Coast to Coast

I was disappointed to leave San Francisco so soon, but we planned a short stop; we knew we'd be back to visit so no need to spend more time on this trip. Next time I definitely want to visit Alcatraz, eat in Chinatown, explore Golden Gate Park, have an ice cream at Ghirardelli, ride a trolley a few more times, and check out some of the local bookstores. 

We did have some fabulous food in San Francisco - lots of fresh seafood and some sushi. Well, Marshall had sushi. :) I don't care for the uncooked stuff so I had tempura. I was shocked by how good mine was; I've only ever had heavily fried tempura and this perfectly cooked. Delicious! Marshall was a bit adventurous and tried a sake flight. I sipped one and that was enough. It was quite good, but I preferred my bottle of Kirin.

Trying not to get my feet wet

On the way out of town, we stopped at the beach so I could put my hand in the Pacific Ocean. I had never seen it before and I was so excited. We officially drove from one coast to the other! (Marshall did at least; he was in Tampa a few days before we left Orlando.) The water is just as cold as expected and we even saw a sea lion swimming around.

Yes, that's cold!

It had always been my dream to take the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) from San Francisco to Oregon. We mentioned this in Lake Tahoe and one of the dealers laughed and said that most people don't last the whole way. We didn't understand what she meant until we got on to the highway. Oh my, calling it a winding road is an understatement. We soon got dizzy from all of the curves and motion sickness forced us off of the highway about halfway up the road. And while the view was pretty, it wasn't the blue sky and beach I expected. Instead it consisted of fog, cliffs, and lots of trees. 

View from Highway 1

We stopped for gas and coffee in Bodega Bay, made famous by the movie The Birds. Yes, there were birds everywhere. I was convinced they were following me and planning to peck out my eyes. No, I'm not kidding. Oh, and check out the sign next to the gas station. Ha!

We started to get into redwood forrest territory, so we decided to stop for the night. We learned our lesson driving through Yosemite at night; no way were we going to to miss the redwood trees and Avenue of Giants when it was already dusk. As we got closer and saw no hotels, we realized we needed some local information. Of course we had no wifi and couldn't surf the net for a hotel. So we stopped at a small state park just to talk to the guy at the gate. He directed us to some hotels (thankfully) and then we drive through a tree! The Tahoe was a tight squeeze but it made it through twice - once with both of us and a second time for pictures.

Per usual on this trip, we completely lucked out with our accommodations. Instead of the Best Western that was recommended, we stumbled upon The Benbow Inn. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was a fabulous place to stay. Dinner in the dining room may have been the best meal of our entire trip - perfectly cooked steak, vegetables from the garden, local beer and wine, and a trio-of-chocolates dessert that was incredible. Our room overlooked the patio and river, and had a private balcony. And as usual, we were sad to check out so quickly, but I'd recommend it to anyone traveling to Redwood National Park.