Northern CA / Oregon
On April 8th, we arrived in Palo Alto to visit our friend Mary. She took us on a tour of Stanford University, situated on a beautiful, sprawling campus in the Mission style. It was founded in 1885 by railroad shipping magnate Leland Stanford, 8th governor of California. Now we can say we went to Stanford!
The campus has a special collection of Rodin sculptures outside, which we enjoyed photographing. We had lunch at Peninsula Creamery, notable for their milkshakes and 50's vibe.
Later, we had dinner at Mary's beautiful condo complex and spent the night in one of their beautiful guest rooms. Thanks, Mary!!
Next day, we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway, before first driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. The drive north is as both exhilirating and exhausting.
Hair pin turns for an hour are tolerable, but for five hours are stress filled and harrowing. But the views around every corner make it worthwhile. Turnouts overlooking the Pacific from dizzying heights are terrifying yet stunning. Whichever one of us was driving was fixated on the yellow line in the road, while the passenger would scream out “ slow down” or would just scream.
By lunch time we needed a break in Bodega Bay, a spot we had visited years before. It is famously known for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, filmed in various locations around the area. I found the old schoolhouse (now a private residence), where one of the iconic scenes was filmed. We also stopped at the Tides restaurant where Tippie Hedren is attacked by birds and tries to escape into a phone booth. Unfortunately, the restaurant has been renovated and the phone booth is no longer there. But we had lunch there and met up with some sea lions hanging out on the docks.
Finally, we arrived in Manchester, CA, where we camped in the best and most beautiful campground we had seen thus far. Filled with beautiful old pine trees and located only a mile from the beach, this campground was quiet and serene. We put up the tent in record time.
Next day, we visited Point Arena, the tallest lighthouse in CA. We were cajoled into climbing all 106 steps to the top. The view was worth it.
Next day, we headed to Crescent City, CA. More hairpin turns, more dizzying sights, more crazy driving. Soon, we started seeing redwood trees. They were everywhere, long before we got to Redwoods National Park.
At lunch, we met up with Grandfather Tree, 1800 years old, 265 feet tall and 24 feet in diameter.
There used to be two million acres of these old growth trees, but logging has left us with only 5%. Still, to stand next to these giants is to capture a sense of the prehistoric world when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Besides the redwoods, this area is filled with miles of lupine, eucalyptus trees, nightshade and enormous pine trees. Also, Bigfoot on signs, in stores, and probably in the collective unconscious.
On April 13, we drove to Crater Lake and stayed nearby in the town of Klamath Falls. On the way to the park, we noticed snow banks on either side of the road.
At first, they were only a few feet high, but as we continued, the snow banks rose to five feet, eight feet and eventually twelve feet high.
Even so, it was fairly warm and the sun was bright and strong. When we reached the park's entrance, the ranger told us that only a small section of the park was open, but we could still see the lake from one vantage point. He didnt mention that the vantage point required hiking up a steep snowbank (in sneakers and a bad knee)
When we got to the visitor's lodge and I saw the snowbank, I had to weigh what mattered most- to see Crater Lake or keep my feet on solid ground. I chose the lake. Fortunately, a few charitable young men helped me up and down and Patti encouraged me throughout. The view was breathtaking. The lake is the deepest and most pristine in the U.S and was formed by a collapsed volcano.
