Redwoods Down Hwy 101

Our drive through Oregon was notably uneventful and rather dull. This is one of the few times that we have actually traveled via the interstate on our trip and we were acutely aware of it. There was nothing to look at except farms and no road obstacles worse than a turn at which I was warned to slow down to 60 mph for. Usually the roads we have driven are known for their beauty or danger, often warning of 15 % grades and hairpin turns, but not today. It was nothing but tedious driving, a means to an end, an experience in which I have already devoted to much time to describing. Our plan was to drive to the Oregon - California border, visit the Redwoods, and stay the night in the area. Then in the morning we would hit the things we missed and

travel onward to San Francisco before nightfall. By the time we reached California, it was already bordering on 6p.m. We hopped on highway 101 hoping for a change in scenery. After crossing the border at an Agricultural Inspection sight, we were rewarded minutes later with a view of the setting sun over the California coast. We stopped for a minute to watch some surfers and then got back in the car to head into the Redwood National Forest. Since it was already late in the day, we didn't do much in the way of viewing the Redwoods besides driving through some of the park. Just about dusk we were driving by a sign that warned of elk crossing and experienced

one of those rare moments when the signs should have added RIGHT NOW! We had stumbled upon reportedly one of the largest elk herds in the country. We got out and walked up pretty close to the herd, but not too close for comfort. We watched as the alpha bull ran around and scattered the smaller women and children for no apparent reason, then began to bugle. If you check

out this video, it was exactly the sound the elk made. It did it about 4 times before moving the herd on, out of our sight. It was really cool to experience and a completely unexpected sound to hear coming from an elk. A little down the road we passed another part of this herd. Apparently they section off into various groups dominated by an alpha male during the mating season. After our second stop we got some information from a local about good hikes to do in the morning, then headed on toward Eureka for some dinner. We pulled into what looked like the only open place in town, at least the first one we saw, which turned out to be Big Louie's Pizzeria. If you ever happen to be passing through Eureka, do yourself a favor and take a pit stop right here. We

shared a small pizza and a garlic bread, both were phenomenal, and cheap to boot! The place doesn't look like much from the outside and these looks are not deceiving, it wasn't much. It was small and seemed as though many of the locals that came in didn't even have to order, they just made their presence known and their order came out moments later. Even with this local favoring atmosphere, we never felt unwelcomed and meshed right into the late night crowd. Thoroughly satisfied with dinner we headed back toward the National Park to a rest area just outside where we stayed the night. Tonight we were accompanied by some loud teenagers that were parked next to us and stayed up late into the night partying at the rest stop. In the morning we headed back into the park to do some hikes before heading down 101. We scoped out the biggest trees in the area and did a few short hikes back into the forest before we had to

move on. On our way out, we passed by Eureka again and stopped off at our favorite pizzeria. This time they had a lunch buffet going on and we got to eat until our hearts were content. Trust me, stop there and you will not regret it. Instead of Hwy 101, we planned on taking the Avenue of the Giants down its entire stretch which

we had heard took a considerable amount of time. We started down the Avenue of the Giants, joyful again to be driving though something truly unique and beautiful. We traveled down the road for about 15 miles, stopping at various gift shops and doing another self guided nature hike until we reached a road closed sign. There had been a landslide which apparently covered the road and made traveling through impossible. We were forced to revert back to highway 101 and leave the rest of the Avenue of the Giants for another day. We still plan to pass by that way at least once more and hopefully we will be able to complete the

entire trek. For now, we headed down the highway toward San Francisco. Again, we were poor judges of time and would be arriving later than anticipated to Angella's house. In San Francisco we would be staying with Angella, a coworker of mine

at Sears, and her newlywed husband Kyle. Angella is actually the one who got us in touch with Scott and Megan in Anchorage and they would be staying there as well for the show. She joked with us that they should name their house the Horton Hippie Hotel. We capitalized on this and bought them a "Hippies Use Side Door" sign as a combination housewarming and thank you gift. It is currently adorned in their front foyer. We called Angella at about 8p.m. and asked for directions to the HHH. As we approached San Francisco we tried to make a glorious entrance into the city by passing under

the Golden Gate Bridge while rocking out to some Grateful Dead.

Much to our dismay, fate had different plans. First, the bridge was completely devoured by fog and we could barely even tell that we were on it and secondly, as soon as we got in the range of the city, all of the stations on the radio came in stronger and messed up the signal for my ipod, making it intolerable to listen to anything on it. Defeated, we rolled into the city in silence and under the cover of fog. After deciphering Angella's directions we pulled into their place and were again welcomed as though we were coming home. Angella had made us some excellent chili for the weekend and Katie and I both indulged as we talked about everything that had been happening since we had last seen one another.