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