Clouds over Mendocino

The only taxi driver in Mendocino knows how to take advantage of people who fly planes. If you jet yourself into the tiny Little River airport, the owner/operator of "Hey Taxi" charges you a $30 flat fee for a short ride into the picturesque town of Mendocino.


He gets away with it, of course. There is no other way to get from the airport into town. This is a simple matter of supply and demand.

Last week my friend Declan, his wife Milana and I used the services of "Hey Taxi" twice. We had rented a small Cessna and flew from San Carlos to Mendocino, which takes little over an hour. (If you drive, it is probably four hours.)


On the way we had fantastic views over San Francisco Airport, San Francisco Bay and the city itself. We also flew over Alcatraz, Angel Island, Sausalito and the Russian River. Mendocino itself was also nice, a town you could put on a postcard (and they have.)

Pt. Reyes Natl. Seashore

A colleague had told me Mendocino was the outside decor of Murder She Wrote. Angela Lansbury lived here, while the show pretended she was on the East Coast.


Mendocino is a pretty town with great restaurants and a gorgeous coast line. One thing we noticed was that the bulk of visitors fell into an age category above ours, geriatric.

In the afternoon the fog blew in from the ocean. A problem, since Declan doesn't have an instrument rating (yet). So we had to get back to the airport a bit earlier than originally planned to take off in clear skies. Still, a fabulously decadent day.

Late afternoon, returning over San Francisco.