Welcome to California

Well, today we drove under a much bigger and more persistent cloud. There were no sunny breaks and only one rainbow at the start of our drive. We were showered consistently as we wound our way along the windy (both senses of the word were true today) coastal road. It would have been rotten weather for sightseeing or hiking, but just perfect for a coastal drive. The wind and rain whipped up the waves, making them crash all the more violently against the jagged rocks that tower along the entire shoreline here. It's like a giant Livi-like being has been standing in the mountains throwing rocks into the "wanner" and they jut out from everywhere.

A low point of our day was when we drove into a tree. Thankfully, we drove out the other side of it unscathed (har har). The gargantuous Redwood trees of Northern California are so big, well, that you could drive your van right through one of them (as long as you pull in your mirrors first). We took a turn off Hwy 101 onto the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway - a very worthwhile 12km detour as it takes you through a thick grove of King Redwoods. Note: Despite appearances, we are driving a minivan, not a smart car. That's just a big tree.


The detour provided us with our only, and very brief, stop of the day. We pushed ourselves quite a bit as this was going to be our longest day of the trip. I think we've learned that we need to take a good lunch break and just arrive to the hotel a bit later. We were all ready to arrive. We turned off the 101 onto Hwy 1 to stay close to the Coast and although it was worth it when we arrived to the sheer and fragile cliffs of the California shoreline, we initially thought we'd made a mistake. For the first 30 miles or so, the road is more like a one and half lane highway than a two. It is full of very tight hairpin turns and the only time your wheels are pointed forward is at the inflexion point between two opposite curves. We both felt a bit woozy when we finally reached straighter roads. Livi, true to her general disposition on this trip, was laughing happily in the back seat, pretending to take Paddington rock skipping on the Ocean ("splash", "Paddington all wet").


We're sleeping in Fort Bragg tonight, in a pretty shabby hotel, but it'll do. We got a good price cause our room only has a view of the parking lot. The clerk at the front desk stopped me when I was spelling my name to him "K-R-U-S-Z-E..." ; "Scuse me?" ; "Oh, I guess you guys say Zee here, eh? I'm from Canada." ; "Ha ha, I's wonderin' whadda Zed wuz". We enjoyed a good laugh.

Tomorrow we have a short three hour skip to San Francisco. Our route takes us across the Golden Gate bridge and our hotel is almost right on the other side. We will be picking up Matt & Lydia Martin at the airport and going out for dinner. The next 4 days will be in S-F - we may not update our blog daily during this stretch as we'll be spending our evenings in the big city with friends. We will continue to let you know when we update the blog. Till then, goodnight.