On Sunday I drove up to San Francisco to see Tom Masino, a friend of my brothers' from our old neighborhood, and his family. I hadn't met his family before so it was nice to meet them all. Luckily Steve suggested I borrow his car so I didn't have to drive the RV up the SF hills. Tom and Elaine have a real nice house in the Haight-Ashbury district. They made a real nice dinner and we finished off a bottle of Elaine's merlot, which was very good. Elaine started up a vineyard a few years ago on land that's been in her family quite a while in Sonoma County. So if you see Elaine Maria Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc in the store make sure you try it.
Yesterday I drove back up to San Francisco after saying goodbye to Mimi & Steve and the kids, but this time I just drove through it to go over the Golden Gate bridge. I stopped at Muir Woods National Monument and took an hour or so to walk through. It's a forest of giant redwoods. It's a beautiful place. Everything is so lush and green there. I could have taken 50 pictures and I still wouldn't have done it justice. You just can't capture the beauty of those trees on film - at least not with my camera. Poor Abbey had to wait in the RV cause they don't allow dogs there. Not one of her favorite places! We then drove up a really windy road to the top of Mt. Tamalpais and on a short hike saw a great view of the entire Bay Area. On the way back down I took probably the windiest road yet before reaching Highway 1, which pretty much runs the entire coast of California. We found a nice state park that was in a redwood forest. Abbey loved the smells there and it was really cool since it was so shady. Unfortunately, it looks like California state parks have really increased their rates - $25/nt with no hookups! I guess this is part of Arnold's answer to the budget crisis.
This morning we started off at Point Reyes National Seashore, which is pretty spectacular. We took a couple of short beach walks there. It wasn't quite as enjoyable for me because Abbey found everything from seaweed to dead sand crabs to try and eat. I gave up trying to stop her after a while. I figured if she got sick, it would be her own fault. She also decided that rolling in the sand worked almost as well as in the grass or snow. Luckily, it shook right off of her. Afterwards, we got back to Highway 1 and headed up the coast. The scenery is beautiful here with so many small little beaches to choose from. We found yet another one to walk, but this one was covered with real small stones instead of sand. It almost hurt to walk on, but it was still worth it. I stopped a little earlier than I expected because the windy road (I'm starting to make this a habit) was wearing both of us out. We're staying tonight at Gualala Point Park. There are redwood trees and some other kind of tree that is pretty cool looking and grows in clusters. It feels like we're in the tropics almost. The mosquitoes (first ones of the year) help to give that impression as well. Tonight for dinner I had some artichoke ravioli I got at Trader Joe's with some of my pesto sauce I made the other day. I wasn't as happy with this batch of pesto, but it still wasn't bad for camping out. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of driving. I'm going across the state to Bullards Bar Reservoir near Marysville to meet up with Dan & Bonnie Gibbons, and their kids. They are old friends from Kingston, now living in Colorado. We'll be camping there together for several days.
Golden Gate
Muir Woods
More Muir
Point Reyes - Limantour Beach
Point Reyes
Sonoma Coast