California...

From Arcata to San Rafael: 300 something miles.
(click on the map to see the route in Google Maps)
After we left aunt Jan we drove down the 101, the famous Highway 1 and the Avenue of Giants. This last road is named after the huge Redwoods (trees) that grow in this area. These trees reach up to 120 meters and are pretty thick as well (although not as wide as the Sequioa tree). Besides driving between these trees we also drove through one :-) Of course we made several more stops in order to stretch our legs, have a nice beach walk (finding a dead baby whale and a dead sea lion... pretty smelly!) or just to admire the views.
That night Shos and I were going to have our first night of camping. We found a nice campsite, had no problems setting up the tent and had some good barbecue.


The next day we visited Confusion Hill, a place that supposedly has "strange" magnetic forces... funny, but nothing spectacular. The drive further south on Highway 1 was again great. I would recommend it to anyone that has a chance of doing it!!! There was only one small, but very annoying problem created by yours truly. I broke one of the pick-up's back-side-windows... I was trying to close it and while doing so it shattered into a bagillion pieces. Probably it hadn't been used in a while and got stuck or something and my "force" was enough to make it crack. Luckily there still is a mosquito screen so it doesn't look like the the window is open. After this we decided not to drive to far, but to find a campsite and have a nice quite evening with a couple of beers.


Since we were camping close to Fort Ross and our camping fee included entrance to the Fort we decided to visit it first thing in the morning. Fort Ross is a nice little place that tells you about the history of California and the influence of the Russians in this area and is well worth a visit. After the visit we drove the remaining couple of miles to San Rafael where Shosh's dad lives. No problems except for a traffic chaos in the city itself... But around three o'clock Shosh saw her dad again for the first time in over two years.


Today is the 4th of July a.k.a. Independence Day. My first real one, since we don't celebrate this day in Holland. A couple of friends came over for breakfast and in the afternoon we went to the big county fair. Lots of stalls, exhibitions, food and rides and of course later in the evening fireworks. One of the funniest things on the fair was the Ham Bone Express, a miniature race track for piggies. Of course we had to take our Piggy to go and see it ;-) The fireworks were nice but not extremely spectacular (I expected a little more bangs on this special day...).


The next day I did something I had never done before: going inside a real prison (San Quentin). Shoshannah and her dad regularly visit one of the prisoners on death row. He heard about me in letters and asked if I would like to join Shosh during the next visit. Kind of strange but I agreed and I have to say that it was a wonderful visit. Joe is a very nice man and he truly appreciated my being there. In the afternoon Shosh, her brother David, his girlfriend and I went to THE city (San Francisco). We visited Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, went to see the sea lions only to find out that it is mating season and they all traveled to warmer places and drove over Lombard Street. We didn't cover everything we wanted to see, but Shosh and I are going back, so we'll have another chance to play tourists.


This week we'll be going to a baseball game, more San Francisco, a beer brewery, wine country, fix the car window and who knows what else!!! Looking forward to everything!

As Arnie would say: I'll be back!
Ruudje