California

We woke up early Tuesday, but it took a couple hours for us to get out of Grants Pass. I mentioned the rain from Monday night, but here is a picture I took from our Motel Room’s door.

Angela programmed the GPS so we would head down Highway 101 through the Redwood National State Park from south Oregon to Northern California. It was a very twisty and turny route, but it was fun and we got to see a lot of very big Redwoods all morning.

We were very excited when we entered the border to California. Right before we got to the check point into California I realized Angela had brought a banana and apple from the motel. I panicked and told her we needed to eat them quickly before they made us throw them out, but Angela wouldn’t do it. When we got to the check point we “declared” our fruit and they said we could keep them. It was a true agricultural victory.

When we finally hit the coast in Northern California, Angela cried out that she saw Ocean so we quickly pulled over and took some pictures and breathed in the fantastic ocean air!

The ocean stirred something deep down in Angela and I, and we realized it was because we had drank too much water and soda during the drive. We quickly found a Rest Stop to alleviate our need, and then had a quick lunch out of our cooler in the trunk. We’d barely driven a couple miles after that when Angela cried out “Go Left, NOW!” Luke quickly complied and pulled into a parking lot with huge statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

Angela posed next to the true source of Babe’s power…

We continued through the Giant Redwoods southward and had to stop and take a few pictures with one of these Giants.

As we continued, we saw a sign that said “Elk Crossing”, and sure enough, minutes later, a herd of Elk were right next to the road. It was fascinating that the Elk were not disturbed in the least by the cars zooming by.

Shortly after the Elk, we hit Eureka further down the coast. We stopped for some Starbucks and another Restroom break and also picked up some quick and early dinner as we weren’t sure what might (or might not) be available between Eureka and San Francisco. We strolled around Eureka a bit as we waited for our dinner to cook and decided that it looked like one of those towns that might have boomed in the 70s and 80s and then froze in time after that.

Angela decided to take a turn at the wheel as we left Eureka, but she slammed on the brakes and pulled over about 90 minutes south of Eureka realizing that she didn’t have one of her rings (given to her by her late father and step mother for her graduation). We called the Starbucks we had stopped at to see if they had seen it, but they hadn’t. We searched the car, but couldn’t find it. We are praying it turns up, as the ring means a lot to Angela.

As we continued south, we decided to try and find a cheap place to stay north of San Francisco. With spotty cell service, it was tough to search. We drove through the wine vineyard country north of San Francisco and decided to stop in Santa Rosa and just try a couple places to see if they had vacancies. We settled on a Hotel that had a pool and checked in. We ended our day with a quick dip in the pool before heading to bed.

On Wednesday, we are continuing south and hope to see some nice areas south of San Francisco and enjoy the sunny weather that the weather people have promised.