A Mendocino Headlands Cliff Walk and an Italian Dinner

Portraits Along the Mendocino Headlands

Portraits ran along the headlands afterward. Mendocino Headlands State Park wraps the village on three sides, its trails running right along the cliffs past sea arches and hidden grottos and the grove of wind-sculpted cypress. Alysia and Jeremiah walked the bluffs with their family, the coastline doing most of the work. Alysia stood with her sister Amanda, the pair laughing while the headland and the ocean stretched away behind them, the autumn bouquet held between them. A young boy in suspenders leaned in to kiss her cheek in another. The family's chocolate doodle turned up for its own portrait, a sprig of greenery tucked at its collar.

With nine people the portraits moved quickly, everyone already together on the bluff. The sun dropped low over the sea stacks, a flock of birds strung out across the water, the headland going to silhouette as the last light came in off the Pacific.

An Italian Dinner at Luna Trattoria in Mendocino

In the evening the group gathered around one long table at Luna Trattoria for a family-style Italian meal, the nine of them, an easy table to linger at after an afternoon spent on the cliffs together. There was a champagne toast, a three-tier dessert stand, and a guest book set out for everyone to sign.

Luna Trattoria sits in downtown Mendocino, close enough to the headlands that the move from the cliff to the dinner table was a short one. A nine-person table at a small Italian restaurant is the right scale for a day like this — everyone in the same room, no one too far from the couple to raise a glass. A cliff, a sister reading the vows, and a long table for dinner, with a short walk between them.