Trip Report: 20070509 - 20070511
We had a great night in Crescent City. The hotel was nice and the restaurant was very good. Next morning, we headed south along highway 101. Sadly, the foggy weather had returned so we had reduced visibility most of the day. We were in and out of the fog repeatedly and were running with our fog lights on. We traveled south on 101 until the intersection with California route 1. We took 1 and headed toward the coast. Highway 1 is very narrow and twisty, so we were loving it. The photos below are what we saw.
Once highway 1 came out of the hills and hit the coast, the weather cleared up quite a bit. This shot was taken from the junction of 1 and the coast, north of Fort Bragg. Note the nice house on the left of the photo above.
This portion of the coast is not quite as rough as Oregon, but still has the same basic structure with large headlands and sea stacks. There are a large number of small stacks at the foot of this cliff.
The headlands were punctuated with small bays with minimal beach areas, but always surrounded by cliffs.
Looking south toward Fort Bragg.
Many small sea stacks left over from ancient headlands.
Coastline looking north from the Fort Bragg area.
Most of the coast had pretty dense vegetation on the cliffs.
The hills near highway 1 were verdant green.
Some of the areas had developed small rock islands.
There were lots of nice wild flowers in the fields by the road.
Insects hard at work on some of the wild flowers.
More nice wild flowers.
Nice red wild flowers.
Our destination for the day was the Albion River Inn. We stayed at this place the last time we came through this area and enjoyed it so much that we came back. It is a very nice place with a great view and excellent food.
We had a great room.
Another view of the room at Albion River Inn.
The farm across the road raises llamas. This is Tony Llama.
The grounds at Albion were nicely groomed and had many nice flowers in bloom.
I do not know the name of this flower, but it is cool.
More nice flowers on the grounds at Albion.
We saw these around, but are not sure what they are.
A whole bank of white flowers.
A flowering hedge.
The view of the Albion River Bay from the room across our private deck.
The bay at Albion River as seen from our porch.
This is the highway 1 bridge that crosses the Albion River. Only the center span is steel, the balance of the structure is wood.
More nice flowers at the Albion River Inn. After we left Albion, we headed directly south on highway 1 toward San Francisco.
A small river just south of Albion, CA. Note the house in the trees on the left. We were very lucky in that there was minimal traffic on the road and we were able to use the BMWs to their full capacity. The only detraction was the backseat full of "stuff" resulting from the move. Still, it was a great drive, but it would have been nice if it had been clearer. Remember, everybody has to have something to complain about.
This shot was taken at Bodega Bay, just north of San Francisco. Rather than take highway 1 down to the Golden Gate Bridge, we decided to skirt the whole bay area and head directly over to Interstate 5 and boogie south to Bakersfield to set up for the transit of the LA basin the following day. The balance of the trip was a high speed run south on I-5. As we were en route, we checked the AAA tour book and the place where we wanted to eat strongly suggested dinner reservations. When I called, I cleared that they were having a concert that night and you could not get dinner without show tickets. Being hungry, I just saw the show as a "tax", but that was short-sighted. After I got the tickets, I asked who the show was for and I learned that it was a country band that we liked and had several of their CDs.
Ray Benson, lead singer of "Asleep at the Wheel" playing at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, CA. We "on-sited" this show and were lucky enough to get tickets with seating right next to the stage. The band has (at least) 8 Grammy Awards and put on a great show. The were all highly accomplished musicians.
Nothing makes country music go better than a tall cold one, usually with a JD back and better yet a big Porterhouse steak.
This was a very nice drive, but long. Particularly the drive across LA and into San Diego. We specifically planned our travel through the LA basin so it would not collide with the local rush hour(s). That tactic worked, but it worked less well in San Diego. We encountered heavy traffic near Carlsbad, and it took us more than 90 minutes to get from there to our home near Mission Bay. Road trips can be great fun. We were very lucky on this trip in that we got hotel rooms in nice places with good food. And, just by happenstance, we were able to see Asleep at the Wheel in Bakersfield. We missed some of the sights in the central coast, but we had been through there several times on previous trips.
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