San Francisco

Saturday we did some exploring before we crossed the bridge into San Francisco. We went to Muir Woods National Park. It was packed with people because it is the 100 year anniversary for the park and it was a weekend. We didn’t spend too much time in the woods as we had been there before. Bob dropped me off and had to park about a mile away. The trees were beautiful and it is still awesome to see the mammoth trees. We came back down found a tiny lunch place and drove into Sausalito. I would love to spend some time exploring the town. However we actually were on a lighthouse and national park mission. We went into Ft. Baker where we took pictures of San Francisco across the bay. There were sailboats all over the bay. We could see the lighthouse on Alcatraz Island. We looked for a lighthouse on Angel Island but couldn’t see one from our vantage point. We were able to see the Lime Point Lighthouse and get a picture of it. We then drove west and up a mountain. We could see the Point Bonita Lighthouse from there. We also had some additional awesome views of the coastline and the bunkers in the hillside.

We did not hike down the trail to the lighthouse.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco and checked into our timeshare. We stayed in the Fisherman Wharf area. The below is a scene from our building.Sunday was a relax day. Monday we walked to Pier 39 so that we could see the sea lions.

We were here in 2001 and watched them. We understand that they began to take over the pier after the earthquake in 1989. They are noisy and loud, funny and smelly. They sleep during the day and in the evening they leave the pier and go out (we assume to eat). We took the bus up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Below is a picture of Lombard Street taken from Coit Tower. It is the street with the most curves in the world - 8 in one block.Tuesday we drove south to see two lighthouses – Pigeon Point and Pt. Montara. We drove through some farmland and saw all of the preparations for Halloween. There were fields and fields of pumpkins, corn mazes, straw mazes and much more. We took our salads for lunch and had a great day. As we were driving south Bob decided to pull off to the side so he could get a good look at the coastline. It is not quite a rocky as it was further north. Then he said “Look at the seals”. Out in the water we could see the seals swimming north and arching up and out of the water, one after another. There were probably over 100 that we saw. I was able to get some on the movie of my camera and managed just a quick still shot. It was too hard to time when then would be coming out of the water. We were really excited about seeing them. In the second picture you can hopefully see two seals on the rocks. We stopped at the Land’s End area of the Golden Gate National Park and were able to see the Mile Rocks Lighthouse on a tiny island. We spent some time driving through and around the Presidio. We watched the fog come in and marveled at the cloud that covered just the middle section of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then after dinner we walked around the area we are staying and went to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream. Wednesday we drove across the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge and made a circular route checking out 3 lighthouses and 2 national parks. We found Rosie the Riveter and learned that the name came from a song during WWII. Then we drove north and found the East Brother Island Lighthouse on an island in the San Francisco Bay. It looks like a very beautiful spot on the island from where we could see it. We found the keeper house from the Carquinez Strait Lighthouse in Vallejo. The lighthouse no longer exists and the house was moved to the current spot. Then we went to the John Muir National Historic Site and spent a couple of hours learning about Mr. Muir. He really is the father of the National Park System. The site is located on a farm in Martinez where he raised his family. He truly was quite an author and lover of God’s beautiful world. Then we drove back into Oakland to find another lighthouse. This one was the Oakland Harbor lighthouse and it was moved 6 miles south in 1966 to Embarcadero Cove and is now a restaurant called Quinn’s Lighthouse Restaurant and Pub. We ate there and it was excellent. It was the most awesome Seafood Newburg Au Gratin I have ever had. It was full of shrimp, crab and scallops. Thursday and Friday were more typical San Francisco days as it turned rainy and foggy. We did walk most mornings down close to the harbor and usually about 1 ½ miles. Saturday was a travel day and for me a horrible one. I got the flu and was miserable. We ended up driving as far as Sparks, Nevada and from Sacramento on it was raining. We checked in about 3pm and I slept for almost 17 hours. Sunday was better as the really bad ache was gone. We drove all the way across Nevada and stayed 2 miles into Utah for the night. God is good. The weather is cooperating and we haven’t had to drive in the snow and the passes were open. We could see the snow on the tops of the ridges but it wasn’t down quite to the road yet. We enjoyed some CD’s and watched the scenery.

Fog and Beauty

We stayed in a very new small trailer in a timeshare which used to be an RV park but is now a timeshare in Point Arena, California. We were right at the ocean. On Saturday and Sunday we did our morning walks in the fog down the road that went to the lighthouse. We noticed a minty smell in the first part of the walk on the first day. It was the eucalyptus trees and the smell was very strong. It was foggy all day and night. Now we know what it means for the fog to roll in. It was very misty, damp and wet. We did see two deer the first morning. They were silhouetted in the fog on a hill. This tree attracted us every day we walked by it. What looks like birds is part of the tree.I think one of the most interesting things was the large spider webs that were covered in dew. Now I am not a lover of spiders but the webs were beautiful.

