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Bodega Bay - The Test RunJun 30, 2008
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| It was the blue lobster, rearing up on its hind legs … uh, tail, that got me. I mean where could I see a real live blue lobster in Calistoga? We’re planning to travel around the country for several months this fall, and I’d been wondering if we’d be successful finding those wonderful, out of the way experiences you read about in the travel magazines. I mean, we’re not very creative, and just how do people find these amazing places to go and see. Doubts about traveling and exploring began to recede, as I watched this pint sized crustacean try to scare me away, stretching as tall as it possibly could while balancing precariously on its miniature tail. Jim and I had decided to practice being gone from our house. We wanted to take a few short trips to make sure we could deal with living together in VERY close proximity for weeks at a stretch. It seemed logical that if it was 95 degrees in Calistoga, we should go somewhere cooler – like the coast. Our friend Tony Powers (who will be babysitting our house while we’re gone) is the campground host at Doran Beach, so off to Bodega Bay we went. It seemed to be the perfect time to get over to the coast and cool off. We’d taken day trips to Bodega Bay before but this time we had about a week to actually do something other than eat and play in the sand. The UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab visit was a piece of serendipity. We noticed a sign about the Lab on the campground bulletin board . Sign said the lab was open to visitors on Fridays only. Lo! It was Friday. I guess this is how folks find all those cool places to visit – so off we went. It appears that in the 1960’s UC Berkeley was in need of a place that offered a good land/sea interface as they were looking to start a marine doctoral program. Space at Bodega Head was available (since PG&E’s nuclear plant plans had ground to a standstill thanks to the discovery that a fault bisects Bodega Head .. you know the one … the San Andreas). The Lab was established to provide opportunities in marine and coastal field research for doctoral candidates. Sometime in the 1980’s UC Davis took over management of the lab and today, about 120 scientists conduct research studies at the facility which overlooks Horseshoe Cove. Which brings us to my blue lobster. There is research going on at the lab on crustacean biology, studying crustacean adaptations which affect growth and development. The study (from what I understand, but please know I may not have all the facts straight) is looking at the feasibility of farming lobsters. Hence the blue color of the exoskeleton. It’s caused by indigo in the food they’re eating. Why dye them blue? Something to do with how they absorb nutrients, and how quickly they grow. What they’ve determined is that lobsters are cannibalistic, so in order to raise them successfully, one would need to keep each lobster segregated from its brethren. They also tend to grow faster in warmer water than we have here. These 4-year-old lobsters are about the size of your computer mouse. That’s hefty for a four-year-old lobster we were told. So while they’ve figured out how to farm lobsters, it doesn’t look like it will be profitable due to the need to keep them isolated and ensure warmish water. The place is fascinating, with a small aquarium holding local fish, a tide pool for easy and non-sandy exploring, and a huge tank with wile local coho salmon juveniles. This is another research project with the goal of learning how to increase the size of farmed salmon. The tank is a kind of whirlpool, which forces the salmon to swim against the current constantly. They’ve determined that forcing the fish to do this increases their size by 20%. Fascinating, but again, perhaps not economically feasible. Another day, we stopped by Sonoma Coast Seafood, just past the Porto Bodega RV Park down in the harbor to purchase some of that local fish. No salmon: none for the next two years. We were told that the federal government is providing “relief” funding to many of the fishing boat owners. Locals feel this is a way to get them out of the salmon fishing business, as the funds “buy out” their boats. Goal is to have less fishermen fishing for salmon at the end of two years. Locals are frustrated because they don’t see what they will be doing if not fishing. Crab boats are still at it. It’s the tail end of crab season and running $7/pound thanks to the price of fuel. We were able to get some great local rock cod and some halibut, together with a couple of crabs for a fantastic seafood dinner that night. Crab needs bread, so we drove the eight miles to Freestone to pick up some fresh, made on the premises sour dough from Freestone Bakery . This place is a Mecca for fresh sour dough bread – whole wheat, white, 50/50, scones, sticky buns …. Carb heaven at five bucks a loaf. Next door find Freestone Winery, which pours a nice couple of chardonnays as well as some lush pinot noir. The winery is a classy place, where they sit you down in small conversation areas to taste the wine made from vineyards which climb up the coastal hills behind the winery. The “Fogdog” label is the second label, with the Freestone and Ovation labels their top of the line. It was Father’s Day, so we splurged and bought the Ovation chard – lemony and so good with crab! After that dinner, we strolled the three or so mile beach at Doran, enjoying the cool (okay, it was brisk … very brisk) breeze. Calistoga was miles and about 40 degrees away ….. and we were loving every minute of it. |
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