Trip of Giants - Redwoods and Lazy Susans

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Fog is the order of the day. It blows hard and chilly in Eureka. A 'light' continental breakfast at Travelodge consisted of 2 cereals, coffee, and a couple of buns. With nothing holding us in Eureka we headed straight out. Petrol $3.03/gallon.

The drive to Avenue of the Giants was not far south. The redwoods are magical and majestic. With stunning size, some trees are within a foot of each other. I had to drive slowly through the various groves of redwoods as we made our way south. It would be a gross insult to nature to just speed past.

We stopped at the Founders Tree 20min walk, where I revelled in the quiet of the woods (once we'd told Joseph to stop blowing his whistle). Most of the photos are from there, although I wish I'd taken more movies as they really show off the grandeur. We stopped at a number of art and craft shops as well, lots of nice wood work being done.

We skipped all the other hoaky touristy stuff, aiming for Mendocino. Turning off the 101 the road from Legget to the coast is a nightmare. It is the most windy and long road I've been on (that includes comparisons with the Wangamoas, Punakaiki valley 'shortcut', and south of San Marino). It is a real killer for sensitive stomaches. I'd chosen that stretch of road to pass the keys to Kylie for a change, and ended up suffering with Liam in the back seat.

Finally we made it too the coast, where the road straightened out a little. There the fog was madly rolling in, but keeping some bits magically clear. I would have liked to spend more time there looking for coastal shots.

At Mendocino we joined loads of other people (that had arrived for the Music festival and Craft fair), viewing loads of arts and crafts. There is some really nice work there. Ky and I were enthralled by beaithful carved and painted lazy susans ($395 each, we decided out of our price range), and a fabulous ottoman for around $2600, Ky also was checking out some glass cupboard latches from oregon.

Liam commented on wanting to find a toy store and then there it was in front of us: there he found knights on dragons, and opted to have the knights sans dragons (or senza dragons if you're italian). Ky played with funny hats (a theme that followed here into SF as you'll see later).

Back on the road, we were running around an hour late and hit another really windy stretch between Novarro and Cloverdale before getting back on 101. Still a long way to go, though. The highway widened out to eventually four lanes south, where I saw a scary sign quoting 92 minutes to pass Golden Gate Bridge. At around 11 miles out the road turned into a carpark, 5 miles at crawling pace, around 40 minutes.

As we approached we saw a blanket of fog being rapidly drawn over the city, leaving lower area clear but tops of the bridge and buildings shrouded in mist like Stephen King's movie.


Finally we cleared the traffic and with the help of the Hertz gps adrrived at the Pheonix Hotel and dropped off our gear. It being around 7:40pm, we were really hungry so made our way a few blocks up to Mel's Diner. Not great. Sort of a fancy make-up of a burger joint but our meals were pretty ordinary.

Finally back to the room and sleep. This road trip is over.

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