scalp got a little burnt. I didn't know of a lot of places to look locally, but figured of course at the beach there must be someplace to sell sun hats. Ty had seen a hat store earlier in his explorations and pointed the way. There were so many to choose from, but I wanted something loose fitting. I finally set on one that was lime green and knitted.The owner put it on the hat stretcher to widen it for me while we continued to shop around town. I think a better bet is to get Joel to wear it for a few hours. It wasn't that it was tight, I just wanted it to be loose. She said if I got it wet, since it is knitted, I could then shape it as it dried.Afterwards around the corner was a little ice cream shop where we got cups and cones. Holly looked intent on picking out a flavor. Joel got Ginger, which Holly enjoyed trying. I had coffee, so she didn't get any of that, but my second scoop was mint and she enjoyed it. Next we walked around at the farmer's market. They had some Delicious white peaches and yummy plums. We had free samples and got a few to take home and snack on. There was also a booth selling Honey. I had read that eating locally made Honey would help prevent allergies, as you would build up an immunity from the local pollens used by the bees. Mendocino, isn't in our back yard, but it's Northern California, and well the sample of Honey was so good we decided to get a jar. Now that Holly is old enough she can eat it, and I wanted to try giving her some with warm milk. We had a great time shopping and eating, and looking around town. Holly was getting sleepy and ready for a nap, so we put her int he car and heading back, she fell fast asleep before the first bend in the road.