Schellhase 2017 Northwest Trip: 20 June - Downtown Petaluma, Dining Hall, Point Reyes Lighthouse

20 June
This morning we headed downtown Petaluma and first visited a military museum and store. Sounded really interesting on paper, but unfortunately the "military museum" portion was closed today, and the "store" portion was open, but it was just an antique shop. Tons of interesting items in there, but nothing I wanted to buy.

A a couple blocks down there was supposed to be a bakery, the Petaluma Pie Shop, that supposedly made killer meat pies (chicken pot pie for instance). We would the address and there was a bakery there, but all they had was stale cookies and some cupcakes.

So we headed down the main drag in the other direction and found many more stores and shops, and whoa, there is a sign that says "Petaluma Pie Company"! So I dropped Doreen off and waited in the truck. Sure enough, this was the pie company Doreen was looking for. She bought a chicken pot pie, and barbecued beef pot pie, and a couple slices of fruit pie. She cooked her's for dinner tonight, and it was really good:

It was time to head back to the base, so we visited Morale, Welfare and Recreation office again as we needed a form for our dash identifying us as campground occupants. We also talked more with them about an alternate route to get to Vallejo where we pick up the ferry. This weekend is a big event at the Sonoma Raceway (Nascar) and they recommended an alternate route that should be much better to avoid the racetrack traffic this weekend.

It was now lunch time and today is the day we had planned to visit the dining hall, or galley and sample the products of the culinary students.

The Alex Haley Hall, named after a Coast Guardsman Alex Haley who's story is highlighted below.

A nice display inside relating to the culinary school

The lunch menu

Homemade tortilla chips and salsa bar.

Doreen's plate

My plate.

Lunch was fantastic. The dining hall was very busy with their students and permanent party personnel, plus some retirees like Doreen and I.

After lunch we loaded up the dog and headed for the coast, destination Point Reyes Lighthouse. The actual lighthouse was closed today and according to the visitor center it will probably be closed for a while because of the high winds. The drive to the visitor center was about 45 minutes and Doreen got her lighthouse passport stamped.

Then we headed toward the actual lighthouse site, another 45 minutes away.. The roads were narrow and crooked. It seemed like forever but we finally reached the parking area and then had a 0.4 mile walk to the lighthouse.

A look north up the shoreline.

Just getting ready to walk from the parking lot to the lighthouse

The wind blows very hard up here. It is said this is the windiest point on the west coast. It blows so hard and so sustained that it has bent the trees over for good!

Historical marker

Point Reyes is way up on a hill and the cliffs are very steep

Some strange rock formations

A view from Point Reyes, down the concrete stairs to the lighthouse. Whenever the wind is high the lighthouse is closed. It would have been treacherous to try to maneuver these stairs today.

Very scenic from above.

Water storage vessels. They captured the rain water and then transferred it to talks. It was heated in a boiler and produced steam to power the fog horm.