On Monday the fog lifted and we went sightseeing. First we drove the 2 miles down our walking road to the Point Arena Lighthouse. It was quite interesting because it was covered in plastic and being renovated.

These stylish trees made great pictures.

Then we drove north along the coastal highway CA1. Again it was curvy and close to the cliff edge but not as bad as Mountain View Road from last week. It was a beautiful drive and we went to Mendocino and spent some time in the shops. We drove a little further north to see the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. Now the drive wasn’t bad but then we had to walk ½ mile out to the lighthouse and ½ mile back. I did quite well though but my ankle got quite tired. We are having fun trying to identify the animals, flowers and trees that we are seeing. We decided that this squirrel is a California Ground Squirrel.

It was cool part of the time and we enjoyed using the fireplace. We went to the town pier in Point Arena and watched some surfers. Friday we left Point Arena and drove on south down the coast, again on a curvy road. I have determined that there are no straight roads in California. But we saw some awesome cliffs and an unusual rocky coastline.

We drove about 15 miles out westward on a road that kept getting narrower and narrower to the lighthouse at Point Reyes. It was about 15 miles out and after about 10 miles the fog really did roll in across the land point. We saw many deer as well as the lighthouse which again was another ½ mile walk to and from.

I did draw the line at walking down the stairs to it. The steps were equal to a 30 story building. We were able to see it and take some good pictures. The tree shapes are interesting and we assume they grow that way because of the breeze (or wind) from the ocean. We stopped at the visitor center to get our Passport book stamped and then drove on to our hotel in Larkspur. It was a good week. I have felt good all week and also did some more sewing. We also finished some more bookmarks to send to Sri Lanka. We have been traveling since the end of March and time is sure going quickly. We are so thankful for safety and God's mercy as we travel. Till the next time. God bless.

Turn, Curve, Wind, Turn, Curve, Curve!!!!!!!

Oh, my, oh, my. What a trip. I am starting with Friday as we left Redding, California and headed to Point Arena, California. Now most of you know that the van has a GPS and we have finally named our guide. We are going to call her Ms. Jezebel. We thought about “Make a U-turn” since she is always telling us that but decided against it. We needed to drive south and west because Point Arena is on the coast and we had to go through some mountains to do that. Ms. Jezebel told us that we would be there around 4. That was of course before we stopped for lunch. She does not take into account any stops and readjusts her time when we start back up from the stop.

We ate lunch at Williams which is a small town on I-5 and we think must be known only for the restaurant there called Granzella’s. It was delicious, awesome, busy and very enjoyable. It was in an area that had many olive groves. When we left there we had about 140 miles to go and Ms. Jezebel said it would take 4 hours. We had a beautiful drive west toward the coast and then up the east side of Clear Lake. We drove right by the Worldmark timeshare on Clear Lake. We continued northwest until we intersected with US101 and turned south on it. We only had to go 10 miles (just south of Ukiah) until we turned west on CA253.

Now when you look at a map I’m sure that you know the roads are different depending upon the width and color. CA253 is a fairly thin “black” line (it could be gray). The deal was Ms. Jezebel said we had about 60 miles to go and it would take us almost 3 hours. So Bob said something was definitely incorrect and the time would readjust. Guess what! The arrival time didn’t change. It took us a little longer than an hour to go to Boonville. Then the sign said End 253. That was interesting and now I understood why Ms. Jezebel told us to go on Mountain View Road and that is exactly what we did. It took us almost 1 ½ hours to go 26 miles and our arrival time was right on what she told us.

Don’t get me wrong, it was an interesting drive but there was hardly ever more than 20 yards straight. I am thankful that it was clear, sunny and without rain. We made it safely and before dark. Now I’ll tell a little about last week.

We stayed 6 nights in a cabin outside of Redding, California. It was a modified B&B and had a kitchen which was great. We saw wild turkey, deer (right next to the van), squirrels with big bushy gray tails, jack rabbits (the ones with huge ears), quail and lots of different birds.

We didn’t get to see the bear which had been there the night before we arrived. The weather was also much warmer there. The pine trees all over the area are Valley Pine and they have huge cones.

We went to two different National Parks. At Whiskeytown we hiked a small distance on two different trails, one of them leading to some waterfalls.

We drove to Lassen Volcanic National Park and drove through from the north to the south. Many times we have only seen a mountain peak from one side. We got to see the Lassen Peak from the east and the west.

We got to see a controlled burn

and learn about the volcanic eruption that took place in 1914 and 1915. We went from about 1,000 feet to over 8,500 feet. The peak is taller but we didn’t hike to the peak.

I did a little work on some Christmas gifts; we did cross-stitch and read some. It was a comfortable week.