"Live in Northern California once, but leave before
it makes your soft"
Baz Luhrman - Always Wear Sunscreen
I’m officially past the hump
of the trip with 20 days now complete.
After 5,000 miles I’ve finally reached the Pacific Ocean. These couple of days were spent exploring the
northern portion of California, starting with San Francisco and then driving
along the coast to Redwood National Park. There was a lot of driving today, and very little time to get this up for you so please excuse the grammar and spelling errors.
But before I get to that,
Shriver and I left Merced and headed northwest towards Stockton to stay with a
former co-resident of mine, Jake, and his girlfriend Jess. There is not much to see in Stockton so we
used this day to catch up. Jake
currently works as a hospitalist with an 8 days on, 8 days off schedule. Unfortunately it was a busy day for him, so
he did not get home until late that night.
While waiting, we took care of laundry and caught up with our family and
friends out East. We learned a new board game called Small World which when played with California wine turns into quite an aggressive game.
We woke the next morning, had an awesome breakfast courtesy of Jess and then headed towards San
Francisco. The drive was not without
excitement, as California drivers are by far the worst drivers I’ve run
across. After an hour with three near
but successfully avoided accidents we made it to the Bay Bridge, where I paid
my first toll of the trip, $4 for 5,000 miles (not bad, considering it costs me
over $3 per trip from Williamsport to Allentown). Though it was a bright and sunny day, the fog
from the ocean was already starting to roll in.
We dropped my car off at the motel on Lombard Street and then Shriver
and I hopped into Jake’s car for our personal tour of the city.
Jake is from this area and
knows it well. This was my second time
in San Fran. The first was nearly 10
years ago when my parents, my sister and I started our Pacific coast tour. I had already seen the Wharf, the shipyard,
the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Full House house. This time Jake showed us Coit Tower, China
Town, Haight-Ashbury, Ferry Building Marketplace, and North Beach. We also made an attempt to check out the
Golden Gate Bridge but unfortunately the fog had become so dense that the bay
area was essentially erased from view.
After experiencing averages of 90-100 degree days, the cool damp air of
San Fran left us with no other choice but to warm up at the local food and bar
establishments.
We stopped at a whisky bar in
the Haight-Ashbury district, a hippy version of South Street Philly, and then
made our way towards a brick-oven pizza joint nearby Lombard. Quick tangent, there is only one region of the US that knows how to make pizza and
that’s the northeast, but this place made a very respectable attempt; key
emphasis is attempt. Then we bar hopped
in the area, trying local beers and raising as much as hell as two doctors, one
teacher and one dental assistant in their late 20s and early 30s can do, which
is not much. Though we did have a fun
time.
Despite the shroud of fog,
San Francisco was another great city and ranks right up there with New
Orleans. It has no distinct type of
food, culture, people, architecture. It’s
a mix of everything, and it celebrates
that in a way similar to New York City but in a more scenic way. Everywhere you look (Full House theme), you
get a view of the blue bay, an impossibly steep street lined with flowers and
palm trees, or a cable car full of tourists.
Away from the tourist sections, the city is still alive. It is its own little world. Plus there weren’t as many Priuses as I
thought there would be.
The next morning we had a
long trek ahead of us, a 10 hr drive to Crater Lake along the scenic route of
101 that takes you straight through the Redwood Forest. The drive was beautiful and took us to cool
towns. This apparently is the pot
growing capital of the US and its towns seem to represent that. Smoke shops and glass ware stores were
abundant. There was even a store that
specialized just in light up coats.
That’s right, coats with lights sewn into them with battery packs. We stopped for lunch in Eureka, a
quintessential northern California city, lined with cool bookstores and coffee
shops. It even had a store that sold
both bongs and disc golf discs.
After lunch we continued the
drive and finally hit the section of the highway along the coast in Redwood
Park. There was fog, but a nice patch of
sunlight gave us the change to walk along the black sand beach and test out the
cold blue water. We stopped at the
visitor center and then went to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove to view some more
big trees. This was actually a really
cool park, quiet and no crowds. The
grove felt like a walk back to a prehistoric time. The redwoods are even taller than sequoias
just not as wide. They tower above you with large ferns surrounding the
bases. After the trees, it was time for
some more coastal driving until we headed inland for Oregon.
Northern California is a
beautiful place with the most laid back of vibes. I’m not sure if I was quite ready to leave,
but there is still half the trip to go.
The very first road trip across the US started in San Fran in 1903. The driver was a 31 year old phyisician anmed
Horatio Jackson who bet $50 ($1000 by todays standards) that he could drive
from San Fran to New York. He enlisted a
mechanic named Sewall Crocker to co-pilot his trip. It took 63 days, 800 gallons and cost $8,000
to get there. It’ll take me 3 weeks to
make it back home. Until then, keep
following along its all East from here!
Stats
Miles Driven: 5441
States: PA, MD, WV, VA, TN, NC, AL,
MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA
National Parks: 11
Number of Priuses seen: 24
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