Day 9: Last Day in the car!!! Washington, and flying fish!

Hello!

Today I was excited because it is officially our LAST DAY OF DRIVING!! It has been really fun so far...but now matter how fun the trip, its never a bad thing to end 10 days of living out of a Honda Civic. We packed up and got ready to go sight seeing a little more in Portland, but when we headed out it was super cold and raining/sleeting. I was being a wuss, so we decided to do a brief drive-through tour of a couple of the places Taylor wanted to see. We went down to the courthouse and the main square and decided to park and walk around since it had almost stopped raining.

We took a look around the area, but it was pretty dead and still really cold, so we figured it would be just as well if we called it quits and just headed to Seattle for the rest of the day. Today was our first and only day taking the highway, so we got on and drove north for the last time. About halfway there it started raining pretty hard (ugh, the northwest!!) so we got off the road and drove through a little town that was still covered in snow (still not old to me yet).

After the brief detour, we made it to the Seattle area. We hunted out the rental car place and had to say goodbye to our trusty little car. Oddly, we got a phone call a few days ago from the rental agency begging us not to take the car out of California. Apparently the agent was not supposed to rent Hybrid vehicles to people leaving the state, and wanted us to switch the car out in San Fran. We were already a good 10 hours away, so we politely refused. When we turned it in today they were a little shocked to see it, and they said all they can do is put it on a truck and ship it back to CA since they are not legally allowed to rent hybrids in WA. Weird. But it was a great car and we put 1657.6 miles on it for the trip!!

With the car gone, we hopped a shuttle to the airport, then got on a bus to downtown Seattle (creepy!). We made it to our hostel, which is RIGHT above the market at Pike's Place. We can practically see them throwing fish from our window! We walked over to the market and wandered through it for a good 2 hours. There is so much to see! We sampled cheeses, roasted nuts, smoked salmon, donuts, fresh fruits, pickles, jams, syrups, honey, and breads with dipping oil. There are vendors with flowers, and crafts and souvenirs. And of course there are fish!!

We had to stand and watch the boisterous men heckling and throwing fish. They are pretty good at it! And as they throw they yell, chant, and poke fun at the tourists. But they were all really friendly, and it was entertaining to see how fast they can have a fish cleaned, filleted and packed for shipping.

For dinner we picked a place in the market (it was featured in Sleepless in Seattle) and had steamed mussels, seafood bisque and fresh halibut as we watched the storms roll in over Puget Sound. Since it is ugly, rainy and cold, we are going to rest up and get ready for a full day of Seattle sightseeing tomorrow. I want to see the Space Needle and the rest of the city!

~Kristyn

Day 8: Hail, snow, and Portland!

Hey everyone,

I woke up to a somewhat now-unfamiliar sound: rain pouring down on the roof of the hotel! It was storming pretty hard when we packed up the car, and we quickly realized why we never considered moving to the northwest. We got on our way anyhow, and drove up the coast. After about an hour and a half of driving we hit even worse weather – it started hailing pea-sized hail! I thought it was pretty cool since I don’t often get to see any kind of frozen precipitation.

It didn’t last for too long, and we safely made it to our lunch destination. We picked the Rogue Brewery in Newport, OR to eat at since Taylor is a fan of their beers. It was a good lunch, and some good beer, but it was time to get moving and get on to Portland.

As we were driving we came over a hill and I saw a mountain covered in SNOW! Again I was amazed because at one time I could see both snow AND the beach. I was driving so I made an executive decision to go on a Snow Mission. We drove closer and closer until we finally got high enough that we were where the snow had fallen. I got out of the car and ran around in it for a few minutes before my hands got too cold from making snowballs to throw at Taylor. I made a silly little snowman and we got back on our way.

