Pacific Coast - San Francisco - Redwood Forest -Oregon

 

May 27 - May 31

As we had north from Monterey Bay, CA we see lots of campers parked beside the highway - people are camping just beside the beach. Looks like it is first come first serve. 

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We see several lighthouses along the way.  This one was beside a  motel

 

We thought we needed to go to San Francisco to see the seals, but there were several seal viewing spots before we got to SF.  So we stopped to find a bunch of seals sunning on the beach...

We spent a few days in San Francisco, driving the hills was interesting in the Vette.  We thought we wanted to drive the curvy, hilly road but didn't need to once we drove around town,  

 

 

 

We spent time at San Francisco Pier 59 and saw more seals............ They are quite interesting to watch.





We spent time at the Golden Gate Bridge Park observing how this bridge was built and traveled over it the next day on our way north.

We drove through another redwood tree park and took the car through this redwood tree.  It is 300 ft call and 2400 years old!  It was on earth with Jesus was....... 

The Sonoma area grape vineyards are everywhere you can look. 

 

As we traveled up the Oregon Coast, the view is even prettier.  While there are rocks visable in the water, the water is really blue and the beaches seem to be really the best we have seen.

Our time on the Pacific beaches is over - but is was everything we expected and more.  The weather was warm enough to have the top down and enjoy the California sun..... Next - Washington State.

Leaving Nevada for Yosemite and California Coast

May 24-27.

 

We leave Las Vegas and head west through  Death Valley and the Sierra/Nevada mountains.  We noticed that the air is so dry that  frozen water bottles do not sweat at all as they begin to thaw.  The roads are desolate and we see cacti, tumbleweeds, etc for hours, but the landscape is still pretty in its own way.

 

We cross into California and see snow again - its warm enough to drive with the top down - but snow is still on the ground.....  

 

 

Next stop is Yosemite National Park  where we see huge redwood trees and beautiful waterfalls. 

 

 

One thing we did not expect to see in California  was oil or gas wells, but these wells can been seen everywhere, even inside city limits of small cities. 

We finally make it to the Pacific Coast Highway 1 and begin our drive at Malibu on  Memorial Day! 

 

 

As we continue our drive up the coast, we find that the beaches are very rocky and in many cases there is no beach.... Walking the beach in most cases means no more than 100 yard walk.  We did see several surfers surfing in the Big Sur area but didn't see big waves.

 
 
 

 

We spend time driving on some of the back roads in central California and saw so many vegetable and fruit fields.   Grocery shopping for fruits and veggies won't be the same now, I'll have to look to see if they came from California fields.  I was able to buy fresh huge strawberries at roadside stands and really enjoyed them.

 

The other thing we came to appreciate was how many military bases we have on the Pacific coast -  hidden along the way.  We made one turn and saw a set of aircraft  at the entrance of an air force base and saw this replica jet as if it was about to take off in front of us!.   It was heart warming to remember all the military who serve to protect us all the time.

More to come soon as we move north!  Enjoy.