California Road Trip - Sep, 2010

[Kahloke]

I'm now back from my week-long road trip to California with my dad.
Here are some of the highlights with photos:

Day 1: Saturday, Sep 4
The first day started with me getting up at o-dark-thirty to drive up to Orcas to get my dad. I was on the first Steilacoom II sailing out of Port Townsend at 06:30. The currents were a bit rough in Admiralty Inlet, so much so that Steily had to tack going across the strait, and then had to swing way south of Keystone and approach it from almost the other direction. She definitely earned her nickname "Bob" on this particular sailing. Due to the coarse changes, we arrived ten minutes behind schedule.

I arrived in Anacortes 2 hours prior to the 10:15 Orcas departure on M/V Yakima. to my surprise, they did not overload this sailing despite it being Labor Day weekend.

Chelan and Elwha off Anacortes. Elwha was arriving, and Chelan was departing for the first Sidney run.



We got a bit of a treat on the 10:15 sailing. Right at the last, these great old cars and trailers drove onto the ferry. It's not every day you see something like this on a ferry.












After arriving at Orcas, I had time to go into town and grab lunch, then I loaded my dad's van with my gear and we took off for the 14:30 sailing back to Anacortes.

Our first leg of the trip took us back to Keystone for the 18:00 sailing to Port Townsend. While there, we spotted the usual cruise ships motoring up Puget Sound for their respective journeys to Alaska.

Here's the big Princess ship sliding past Keystone


Again in Admiralty Inlet


MS Rotterdam off Whidbey Island



MV Steilacoom II with my dad's van right at the front



After grabbing some dinner in Port Townsend, we settled in for the drive down 101 along the Hood Canal, then out to Ocean Shores where we spent our first night at the Days Inn of Ocean Shores. So endeth Day 1. There's more to follow, so stay tuned.

[Kahloke]

Day 2: Sunday, Sep 5
We left Ocean Shores early and made our way back to Aberdeen/Hoquiam, where we picked up 101 again for the journey south. We crossed into Oregon at Astoria, and continued to follow 101 south along what has to be one of the most beautiful coasts in the world.


Some photographic highlights of our Oregon Coast travels:

Cannon Beach




Looking south towards Manzanita from Nehalem Overlook


Yaquina Bay Bridge at Newport


Seal Rocks


Alsea Bay Bridge at Waldport


Heceta Head Lighthouse


Looking south down Oregon Coast from near Heceta Head


McCollough Bridge at Coos Bay


A stretch of rugged Oregon Coast south of Bandon


Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge at Gold Beach


South Oregon Coast near Brookings







We ended Day 2 in Crescent City, California, having traveled the entire length of the Oregon Coast, and what a beautiful day it was.

[Kahloke]

Day 3: Monday, Sept 6 (Labour Day)
We departed Crescent City just before 08:00 and followed 101 down through the Redwoods until the northern junction of Hwy 1 at Leggett, south of Eureka. At that point, we turned onto Hwy 1 and followed it's hairpin turns up and down the mountains all the way over to the coast, just north of Fort Bragg.

Eureka, California, has a very nice old downtown section replete with Victorian architecture. Besides the very famous Carson Mansion, there are some very charming buildings in this town.

Carson Mansion, Eureka




Downtown Eureka





Northern California Coast near Fort Bragg



We stopped in the charming seaside community of Mendocino for lunch.

Mendocino

















South of Mendocino, we cut back inland via Hwy 128 and the Anderson Valley. Out towards the coast, you pass through another stretch of beautiful Redwood forest before emerging into Anderson Valley which is full of vineyards. It's not that long of a drive from the coast to Anderson Valley, but what a difference in the temperatures. The coast was in the mid 60's, and Anderson Valley was in the upper 80's. After traversing the wine country routes through Anderson Valley, Geyserville, and Napa Valley, we arrived at my aunt's house in Rio Vista in the evening. Rio Vista is out in the Sacramento River delta halfway between the Bay Area and Sacramento.

[EGfleet]

Sept 14, 2010 14:38:42 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

Day 2: Sunday, Sep 5
We left Ocean Shores early and made our way back to Aberdeen/Hoquiam, where we picked up 101 again for the journey south. We crossed into Oregon at Astoria, and continued to follow 101 south along what has to be one of the most beautiful coasts in the world.


Some photographic highlights of our Oregon Coast travels:


McCollough Bridge at Coos Bay

Did you investigate "Crosline Drive" in Coos Bay?
I've often wondered if any of the old girl is still in the dock or if her pilot houses are still in there area as I've been advised.