We said goodbye to the Coastal Scenic Highway that we had driven the whole way up and finally turned inland and towards the city, and the snowy scenery actually continued about half the way to Portland. There were whole forests of Douglas firs lightly dusted in white for me to stare at as we crossed over some low "mountains." I was pretty ecstatic and just tried not to run us of the road while staring at the snow for the rest of the drive ;)

Anyway, nobody else thinks snow is as exciting as I do, so on to Portland! We got there and checked in to our hostel. We were again in a fun shared room with 8 people and a shared bathroom, and oddly enough a troop of Girl Scouts were staying at the hostel too....it was a little weird to have them running around the place at all hours of the night, and I am beginning to notice some distinct differences between European and America hostels (namely just the age range!). We ditched our car and our stuff and headed out while it wasn't raining, sleeting or snowing.

We took a great tour of the Chinese Gardens. It was quiet and tranquil inside, and everything was still dripping from the rain an hour earlier. It was really pretty, but I bet its absolutely amazing in the spring or summer when everything is in bloom. After the gardens we wandered the waterfront and found a monument to the Japanese-Americans affected by WWII. They have planted cherry blossoms along the river, and unlike the Chinese Garden, these were in full bloom!

After the chilly stroll along the water we headed to the USA's biggest bookstore, Powell's Books. This place was HUGE!! You have to get a map at the front door just to be able to find your way out! I parked it in the Travel section and daydreamed about the next possible trip ;) and after a while of reading we decided to find dinner.

We went back to Portland's Chinatown and had some great Chinese food for dinner. It was absolutely freezing, so once we were done we decided to turn in. It seems like a cute little town, and we're excited to see a little more of it before we head out to Seattle tomorrow!

~Kristyn

Day 7: Oregon, dunes and Sandboarding!

HEY!

This morning we woke up to the typical rustlings of a 30-bed hostel. Those silly people were up and cooking breakfast at 7am, so we were awake and out early again. The hostel’s kitchen looked out over a rocky cliff and straight to the Pacific Ocean, which was a pretty nice view to have while making our pancakes. It was a clear and beautiful day, which is nice since apparently they had hail and some snow here yesterday before we arrived!

We said goodbye to the quaint little farmhouse and our bunk beds and headed out for our last day of driving in California. The road took us through a few more Redwood Forests before we approached the border of California and Oregon. After an hour or two we realized that there isn’t a whole lot in Oregon beside trees…a lot of trees. The scenery was just as dramatic as any we encountered in California, and the cliffs and points continued for mile after mile

It wasn’t too long of a drive, and after a few picture breaks we had arrived at our town (Winchester Bay, OR). We dumped or stuff and headed out for the day’s adventure: sandboarding! Just north of town is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. It has the largest sand dunes in North America, and it makes for some interesting outdoor activities. Since we are cheap and didn’t want to spend a bunch of money renting a 4-wheeler, I found an interesting alternative. It is just like snowboarding, except you do it on the sand. You climb up a sand dune, strap into the board barefoot (or with socks, it’s cold in Oregon!!),and glide down….sounds easy, right?

Well anyone who knows me also knows my track record for things that involve coordination, and I wasn’t an expert at this sport by any means. But it was a really good time, and Taylor and I had a good laugh at our lack of dune shredding abilities. We explored some of the dunes, and then went back to our little town to get the sand out of our ears and have dinner. On the way home we found an awesome place to view elk, so we got a few really good pictures of them. They were pretty close to the road, so we kept our distance, snapped a few pics and got back in the car.

When we were hungry and ready to go we went out in search of food – we were a little surprised when we couldn’t find ANY restaurants in our town open at 8pm. We really were out in the middle of nowhere! Eventually we found a pizza place open one town over, so we ordered a pie and then went home. Tomorrow we drive to Portland, and hopefully tour some of the city!

~Kristyn

Day 6: Whales, water and HUGE TREES ;)

Hi guys,

We woke up bright and early (again!) so we could pack up, eat breakfast and be down at the docks by quarter to 9. It was a nice change of pace to have breakfast (baked eggs on a bed of artichoke hearts, toast, and potatoes) served to us in our room! By the time we were done scarfing it down it was time to head out for whale watching. I realized that we really were up north when it started raining. It was cold, wet and windy, but I was completely undeterred and we headed to the harbor. At this time of year the California grey whale is migrating from it’s calving grounds in Baja back up to Alaska to eat and spend the summer.

