David and I decided to take the boys to the coast for a few days. We wanted to go back to a place we went to a few years ago, then try a new place for one night.
The drive from our place to Shelter Cove is such a treat. Most of the road winds through either farmland, ranchland, or old growth redwoods. The journey is just as lovely as the destination.
We spent a few nights at Inn of the Lost Coast. This is a decent, basic motel-y hotel with a million dollar view.
Getting to the property, we had to drive through a part of Avenue of the Giants redwood forest…
The view from our room…
Love tokens from my Ryguy….
We drove to Mendocino and checked into an incredible property called The Stanford Inn. It is an eco-resort that has a fine dining vegan restaurant. Our room had a wood burning stove and a lovely view of the gardens.
They have a terrific lap pool/sauna/hot tub that is in a greenhouse with panels on the ceiling that open and close.
The property hosts a daily “tea time” that provides guests with their choice of tea and a vegan dessert…this was a coconut cream ice cream and cookies. YUM!
Get ready for a visual feast. Everything tasted as good as it looks! All plant based…
The next morning, we were to be treated again to breakfast, included with the room charge. Here’s a picture of the boys with fresh squeezed juice…
Sadly, as our food was being delivered, an elderly man who was being seated near us, as he was passing our table, fell over with a full blown heart attack. A few of us came to his aid, and I held his head while others administered CPR. He died while we were with him.
I prayed over him and later, asked God why this happened when it happened. A couple of insights I received were, 1) dying is a natural part of life,. Our society and culture tends to hide it away, and that’s why it seems so devastating and tragic when we witness it. 2) This man was alone when he was being seated. It seemed to me that he died here so that he did not die alone. He was surrounded by concerned people, and prayers.
I struggle with something though. When CPR was being administered, the man giving the chest compressions said to us, “give mouth to mouth”. I stepped back and another man stepped in. I just could not do it. I try to justify that the men should have stepped up (which they did), and I might have done it had there been no absolute alternative, but in that moment, I stepped back. I learned later, that apparently the new protocol for CPR does not have mouth to mouth. The chest compression provides enough oxygen needed.
Also, talking later with an EMT friend, he said that when heart attacks happen that quickly and severely, they never recover. The slower onset ones have a chance, but the big ones, no.
Needless to say, we were all quite shaken. We had planned on renting a canoe and hang out on the river, but thought maybe we should go home instead. We changed our mind because we did not want that to be the last memory of this trip. The canoe trip turned out to be just what was needed. We were able to talk to the boys about what happened (they witnessed the man go down, but David removed them when it became clear this was serious.) Since we did not get to eat the breakfast we ordered, the property packed us some delicious scones and muffins to take with us.
The river opens to the ocean and we canoed upstream away from the ocean mouth. The water was a mix of fresh and salt and we were surprised to find four seals resting on a log way up the river. It’s a great spot for them; safe, yet full of fish.
