Gualala, CA

Gualala Hotel, built in 1903

I'm here at the Gualala Hotel. Gualala (pronounced Walala) is a seaside town north of San Francisco. It's a pretty small and desolate town. I think I'm the only one staying at this old hotel. It's kinda cool, yet kind of creepy since it's so deserted. There's a hanging sign for the hotel on the wide front porch that blows in the wind and makes a creaking noise just like in the movies.
Maybe I'm spooked because I drove through Bodega Bay, CA where Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed. My older brother Brad had an appreciation for good film which he felt he should share with me at a very young age. So, when I was around 6 years old he made The Birds mandatory watching. I still can see, in every detail since it has been etched into my brain since that first viewing, the scene at the end with the woman in the corner with her eyes all poked out. Eek!
While I was in Bodega, I stopped for a fish sandwhich at this joint:
The sandwich was pretty darn good but I'd skip the chips if I were you. I'm picky about my fish sandwich due to the fact that my first real job was a counter girl at Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips. Picture me in a brown polyester uniform, 15 lbs lighter, a perm and braces. Nice. I kept looking for birds in Bodega, but I really didn't see any.
Ok, I'm rambling on because I don't want to go to sleep in this hitchcockesque hotel. Here's some photos from the road along the way:
Somewhere I took a wrong turn and ended up in prehistoric Spain