Weekly Travel
After we left Vancouver we were making our way to the western coast of the US for drive down along Washington, Oregon, and into California. We wanted to take the coast highway to see as much of the scenery as possible. It was a very winding drive. Up and down and around and around. And in the pouring rain most of the time. Some of the scenery was a lot of very large trees in places, but we did see the ocean regularly. The coast of Oregon can only be described as rugged. The rock formations along the beaches, called haystacks rose out of the water in many places along the beaches. As we drove further south in the state of Oregon and got closer to California, we started seeing more and more of the giant redwood cedar trees. They are quite a sight indeed. So tall and so big around some of them. We stopped in one spot at a tree called the grandfather tree. It is over 1800 years old, 285 feet high, and 55 feet around. That is one big tree. We took a few pictures for our picture gallery on the website. Graham and I look pretty insignificant standing beside it.
We finally made our way through the very winding roads that are Highway 1 on the coast region. The tightest turns I have ever seen and they never seemed to end. It was 6-7 hours of straight winding, turning, and up and down. Not an easy feat in a 37 foot RV. Graham was exhausted by the time we got to our campsite. I had my eyes closed a lot of the time, so I guess it was a good idea that I didn’t do any driving on this stretch. Sheer rock cliffs that drop hundreds of feet to nothing but rocks below with a churning boiling ocean surf coming in was much of the view along northern California’s highway 1. And very few if any barricades along the road’s edge. The soft shoulders with crumbling road broken away also did a lot for my level of safety. Beautiful countryside and gorgeous scenery, but now that I have seen it, I think I’ll remember what it looks like and I don’t need to go back and see it again.
Our travels took us next to San Francisco. We had time to stop there before we went to San Jose for the game there. This is the fun part of this tour. Stopping and seeing so many places and things that we had read about, and are now able to see. We had a nice campsite right in the city across from Monster Park (formerly Candlestick Park) and took a shuttle to Fisherman’s Wharf. Lots of sights and sounds (and food) to check out there. We did all the touristy things in that area and took lots of pictures. We were in the Wharf area for 7 hours and didn’t even get to see all we wanted to see. Oh well. We’ll just have to go back. We did go on a harbour tour and cruised under the Golden Gate Bridge and by the infamous island of Alcatraz. Such history behind both sites. It was also interesting to hear how San Francisco survived and re-built after two very disastrous earthquakes.
After we left Vancouver we were making our way to the western coast of the US for drive down along Washington, Oregon, and into California. We wanted to take the coast highway to see as much of the scenery as possible. It was a very winding drive. Up and down and around and around. And in the pouring rain most of the time. Some of the scenery was a lot of very large trees in places, but we did see the ocean regularly. The coast of Oregon can only be described as rugged. The rock formations along the beaches, called haystacks rose out of the water in many places along the beaches. As we drove further south in the state of Oregon and got closer to California, we started seeing more and more of the giant redwood cedar trees. They are quite a sight indeed. So tall and so big around some of them. We stopped in one spot at a tree called the grandfather tree. It is over 1800 years old, 285 feet high, and 55 feet around. That is one big tree. We took a few pictures for our picture gallery on the website. Graham and I look pretty insignificant standing beside it.
We finally made our way through the very winding roads that are Highway 1 on the coast region. The tightest turns I have ever seen and they never seemed to end. It was 6-7 hours of straight winding, turning, and up and down. Not an easy feat in a 37 foot RV. Graham was exhausted by the time we got to our campsite. I had my eyes closed a lot of the time, so I guess it was a good idea that I didn’t do any driving on this stretch. Sheer rock cliffs that drop hundreds of feet to nothing but rocks below with a churning boiling ocean surf coming in was much of the view along northern California’s highway 1. And very few if any barricades along the road’s edge. The soft shoulders with crumbling road broken away also did a lot for my level of safety. Beautiful countryside and gorgeous scenery, but now that I have seen it, I think I’ll remember what it looks like and I don’t need to go back and see it again.
Our travels took us next to San Francisco. We had time to stop there before we went to San Jose for the game there. This is the fun part of this tour. Stopping and seeing so many places and things that we had read about, and are now able to see. We had a nice campsite right in the city across from Monster Park (formerly Candlestick Park) and took a shuttle to Fisherman’s Wharf. Lots of sights and sounds (and food) to check out there. We did all the touristy things in that area and took lots of pictures. We were in the Wharf area for 7 hours and didn’t even get to see all we wanted to see. Oh well. We’ll just have to go back. We did go on a harbour tour and cruised under the Golden Gate Bridge and by the infamous island of Alcatraz. Such history behind both sites. It was also interesting to hear how San Francisco survived and re-built after two very disastrous earthquakes.
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