There are about 26,000 grey whales parading by the coast, and I have been told that you can stand at just about any point on the coast and watch them parade by…let me tell you: I have been watching. They are not parading. I have seen NO whales. Anyway, with a 95% sighting success and Captain Randy at the helm we set out on our little charter boat to search for the somewhat elusive (to me) whales.

It didn’t take us long to spot a few whales, and the first whale we approached ended up breaching right in front of us!! He was clear out of the water before I realized what was happening and I only caught the tail end (no pun intended) of his magnificent swan dive. We found at least 5 or 6 other whales slowly meandering north and followed their movements for another hour or so. They gracefully spouted, took deep breaths and then disappeared under the water for 3-5 minutes at a time, so patience was required. Since this is not one of my strong suits I spent a lot of the time mentally encouraging the whales to re-surface, or jump, or roll over...none of which happened. (And they are also kind of camera shy, so sorry, no good pictures!)

Either way, I got to see a new animal, and we saw plenty of harbor seals trailing behind the boat on the way to and from the ocean. We returned safely to shore, gassed up the little hybrid and pointed it north. I didn’t realize how far north we were until a little while later when we approached the first National Forest with the GIGANTIC coastal redwood trees. Before we could even enter the park we came across a novel roadside attraction: The Drive Thru Tree. This humongous tree had a 6 feet wide by 7 feet tall hole carved right through its still alive and growing trunk.

We couldn’t resist! We paid our $5 along with every other sucker in line and made our way to the tree. It was, just as it promised, a drive through tree! I was skeptical, but the car slid right through it and we got the requisite million pictures of the car, and me in it, going through the tree. $5 well spent – where else can you drive through something living??

We ate lunch next to the tourist trap (mistake) and then got back to driving. There are 4 or 5 parks with trails through the giant redwood groves, and we wanted to see at least two of them before ending the day. One of the parks has what’s called the “Avenue of the Giants” which is a 32-mile scenic road through the Redwood forests that runs parallel to the highway. We wound through mile after mile of GIANT trees.

I really can’t describe this is any sort of way that would truly capture the experience, but I’ll give it a try. First of all, when you’re on the highway it’s sunny and clear and normal, but as soon as you begin to enter the forest it gets completely dark and the monstrous trees block out all traces of the outside weather. Also, the forests are at a high elevation and on the coast, so it gets pretty foggy, and they are well adapted to condense and capture the fog, so it’s basically raining down on you the entire time. In essence it goes from bright and open to dark, wet, and surrounded by trees that are taller than skyscrapers.

These trees can get as tall as of 380 feet (huge... really, really huge), the trunks can be up to 20 feet in diameter and they can live up to 2000 years. It is daunting and astounding trying to just take them in. And the silence is amazing. The rain trickles down through the needles, and falls onto the ferns and litter on the floor of the forest and it just sounds like peace. The Redwoods are just an absolutely fantastic place to visit and you should all go. And take me.

Anyway, we finally got back to (semi-)civilization and found the roadside attraction I had most been looking forward to – Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. They are 50 foot tall statues and just sitting in a parking lot on the side of the road. But the only catch was Babe’s head had fallen off. I was pretty disappointed. We got our pictures anyway and headed to find our hostel. On the way we accidentally stumbled upon some massive Roosevelt Elk grazing by the side of the road. Two new animals in one day! They looked pretty cranky, and I didn’t need to explain to the rental car agency how a crazed elk flipped the car, so we took off.

We did eventually find the hostel which is located in the Redwood National park. This is Taylor’s first official hostel experience (co-ed dorms, bunk beds, community kitchen, etc) so its fun watching him figure this all out. The hostel itself is a farmhouse built in 1908 that sits on a bluff looking over the ocean. We had to get food 40 minutes away just to cook it ourselves in the kitchen (very isolated!), but it was a great meal.

There isn’t a whole lot to do here since there is no internet, no town to go to, and its surrounded by national forest. I have caught up on my blogs, watched the sunset, uploaded all my pictures, made dinner, and it’s only 10pm.

Bed time! Tomorrow we are finally leaving California and entering Oregon.

