Jim, Sophie and I took a road trip during our transfer week between San Diego and Portland. We decided to take our time this week and not be in any rush to leave California. We took the 101 or the 1 as much as we could, to stay by the coast. We stopped when we felt like it and it felt wonderful. Many times on transfer weeks, it is imperative that we JUST GET THERE, but not this week. After spending over six months in California with KOOZA, we understandably weren't ready to give it up just yet.
We left late Tuesday morning. Orange County was perfect, as per usual. We drove through beautiful Huntington Beach and stopped for lunch at
Baja Fresh where we had yummy fish tacos. To those of you reading in far away lands, or Michigan in layman's terms, fish tacos are fried fish fillets in corn taco shells, topped with cabbage and a pico de gallo salsa. They are definitively a California thing. We continued up the coast and stopped at Hearst's Castle for lunch. We didn't go up, but it looked like a nice place. Click
here to check it out. We remarked pictures showing Hearst and his dachshund named Helen around the area. It was a nice place to stop and eat. We shared a slice of pizza and homemade potato chips.
Just up the road there was a nice view of the ocean where seals had taken over. I snapped this shot of Jim and Sophie. It was very cold and quite windy. I won't bore you with pictures of beautiful sunshine or blue skies or sandy beaches or crashing waves. It would be excruciating, I know.
Here is a video I shot while we were driving. I caught Sophie singing to herself.
Day Two started and ended the same way, however, we stopped at
In N Out Burger for the very last time. I'll wait while you get a tissue. Or you can wait for me. These, my friends, are the best burgers pretty much EVER and are missed dearly. Even Jim commented how much he misses them just today.
The road we decided to take on this day closely resembled EVERY CAR COMMERCIAL YOU'VE EVER SEEN. It was GORGEOUS! So is this one, I have to admit:
Day Three was when we started seeing more forest and less ocean. We drove through a 2400-year-old Redwood (
here's the website) while driving the 31-mile
Avenue of the Giants (a scenic drive through the giant Redwood forest). It was awesome in the correct usage of the word. These trees were unimaginably grandiose and just plain mammoth!
We also saw a herd of young wild elk sitting by the road in a field.
We also drove past the Smith River and I snapped these during an obligatory diaper-changing stop. The water was a natural aquamarine color that I do not ever recall seeing in person, except maybe in Mexico.
Day Four was a fairly short drive on the 5. In the rain. We have definitely arrived in Portland.
