Down on the beach, we climbed the rocks and cliffs, catching crabs whenever we could find them. I can still remember how loud the waves sounded as they broke against the rocks and cliffs.
My favorite place on Earth is a little fishing town up the coast of California called Fort Bragg. My family and I would go there for vacation. Not to fish, but to attend the world’s largest salmon festival. We came from the Bay Area, so as a kid, it felt like a long drive. I would get excited when we left the city behind and entered the winding roads through the woods. The air got cleaner. The temperature would drop under the shade of the canopy above. My ears would pop as they adjusted to the elevation. I would start to catch glimpses of water. I kept my head turned out the window for so long that my neck would get sore. A lot of our family would be there. My stepparents and brother, along with aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandpa from my stepmom’s side. We all stayed at a motel on the far side of a big bridge that crossed over a marina. The motel sat on a steep hillside with narrow paths that snaked back and forth down the hill and under the bridge to the beach.
I don’t know how many times my brother and I hiked that trail each day, but it was a lot. Down on the beach, we climbed the rocks and cliffs, catching crabs whenever we could find them. I can still remember how loud the waves sounded as they broke against the rocks and cliffs. That was the first time I truly felt how powerful the ocean is.
On the second day in Fort Bragg, the whole family would have dinner at a restaurant in the marina. Most of the menu didn’t appeal to me since I have never been a big fan of seafood. I can’t remember what I used to order each year. Every year, we would have a big water balloon fight around the motel. We filled the balloons at the fish cleaning stations and did this for a few years until the motel owner warned us to stop.
The main part of the trip was the salmon festival. There were tons of grills set up in a park by the marina, all smoking salmon. We would get a plate of it with corn on the cob and salad. I don’t care for seafood, but I loved that salmon. The festival always had a live band, but my favorite part was exploring the marina and looking at all the boats in the water. I would imagine myself out on the ocean. The last night in Fort Bragg was always on the Fourth of July. Big ships out in the ocean would put on a fireworks show. From our hotel balcony, we had a perfect view of it all. The only bad part of the trip was having to leave. I was never ready to go back to my normal day-to-day life, but I knew that I had to.