~Kristyn

Day Five: The Bridge, Many more Hills, and Horses!!

Hello everyone!!
Today we left San Fran by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was entirely too enthusiastic to wake up at the crack of dawn and get ready for the day, so by the time we got to the bridge I think Taylor might have been about ready to throw me off ;)

It really is a beautiful structure. They say the designer picked the color to contrast with the hills and the grey clouds and fog that often occlude the bridge from view, and it really is a magnificent sight. As we came around the corner and went over the bridge I tried to snap pictures to give you an idea of what it was like, but you just have to see it!

We got out of the car once we had crossed it and walked halfway back. It is just soooo big!! The two towers stand 750 feet over the water, and when you walk across the spans you can really appreciate their enormity. Once I was finally done frolicing on the bridge and staring at it, we got back into the car and made our way further north. Today’s destination was a little town named Fort Bragg about 178 miles from San Fran – we were staying here just to break up the drive from SF to the Redwoods in the northernmost part of Cali.

The drive was insane – it took us over 5 hours to get here since the road just winds up and down the cliffs. It weaves in and out of lagoons, bays, and fjords that start at sea level and rocket up to bluffs and overlooks that tower over the ocean. The views from each point are amazing and I am really not getting tired of this drive since the scenery is just so spectacular.

We had lunch in a tiny little nowhere town on the side of the road and got back on our way in order to get to our horseback riding appointment!! I took over the driving and we passed a whole lot of nothing. We were both pretty amazed at how deserted it is just a few miles from San Fran – there are really no major cities/towns anywhere near it. Just ocean, the cliffs and a whole lot of trees.

We arrived in our town an were surprised to see a brewery whose beer we were familiar with, so we stopped and had a quick tasting before heading off to the horseback riding.

I got us to our ranch in time, and we got all geared up and ready to ride our horses down to the beach. We were with a big group (about 12 all together) which made it a little difficult (annoying). Either way, we got to ride horses through a state park, through a pine forest, and down the dunes to a black sand beach on the Northern California coast. It was chilly and a bit windy, but our horses led us along the beach for about an hour. It was really peaceful and a gorgeous beach, and even though my derrière was sore and my feet were frozen, I was a little sad we were going home.

I was forced to leave the horsies after feeding them entirely too many carrots, and we went to check in to our B&B. We stayed in the County Inn, which has 8 rooms and is a pretty, quaint place run by an adorable woman. She made a dinner recommendation, so after we quickly brought all our bags to the room we hurried out to dinner in time to catch the sunset at the restaurant. We had dinner on the harbor and got to enjoy some well made American style food (I had chicken and dumplings and Taylor had some fresh locally caught salmon).

Thanks to the driving, the horses, and a nice stick-to-your-ribs sort of dinner, I was tired and when we got back to the B&B I was ready to pass out. But we couldn’t go to bed without using the hot tub (which Taylor found hilarious and hoped to meet some people like the ones in the Will Ferrell SNL sketch!). So we got in the tub for about 10 minutes before the novelty wore off and we were both ready to turn in.

I think I fell asleep around 10pm, but I was glad because whale watching is happening first thing tomorrow!! It was a great day – so much more still to come :D

~Kristyn

Day Four: The Golden Gate, Trolleys and LOTS of hills

Hello All, today Taylor will be guest blogging about our day in San Fran.

Today we started out early with breakfast in the hostel, a continental breakfast in every sense of the word that I'm sure made our fellow hostellers feel at home, and then out the door by 9 am for a long day of sightseeing. We first headed to Union Square and saw the Dewey Monument that commemorated Admiral Dewey's victory in Manila Bay in 1898. The square was pretty empty so early in the morning as it is surrounded by high-end shops (Tiffany, Neiman Marcus, and the like). After a quick stroll around the square we headed down to Powell and Market to pick up the world famous Cable Cars.

We arrived at the Cable Car turn around to see a decent line that surprised us as it was pretty early on a Monday. After a short wait we boarded our moving National Historic Monument and rode over Nob Hill and Russian Hill down to the Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf. At the wharf we made our way to the Alcatraz ferry only to find out that the next available ferry was on Friday. The guide books had said call in advance but had not said call a week in advance and again this is a Monday. I guess a lot of places are on Spring Break.

