On to California!

Thursday – Bandon, OR to Garberville, CA!

Hello!

Wow!  Another lovely day driving south along the coast.  We were up around 6, after an interesting night.  We had left the sliding door open on our balcony, as we would greatly prefer breezes to air conditioning, and somewhere fairly close, something raucous was definitely going on – at least until 2 a.m. because that’s when I finally closed the door!  Should probably have inquired this morning at the hotel, but the sight of Robert making off with a quantity of their homemade cranberry bread drove it from my mind!  It seems that Bandon is the cranberry capital of Oregon – who knew? – there are something like 90 growers in the immediate area!  And Robert LOVES cranberries…and I do have to admit that their cranberry bread was really delicious!

So, a continental breakfast at the Bandon Inn, and then we packed up the car and headed south.  I had read in a local publication about a place called “Mystic Meadows” which turns out to be a jam/jelly/butter/salsa shop right on the coast highway … and they specialize in cranberries!  Surprise!  Had to wait until 9 a.m. when they opened, but they have a really lovely store … you can get cranberry anything, including wine (which we didn’t get) and salsa (which we did)!  

From there, followed the coast road 101 south, through some genuinely beautiful country – also, a fair amount of fog!  (It would be interesting to see how often they have foggy mornings in Bandon, and whether it generally burns off in the afternoon, like “June Gloom” or “Gray May” in Southern California.)  In about half-an-hour’s time, we were at the California border, and heading into Crescent City.   

We filled up with gas just before leaving Oregon, since it is about 40 cents a gallon cheaper than in California.  This is despite the increased labor costs; Oregon law prohibits customers pumping their own gas.  It has to be done by a gas station attendant!  We aren’t even allowed to swipe our credit card at the pump.

It is fun having Maggie (iPad) with us, as we can find out all sorts of interesting information – so Robert read to me about the numerous tsunamis that have brought chaos and destruction to Crescent City over the years.  The most deadly turns out to be from the Alaskan earth quake somewhere in the 1960’s, but even the most recent Japanese quake had disastrous results in California.  Apparently, the shape of the harbor combined with the contours on the ocean bottom really make Crescent City a huge target for any sort of instability.  It looked to us, from the little we could see from the road, that they are still working on repairing/rebuilding the harbor.  

We got to Eureka about 1 and decided we would have lunch.  Robert found a restaurant called “Brick and Fire” that was highly recommended.   Not difficult to find (as Eureka isn’t all that big!) and we were able to get a nice table.  We both ordered salads – Robert had their grilled romaine salad with anchovies and panna cota cheese.  I had their ensalada caprese – wonderful greens with slices of mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes; excellent!  It would have been nice to try their wine list, but we did have a few more miles to go…so…

We made a detour to Ferndale, which is about 10 miles south of Eureka.  We had been through there about 25+ years ago, and thought it was a lovely community – lots of Victorian houses, for instance.  Did a quick tour, and it was still lovely!  And still lots of Victorian houses!

Then we pressed on toward Garberville.  Robert suggested that we head off on the road marked “Avenue of the Giants” – and all I can say is – WOW!  It’s amazing!  (Robert insists that we drove this road all those 25+ years ago, but I’m really not so sure…hard to believe that I would have ever forgotten anything as beautiful as all these trees!)  The giants being referred to are the Sequoia Sempervirens – more commonly known as “coast redwoods”  and they are, truly, everywhere!  The Avenue goes on for miles and miles, and parallels route 101.  We had such a beautiful drive – really poked along, stopping frequently for R to take pictures.  Not much traffic at all; mostly, we had the road to ourselves, which was wonderful!  

Finally, with great reluctance, but nearing 4:30 p.m. we got back on 101 for the final 6 or 7 miles to Garberville and the Best Western.  

Our room wasn’t ready – which was irritating to say the least; we had to wait half an hour or so, but it is very comfortable, and we have a balcony overlooking the pool with the mountains in the background.  We had hoped to be able to watch the Jets/Patriots football game tonight, but seems that nobody around here has the NFL channel … checked at one restaurant and two bars…oh well!  Obviously it wasn’t meant to be!  Decided instead to get a bottle of wine and a pizza and eat in the room, which is where we are now.  I am, also, (surprise!) doing my last load of laundry for the trip…will now have enough clothes for Robert to get safely back to Tucson next Thursday!!  

So…tomorrow we’re off to the Russian River Valley for some wine tasting, and then on to Calistoga, which is at the north end of the Napa Valley.  We’re there for two nights, before moving on to our lovely French hotel in San Francisco for a few nights!  

So…take care; more later! (Also, I have to go check the wash…)

m

xxx