Besides Mendocino and Albion, this village of 6,000 is the seascape and inviting tide pool destination on the California north Pacific. Explore Fort Bragg's Glass Beach, trip through the glittering pebbles, shimmering and stepping in discarded metal, transformed to ruby, emerald and shining with glints by the polishing swells of the Pacific Tides.

Once a booming logging town, it still has the smokestacks of the Georgia-Pacific Company. Fort Bragg, located north of Mendocino, is the Victorian picture-postcard fishing and commercial port of the Mendocino Coast region. Along picturesque California Highway 1, it offers numerous art & sculpture galleries, "Antique Row" on North Franklin street for shopping adventures, the North Coast Brewing Company, one of the ten best micro-breweries in the world, "to whet your whistle," charming cottages and bed & breakfast accommodations and many tantalizing eateries and a few blue-collar working-class holes with music such as R & B and an occasional blue note jazz session.

Although Fort Bragg's lumberyards are declining, The local Chamber of Commerce has been cleverly orchestrating a quaint retrofit for a decade or more. Fort Bragg's once booming and prosperous past can be recaptured by visiting the Victorian Mansion which now houses the Guest House Museum, the gingerbread Queen Anne near the Skunk Train Depot, run by the California Western Railroad, built in 1924.

Fort Bragg is a hub for state parks and reserves within a 20-minute driving perimeter. Between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, taking Hwy 1, you access almost every state park directly, where you will find ocean-sculpted tunnels and trails that traverse the crisp redwood, fir and laurel woods - to hide a stolen kiss.

At point Cabrillo Reserve, you will see a wind-kissed peninsula with its own lighthouse beacon. At Jughandle State Reserve with its meandering meadow lands, and miniature trees and evergreen shrubs. Seals can be seen and heard at the Ten Mile Beach at MacKerricher State park, two miles north of Fort Bragg. If you are planning a romantic getaway to this wondrous region, try planning it from Late November through early April and perchance you will catch a chance sighting of a herd of whales on their journey toward Point Reyes Marin Healdands.