[Kahloke]

Sept 14, 2010 16:03:21 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Did you investigate "Crosline Drive" in Coos Bay?
I've often wondered if any of the old girl is still in the dock or if her pilot houses are still in there area as I've been advised.

No. I didn't even know she was down there, or I may have tried looking for the old girl.

[Kahloke]

Day 4: Tuesday, Sep 7
While we were in California, we used my aunt's house in Rio Vista as base camp and set out on day trips from her place. On Tuesday, we went up to Sacramento and visited the California Automobile Museum. My dad's really into cars, especially old ones. We also headed up into the hills above Auburn and explored some of the back roads in Gold Rush country.

This is the American River outside Auburn


Further up Highway 49, there's a little old mining town called Coloma which we spent some time wandering around.

Coloma








One-lane bridge in Coloma




Day 5: Wednesday, Sep 8
We were supposed to head into San Francisco and then end up in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula for the night, but, unfortunately, my dad managed to get the flu on the way down, so he didn't even get out of bed much on Wednesday. We ended up just hanging out in Rio Vista.



Day 6: Thursday, Sep 9
My dad got better enough to make the Monterey Peninsula as a day-trip, so that's what we did. In a way, this was a bit of a homecoming for my dad since he grew up on the peninsula and spent some of his adult years here, too. We had great fun looking up some of the houses he used to live in.

Pacific Grove


Cypress Tree at Lover's Point in Pacific Grove


Hey, Pacific Grove has a Green Gables, too. I'm guessing it's not quite as famous as Lucy Maud Montgomery's version back in PEI


Pacific Grove


Downtown Pacific Grove along Lighthouse Avenue


Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove


Naturally, we did the 17-Mile Drive through Pebble Beach on our way to Carmel


Pebble Beach road sign



Carmel Beach


views of charming downtown Carmel




Ocean Avenue, Carmel





From Carmel, we drove down the Central Coast as far as Bixby Bridge

Central Coast as seen from Carmel Highlands


Central Coast


Bixby Bridge near Big Sur




There's a personal family connection to this bridge. My Grandma's brother helped build it.



Day 7: Friday, Sep 10
With one day lost, this became our one and only San Francisco day. Instead of taking BART over to the city, as originally planned, I just ended up driving and turned it into more of a driving tour, since my dad still was not feeling that great. So, not too many pictures from this day since I was driving, but we did visit the newly renovated De Young Museum at Golden Gate Park.

De Young Museum at Golden Gate Park


Inside the De Young Museum - I turned this one into a black & white because I think it reads better that way


De Young Tower - for some reason, this structure kind of reminds me of those sand crawler transporters the Jawas used in Star Wars


views from De Young Tower




California Academy of Sciences building as seen from De Young Tower


one of the fountains in the plaza in front of De Young Museum



At the end of our day in the city, we returned to Rio Vista via the Golden Gate Bridge and around the top end of San Francisco Bay through Vallejo.

[EGfleet]

Sept 14, 2010 19:56:08 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

Sept 14, 2010 16:03:21 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

Did you investigate "Crosline Drive" in Coos Bay?
I've often wondered if any of the old girl is still in the dock or if her pilot houses are still in there area as I've been advised.

No. I didn't even know she was down there, or I may have tried looking for the old girl.

That was where she ended her days...her wheelhouses were pulled off and part of her superstructure was used for a warehouse of some sort. Her hull timbers went to build a fishing boat and dock.

I was looking for anything resembling a ferry structure from Google Earth and stumbled across "Crosline Drive." Someone emailed me a while back to let me know the warehouse has been demolished, but the pilot houses should still be around somewhere...

[Kahloke]

The trip back home: Saturday, Sep 11, & Sunday, Sep 12
I don't have very many photos from our return home, mostly because I was driving and we didn't stop at too many places. But, our return trip was via I-5 up the Sacramento Valley and Shasta. At Weed, we turned off onto Hwy 97 and proceeded north through Central Oregon, a very different experience than the coastal route we had used getting down to California. We overnighted in the Dalles along the Columbia River.

The few photos I did take are in The Dalles area:

The Dalles Dam


The Dalles Bridge across the Columbia River


Mt. Hood from The Dalles


Columnar basalts in the Columbia River Gorge east of The Dalles


The Columbia River Gorge east of The Dalles


looking across the Gorge to Oregon and Interstate 84



On Sunday, our route back to Orcas Island took us up and over Satus Pass, through Yakima, and we joined I-90 at Ellensburg to take us up and over Snoqualmie Pass. So endeth my trip report.