By Randy Bradford

Christmas is behind us and we all look forward to a new and challenging year. May your businesses and careers prosper, respect for you increase daily, and may all your children be good-looking (thank you Garrison Keeler). And, as for all those pesky little New Year’s resolutions that none of us seem to be able to keep to lose weight, remember the famous words of Jay Leno, host of NBC’s Tonight Show: “Now there are more over-weight people in America than average-weight people. So, over-weight people are now average. Which means, you’ve met your New Year’s resolution!” I’m down with that. In a BIG way, if you know what I mean.

On Whidbey Island, January and February are the months when hoteliers try to get all the projects that they were too full to complete, completed. These are definitely the long months of winter; carpet shampooing, new carpet if needed, paint and patch, etc. You know, all of the things that need to be done at your house too, only we have to get them done.

Speaking of repairs, painting, and patching, once, when traveling the Pacific Coast Highway on our way to San Francisco, we stopped for the night in Mendocino. Mendocino was, and is, a small artist colony in Northern California, just south of Russian Gulch State Park. I understand it is quite a trendy place now, but then it was very quiet and peaceful indeed. We were on vacation for our fifth anniversary, I won’t tell you the year, but it was not last year. My wife Connie kept saying, “All I want is a place that overlooks the water, allows pets, and isn’t too expensive.” “Right,” I replied. After driving through many towns that looked appealing enough to me, but didn’t meet her criteria, it was getting late. We pulled into Mendocino and saw a little semi-circle of cabins on the side of the road. They weren’t on the water side of the highway, but I asked Connie if these would be okay. Disappointedly, she said, “Yes.” I went in to inquire about rates and was told that they were full. As I was turning to leave, the young man offered me an alternative. “Up the road a little, we have a cabin. It’s just been re-painted inside; in fact it still smells some of paint fumes. If you want we could rent that too you at a reduced rate. How about $24 a night?” Now, $24 a night was more then than it is now, but it was still a good deal, so we drove back the road a mile or so and took a look.

I don’t know if I can describe it adequately. What we drove up to was a small three bedroom house with shake siding, surrounded by fuchsia bushes and wild flowers. It had a deck that literally hung over the cliff edge on a private cove, over the water, with a view straight down into the sea-bottom covered with aqua blue water and purple, orange, and red star fishes. It was totally secluded and beautiful. Inside there was a kitchen, a living room, and a den lined with bookshelves, complete with books. All the rooms except the bedrooms and the bath were on the water side, just off the deck with views that stretched to the horizon. Yes, it did have an odor of fresh paint, but it wasn’t oil base paint and not so strong that it made your eyes water. I looked at Connie, she nodded, “We’ll take it,” I said.

I can’t tell you much about San Francisco from our trip that year. We never made it that far. We stayed in Mendocino for five nights; as long as we could, then beat a path back to I-5 and Seattle as quickly as possible, just to spend another night in what we thought of at the time, as paradise. I guess the moral of this little tale is to not be afraid to travel in the off season. Even if you have to put up with the noise of an occasional saw or hammer, you can get surprised with a wonderful experience — for less.

Randy Bradford is general manager of the Coachman Inn in Oak Harbor.