Greetings from Garberville

Does the road wind uphill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow, dark hours begin,

- Christina Georgina Rossetti

I thought I was going to post every day of this vacation. I think I overestimated my stamina for yesterday. We flew from Norfolk to Chicago's Midway airport (which incidentally is about midway between the Atlantic and Pacific). We had a three hour layover and then flew on a looooong flight to San Francisco. We landed on time with only minimal aggrivation, that consisted of leg cramps and the people who INSISTED on going to the front of the plane when the bathroom was already occupied, which forced the flight attendant to give us a "FRIENDLY REMINDER" about not congregating in the front of the plane, for security reasons.

Here's what I think...after a dozen reminders, it's not friendly anymore...just ask the adult their name, then announce over the PA system: "Joe Schmo, please return to your seat for a five minute time out. You can go pee-pee after you learn to listen to directions." I just don't have patience for people who make the rest of us listen to someone with a grating voice tell us the same thing over and over and over again for four hours.

Okay, back to the trip...we landed on time. We took the Air Tran to the rental car garage. Aunt Rocky stood in line for at least 30-45 minutes before it was her turn to speak to the ESL (English as a Second Language) check-in counter woman. The paperwork took another 15 minutes or so, at which time she gave us the keys and told us to go pick up our Legacy. "Is that an SUV?", asks Aunt Rocky, who had specifically booked an SUV because we needed the room. "Yes, it's a Legacy," says the helpful (but not exceptionally astute) clerk. We found our car; a Subaru four-door CAR with a tiny tiny trunk. We debated going back upstairs to see if they had made a mistake, but decided we were (1) too hungry and (2) too tired to get back in line for another hour.

We left the garage and, after about 30 minutes of driving around downtown San Francisco, found our hotel. While we were driving, we were TRYING not to complain about the car, which was not ENTIRELY automatic - it had a stick to put it in drive, park, and reverse, but you had to goose the stick up and down to go into first, second, third, and fourth gear. Suffice it to say that we didn't figure that out until we were almost at the hotel, and therefore we were going 60 on the freeway in 2nd gear, with the engine making noise like it was ready to self-descruct.

The hotel was a cute little two-story place with parking spaces the size of my laundry room at home. While mom checked in, Aunt Rocky and I collaborated and finally, with the help of a couple of men, squeezed into a space. We breathed a huge sign of relief, and trucked our 10+ pieces of luggage up to the room. We had dinner at a place within walking distance of the hotel that I would recommend that everyone avoid, if I could remember the name of the place.

This morning we got up and I finished re-packing. Aunt Rocky called Hertz and found out that they had made a mistake, and given us a mid-size sedan instead of a small SUV, and arranged for us to go exchange the car. We now have the cutest little red RAV-4, and a lot more leg room. Yay us!

About 9am California time, we were heading north on the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped on the north side of the bridge at the vantage point, and I took a couple of pictures of Alcatraz. Last year Tacoman's grade read a book in which the setting was Alcatraz (Al Capone Does my Shirts), so it was fun to take a couple of pictures of the island, even though the light wasn't great.

We headed up 101 about 100 miles or so. The first hour went by in a flash - we drove through Sonoma and enjoyed the beautiful wine country views from the road. The next stretch was definitely more stressful! Up and down and around mountains, with hairpin turns and NO shoulder!

Finally we reached Van Damme Sate Park, to see the pygmy forest. The trees are supposed to be "little trees" because of the acidic soil and harsh environment. It was nice to stretch our legs, but wasn't exactly what we expected. Next stop, Mendocino. This is a beautiful little seaside village. We enjoyed the lush landscaping. We stopped at a neat little gallery, only to find out that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We turned off again at Russian Gulch State Park, which was pretty...but not enticing enough to make us delay our next stop at Fort Bragg; Glass Beach.

This beach, years ago, used to be the town dump. Now, it's full of bits of sea glass and assorted "junk", embedded into the layers of rock. I took pictures of four seals and found a few neat pieces of glass. I also worked on some coastal pictures, but don't know if any of them turned out. (Too tired tonight, as my jet-lagged body thinks it's almost midnight).

Our last stop before eating dinner at a place that had a talented cook (and that's the ONLY nice thing I have to say about that) was the Chandelier drive-thru tree - a hollowed-out, 315 foot tall redwood tree. We didn't drive through it but did enjoy the scenery. Now we're all checked into a hotel in Garberville, trying to stay awake long enough that we sleep through the night.

Today was full of beautiful scenery and lots of "Oh, Wow" moments, as we came around some (admittedly scary) hairpin turns. I did see one whale breach - but we were going to fast and there was nowhere to stop to share it with anyone else. The family is surviving without me, which is good. I miss them, and I know they miss me, but Tico has it all under control, Tacoman is a big help, and my beautiful girls know I'll see them soon.

I would definitely recommend the Pacific Coast Highway scenic drive to anyone who makes it to this part of the world.

Tomorrow, part two, will take us another 250 miles up the coast and into Oregon, on the Redwood Highway. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted.