Along the California Coast - August 1 to August 4, 2013

After leaving Chris and Murrah, we continued our trip north on Highway 101. We realized that we had done this same trip in several pieces over the years, but this would be the first time that we would stay on 101 all the way from our home in Santa Monica to midway in the state of Washington. Highway 101 goes from a 4 lane freeway to a 2 lane country road with no shoulder and back again. It was always interesting and went through some of the most beautiful country imaginable.

We spent the next 3 ½ days driving along the coast in California. We stopped in Santa Rosa to see the home of Luther Burbank, the famous botanist who discovered and hybridized over 800 species of plants. It was interesting to learn that most of those plants no longer exist because they have continued to be hybridized and improved.

We also stopped in Ukiah to visit the Sun House, the craftsman style home of the painter Carol Hudson. She did lovely paintings of the Pomo Indians. I particularly envied her iris garden!

We spent that night in Eureka. We like to eat at the Somoan Cookhouse – a family style restaurant which was formerly the cookhouse for the loggers in the area. Now the logging has been reduced to a pulp making factory.

The next day we spent some time exploring Eureka. We found the Morris Museum in the beautifully refurbished Carnegie Library. What a lovely building, and I am so glad the city decided to fix it up instead of tearing it down.

Then it was back on the Redwood Highway, Highway 101, to visit Redwood National and State Parks. Again, what a drive through those magnificent trees, and what a joy that they were protected before they were all destroyed by logging. We camped at Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park.

On Saturday we spent some time walking through the woods, admiring all the huge Redwoods and beautiful wildflowers. Then we drove on to Crescent City, our last stop in California. We walked to the harbor and saw the seals and sea lions relaxing on the buoys. We walked to the beach at Pt. George and Mickey had a great time running around in the sand. I enjoyed looking in the tide pools and collecting a little drift wood and rocks (agates, maybe). We stayed in a rather dismal campground that night.

On Sunday we had breakfast at the Chart Room (we had lunch there yesterday and really liked it) and then headed out to the Oregon coast. More in the next installment.