Disappointed but undeterred we found a Bay Cruise that was leaving in a hour and got tickets. We then walked around and saw some of the historic ships to kill some time. We then boarded our Bay Adventure Cruise and began a tour of the mouth of the bay. The ferry went out and under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Ellis Island of the West. It was a good cruise, a little windy on the way out, and hit all the highlights of the bay. Most of the fog had burned off but the Golden Gate Bridge was still partially wrapped in it.

After we returned to dry land we had fish and chips and clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf. While eating lunch, the rest of the fog lifted off the bridge and Kristyn wanted to go demand that the boat take us back out so we could get better photos. I eventually convinced her that we would walk down the pier to get a better angle and this seemed somewhat acceptable. We went down the Hyde Street pier were there are a number of clipper ships from the early gold rush days of San Fran for the photo. Afterwards we headed over to Ghirardelli Square for a hot fudge sundae.

The next site on our list involved us hiking up Nob Hill. While strenuous it was more impressive that they were actually able to build a city on these steep hills and while you may hear it talked about you must walk to the top of one the hills to truly appreciate how hilly the city is. Once at the top we stopped at Lombard street which is the world's crookedest street. This strange street consists of 10 switchbacks which were built to help the first automobiles ascend the steep incline. After watching some cars navigate down and a number of tourists almost get run over by standing for photos in the middle of the road we boarded another cable car and headed to Chinatown.

We entered through the Dragon's Gate entrance into Chinatown and found store after store of "tourist souvenirs." We walked down the main road for a number of blocks and then headed into the North Beach area which is the Little Italy of San Francisco. We stopped in Washington Square Park for a quick break and then tackled Telegraph Hill. At the top we rode a further 210 ft. to the top of the Coit Tower which provides an awesome panorama of the whole city and surrounding Bay. After coming down form Telegraph Hill we tried to in vain to hail a cable car, it was rush hour and they were all crowded, and ended up hiking back over Russian Hill and Nob Hill back to out hostel and some well deserved rest.

Tomorrow is another early day as we head to the Mendocino area and the day will include some kind of wildlife (either whales or horses).

Taylor

Day Three: Monterey, the 17 mile drive, and San Fran!!

Hello loyal followers,

What a beautiful day!! We woke up today in the middle of a grove of redwoods in out little tent cabin. Since we didn't have too far to go and wanted an easy day, we slept in, packed up the car, then got on the road. We left the Big Sur area (heading north, as always) and wound our tiny car through the forest and back out to the ocean. It was only about 30 miles to Monterey, but the drive was spectacular! Up and down cliffs, towards the ocean and then away, through hilly farmland and across dunes...

After passing miles and miles of artichoke farms (I had never seen those before) we made it to Monterey. We paid our $9.25 for the privilege to drive the 17 miles through the Pebble Beach area and around all the famous golf courses. We got to see a few of the courses, views from the hills above the peninsula and the super famous "Lone Cypress" tree that sits on a jagged rock that just out into the Pacific (its just a tree that has sat there for over 250 years, so it has become a bit of a symbol of the area).

We made it up to the Pebble Beach golf course and Taylor had to go see the first tee and the Pro Shop. After that we ate lunch at the Pebble Beach Cafe (Taylor couldn't believe they let us in wearing our flip flops). After consuming our all-too-expensive grilled cheese and burger, we finished up the last few miles of the 17 mile drive and got back on the road to San Fran.

We just made it here and checked into our hostel. Its pretty late and we don't know the city yet, so we might just hang around for the night.We have our own private little room with our own bathroom, and its pretty nice for a hostel. There are people here of all ages, which is a little surprising (there are little kids running around and the people that checking in behind us looked like they were 80!) so it's an interesting place to stay. We are going to have our dinner in the hostel, make a good plan for a full day of sightseeing and then get up bright and early and do a whole day of the city tomorrow.

I can't wait to see the Golden Gate bridge, go tour Alcatraz and stroll through Chinatown. So much more to come!

~Kristyn