Welcome friends to our ongoing relocation from Anchorage, Alaska to Austin, Texas.
November 13th
We went and saw the Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City. Unfortunately,
it was closed, but I got a couple of good photos. You can only walk over to the
lighthouse if it is somewhat low tide because the lighthouse is on a rock in
the water and the trail gets covered over when the tide comes in. Sadly, we
found a little back bear on the beach right before the trail to the lighthouse.
Someone had killed him, cut his paws and head off and left him on the beach. We
reported it to to the local fish and game. They already knew about the bear but
had not been able to get down to get it because the tide kept taking it out and
bringing it back. It was so sad to see, it couldn't have been more than 150
pounds before they killed it.
We then went to the Crescent City Aquarium and it was wonderful. You get a tour guide that takes you through and tells you about the creatures and then you get to pet a shark and watch a seal and sea lion show. It was well worth the time and money, I really enjoyed it.
On the way home, we watched a lovely sunset.
November 14th
We started out the day at the Trees of Mystery. It turned out to
be a sunny day and fairly warm. It was a perfect day to go up in on the Sky Trail
Gondola. We were able to take Chelsea with us on both the trail and the gondola
and if we had wanted, into the gift store..I really appreciate dog friendly
places. In my opinion, you should be able to take you dog with you, especially
since Chelsea is better behaved than lots of children that I have seen…just
saying.
We went down the old redwood highway and saw some truly big trees. We saw trees that were 1500 years old. The is an old tree called the corkscrew tree that has an almost braided appearance in some sections. It was really tall and had a wide base. I went down the trail further and found a wonderful little creek with trees covered in moss. We then went further down the road and saw Big Tree. It is a magnificent tree for sure.
We then drove to the Fern Canyon; it has been in several movies including Jurassic Park. It was not as lush as it could be, but it was impressive nonetheless. By the time we got done with the little hike to the canyon, the sun was setting, so we left the canyon and went 8 miles down the little road back to the highway in near darkness. It was a little, barely two lane road surrounded by big trees. It is really dark in a redwood forest and completely back at night.
November 15th
Moving right along, we drove from Klamath to Fort Bragg,
California. The initial highway 101 was great, nothing too spectacular to see
but it was fine.We did see some wild Elk. I wanted to camp out in Eureka because they had some wonderful
Victorian homes and buildings but we needed to get down the road further. The road
from the 101 to Fort Bragg was horrible with one hairpin corner after another,
up hills, down hills and we had gotten there right around nightfall, so it was
pitch black. We got into Fort Bragg finally and stayed the night there at an RV
Park.
November 16th
After staying the night at the RV Park, we discovered that the
wi-fi, bathrooms and showers did not work. Since it was rather crappy weather,
we decided to move onward. However, I had to see the famed Glass Beach and
although it was high tide, we were able to see some of the glass on the beach.
The story behind the beach is that the locals dumped their junk, trash, and old
cars on the beach for years and even though they have since cleaned it up and stopped
the trash dumping their trash, the glass remained behind and the waves keep polishing
it and putting more on the beach. There was some rusty colored rocks/rusted
metal that had pieces of the glass embedded in it. It was really neat to see and
definitely worth stopping.
We stopped at Safeway on the way out to get some supplies and a
little bird hung out with us while we unloaded the cart into the trailer..it
was cute. There were also flowers still blooming in the parking lot, some sort
of bulb that looked like an Iris and a Peace Lily.
We headed on down the road headed to San Francisco. The road from
Fort Bragg to the 101 was as horrible as the one on the way in but, thankfully,
it was light out. All I can say is thank you to the people who invented Bonine,
I could not be doing this trip without it. If you are like me and tend to get a
little motion sickness, I highly recommend Bonine; one tablet a day, no
drowsiness and you don’t get sick.
We drove through some of the wine country on the way to San
Franciso and it was lovely. Unfortunately, it rained most of the way, but I
liked seeing all the fields of grapes and some famous wineries on the way. We
hit rush hour once we got into Santa Rosa and I will never complain about
traffic in Alaska again. There were five lanes of traffic headed each way down
a divided highway, off ramps and on ramps galore, it was nuts. Add to that the
pouring rain and darkness and it was quite the experience. Thankfully we made
it through without any problems and pulled into the RV park in the pouring
rain. It is not very enjoyable to set up a trailer in the pouring rain and
James and I were both soaked within minutes.
November 17th
I got to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove in from Marin County
which is on the North side of the bridge. It was foggy on the way into San
Francisco but then the clouds cleared up and we were able to enjoy strolling
around some of the streets of San Francisco. We were able to find a great
parking garage near Lombard Street with great views. We saw some wonderful
buildings including a Catholic Church built in 1901 and the Palace of Fine Arts
(I fell in love with both of them).
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| Golden Gate in the Fog |
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| Catholic Church |
We roamed around Fisherman’s Wharf and were able to board a lake 1800’s Alaska Fish packer clipper. We went to Ghirardelli Square, unfortunately, they don’t make the chocolate there anymore and so I didn't get a tour of the chocolate factory. I did buy some yummy fudge and my favorite, milk chocolate and caramel candy. We had dinner at the McCormick and Kuleto’s which was yummy.
On the way out of town, I tried my best to get a good shot of the
Golden Gate Bridge at night while it poured down rain and the wind threatened to
tip over the camera. I think I succeeded.
Today off to the city again for more adventures.
Check out my website: www.rebeccabphotos.com
what a wonderful post
ReplyDeleteand love all the photos