Down the Coast!

Hello from South San Francisco!
(the rest of the post written July 25th... it was a late night)

Google told me 244 miles for today, on mostly winding roads, weaving around the coast. It only took us a bit to get to Leggett, CA, where we peeled off on CA-1 for the Shoreline Highway.
And by highway they meant high way.












From A to B is only 15 miles, but it took us quite a while because for most of it we could only go 20 miles an hour, the turns were so sharp and steep. You should have seen how high we were! We only caught glimpses of that because the trees were so many, blocking our view.

The coast was yet again fabulous. I was awe-struck at how high we were. I had forgot to mention this about the previous day... how I loved watching the sea birds cruising so high right around us, and how we were at eye level with the tops of the banks of clouds out over the sea. And while I'm on the topic of the day before, I also wanted to mention the redwoods again. They were so tall and spectacular we opened our sun roof screen to view the tops of them through the window as we drove along. And an interesting side note: I loved the little reflection markers they put at the base of every tree that grew right up to the pavement. "Please don't hit the trees!" :)

So Mom encouraged me to stop off at two viewpoints after we got back to hugging the coast (the coast is so lovely, it needs to be hugged by someone). At the first one we encountered a "private drive". Down a ways and higher up above were private homes! Wow! I would never want to live there! After being out for a second, we heard barking coming from somewhere up above. Mom was first to spot the black lab on the cliff above, going crazy trying to get us to leave. LOL! At the second stop, there was a paved, 0.2 mile path out to the edge of the coast (much lower edge) through some wetlands. I decided to run out there for a little exercise, since I could. When I got to the edge I looked out on some flat, low-lying rocks in the water and noticed a pair of harbor seals... one basking and one swimming in the protected cove. A little further to my right and I saw a huge group of them... several dozens... dotting all over the rocks. What a thrill! Wild ones! I ran all the way back (and up) to tell Mom and I quickly winded myself in the process. Felt great!

I was surprised at how big Fort Bragg was. Most of the towns out here are rather dinky. This had it's own train station and looked like it had a lumber mill... and much of the town retained its older style of architecture, which was very pleasant to look at. Old architecture reminds me... before Fort Bragg there was a tiny-tiney town with an old grocery store and single gas pump that looked like it was from 1930. Wish I would have got a picture!

But the rest of the towns until the Bay Area were very small. We stopped for lunch at a yuppie town with lots of artsy places - Gualala, CA - at "Cafe La La". The service was a little slow, but the food was really good. Had a chef's salad that was loaded with lots of turkey and cheese. But I was a little antsy because I was worried about missing out on the marine mammal recovery center on the headlands, just north of San Francisco. And we did miss it. But I think a lot of that was a couple of the slow drivers we got stuck behind. :)

Gee, I don't know how to describe the coast... It was so tall and rugged. There were little wild flowers all over the place... and such sweeping views of the coastline to the south! And I just adored those enormous rocks sitting just off shore. Much further south, around a tiny town called "Jenner" (my Dad calls me that sometimes!) we saw another colony of harbor seals and sea lions just sitting on a beach. There were lots of people around, but they kept their distance.

By the time we ended up back on US-101 (8 miles from the GG Bridge) it was unlikely that we would have much of any time to see the headlands. And after 4 miles we got stuck in parking lot, bumper-to-bumper traffic (although there were four lanes of traffic. The reason for this was they only had two lanes of traffic crossing the bridge going south. So we sat in that for about an hour before crossing (and it was really fun when we finally got to!).

Our plan for the evening only called for one stop. Mom and I found a parking garage near Pier 39 and spent the rest of the day there. But we were frazzled by the time we got there. Once getting off of 101 we were dumped into a lot more traffic, waiting on Lombard St to get to Fisherman's Wharf. But we made it. :) We went to the Aquarium of the Bay, right on the edge of the pier and then had a very fancy dinner for a treat.

The aquarium had three levels... the first one had lots of neat stuff like jellyfish, rockfish and the usual Pacific Coast stuff. They took us down below (in big elevators with a "naturalist" on board) to go through the tunnel tanks... which I loved! It's always fun to watch sharks and large fishes and rays swimming over you! But the last floor was a little odd... along with a small touch tank and tidal pool there were all sorts of random animals. There was a chinchilla... and all I could think of was Jeff in INPYMAWA... "our chinchillas... enchiladas..." lol! I digress... they had a hedgehog, several turtles, a bunch of termites and then a tarantula, of course (/shivers). I can't get away from the spiders! The strange thing about it was the floor was sponsored by a SF power company to talk about "sustainability". Oh well.

Dinner was at the "Fog Harbor Fish House" and was outstanding! I had a salmon salad: fresh greens in a lemon vinaigrette with a perfect fillet of grilled salmon that fell apart in my mouth. This was served with piping hot sourdough bread and a crab cocktail for an appetizer to share. Couldn't have asked for anything nicer! And the view out our window included the setting sun (through the banks of clouds) and Alcatraz with its blinking lighthouse, along with the marina. Gorgeous... and delicious!

By then it was past nine o'clock and we trudged back to the car. A quick jaunt on 101 landed us at our inexpensive but fully functional motel in South San Francisco near the airport. I was worried about the planes keeping us up, but we were both so tired that neither of us heard a thing. Mom was out half a minute after we said goodnight. I don't remember much else myself. :)

Jp