We left Lopez, Annie and I did. We picked up Liza in Seattle. We went down to Sam's house in Portland next, stopping to see someone in Tacoma, at UPS. More bocce was played. We had a great Portland visit with Sam and his parents, but we didn't stay long, the coast was beckoning. The first night was spent on the Oregon coast near Coos Bay. We woke up in the morning and explored our surroundings, what a beautiful and rugged coast.The beauty of the coast never let up. We drove along it for almost a week and everywhere we stopped it was spectacular. We alternated between coast and redwoods. They were beautiful, grand, red, but no sign could tell Annie their genus. I learned that my great, great, great grandfather was instrumental in creating California's first state park, which was Big Basin Redwood State Park, just outside of San Jose. Although we were unable to visit that park, I felt honored and proud that my ancestor was involved in saving the redwoods.
The evening after seeing our first redwoods, we drove into Arcata. It was immediately clear that this place is special. People looked funny, stuck in time, or stoned. There were characters everywhere. We ended up spending a full day in Arcata. After that we saw more redwoods and more coast as we made our way down highway 1 into San Francisco. Behold:
This was still in Oregon. Sea lions were barking out on the rocks in the background
Liza throwing a bocce ball on another spectacular beach in Northern California.
Annie and Liza at the base of a sizeable redwood tree.
Another beautiful section of coast.
This was still in Oregon. Sea lions were barking out on the rocks in the background
