Cali Day Five

It’s a good thing we never acclimated to California time. It seems that a 6 a.m. awake time is necessary to our vacation schedule : ) When I think of it as waking up at 8 a.m., it seems normal and not so shockingly early. Poor dad half froze sleeping in the camper the previous night so we could leave early this morning for Yuba City. Our plan was to bang on the R.V. door with a mug of coffee around 6:45, knowing we needed to leave at 7 to get to our breakfast date with Grandma J by 7:30, but dad was ready to warm up inside, so he beat us to it. Jingles was up at 5, so this was Buck’s second awake (he let the wee lass out to potty, brrr!!) With all her morning needs cared for, we were able to load up our luggage and head for Lumberjacks.

“Where the Big Boys Eat,” lol! Yet another of dad’s suggested eateries, this one featured a giant lumberjack statue out front (missing his beard and suspenders—shocking : ). Inside, the wait staff wore red-and-black checked flannel shirts and SUSPENDERS! Nice! The furniture was chunky wood, the walls were decorated with rusty saw blades, and a general cabin-like feel surrounded us. On the table, the waitress set heavy green mugs of coffee and hot chocolate. Cresting the hot chocolate mug was a mountain of swirly whipped cream thick enough to cover the drinker’s nose and cheeks after each sip. And there were refills! I mean . . . : )

Loads of pancakes, cinnamon roll French toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and who knows what else?! It was an incredible amount of food (Brennen ate Grandma J’s extra, plate-sized pancake), which was good because we had a long drive and a lot of plans for the day. That meal tided us over for hours! Our waitress was fantastic, by the way, so friendly and helpful. She asked to whom to give the bill and when dad, Mr. R, and Buck all claimed it, she said she had flashbacks to when she’d been accidentally stabbed in the hand with a fork when another party battled for the check!

We were sad to say goodbye to our San Diego family. After hugs and farewells and lumberjack statue pictures, dad drove us to the rental car place just a couple blocks away. Buck made arrangements for the rental through Costco before we left, so our white Dodge minivan was pretty much ready to roll. Buck was very happy that we were given a Dodge (he’s sort of a fan). I like that it is all leather inside, offers climate control options for both driver and passenger, there’s loads of storage, the auto-close rear hatch, and has navigation built-in (although Melted Maggie did make it into our suitcase and has come in handy a time or two so far : ) After a quick transfer of luggage, dad headed home and we headed west.

It is less than three hours’ drive to San Francisco. Originally, we didn’t even plan to come this way. We wanted to go north to the Redwoods for a day, maybe catch Crater Lake (say we’d been to Oregon), see the Lava Beds, and the other northern California national park options (hooray, for our America the Beautiful pass!). But when I got a chance to research (a couple days before we left), I discovered almost all of these parks were buried under snow. So much snow, that many of them aren’t even plowed for the next several months. Since we’ve never snow-shoed, nor were we planning to bring outerwear adequate for such an excursion, we had to come up with a secondary plan. I didn’t think Buck wanted to return to San Fran, since he’d visited the city before with his buddy Mick when we all still lived in Cali. But there are so many national parks in the area (Junior Ranger jackpot!) that I suggested we go this route. He actually thought that sounded cool, so this became our plan!

I reserved a hotel a little north of the city, but we weren’t able to check in as early as we passed through the town of San Rafael. I thought maybe because some flooding and a rerouted route (and an emergency bathroom break at a park-n-ride, *shudder*) slowed us down a bit, that it might work out. But, they were hopping at the Embassy Suites (as we later learned when we did check in), so we headed straight to the Golden Gate Bridge. 









Alcatraz Island floating behind their shoulders :)
Below is Fort Point--the only West Coast Civil War battle station, built into the bridge, creating a double bridge effect (it was closed, sigh).

Wow, what a view coming into the city! The bridge is just as stunning as it is in every movie and television show we’ve ever seen, and so huge! We really had no intention of driving across it, but discovered our built-in Nav (it really needs a name) directed us straight across. I’ve heard the traffic can be really bad, and crossing the bridge can take hours, but we didn’t experience that at all—we zipped right across and parked for free (yay, President’s Day!) near the visitor center. First disappointment was that they don’t actually offer a Jr. Ranger program, as advertised online. Second disappointment, the portion of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that does, was closed. Well, we walked down to look at it anyway, and Graysen can fill out the book online and send for his badge—we’re going to see if this is an option for the Golden Gate area as well. One national park we couldn’t access was Alcatraz Island. Apparently you have to do some significant planning ahead to get tickets to that, and I did not have that luxury with our plan changes. It’s okay though, we saw the island. That’s close enough for me (especially since every description I’ve ever heard of the tour is “eerie and unsettling”).

However, the sun was shining at the Bridge and we enjoyed the short hike along the pathways connecting the various national park spots in the area. My other plans for the day included Muir Woods and Point Reyes (two more Jr. Ranger options). I knew we needed to book parking or shuttles for the woods, but I didn’t have time to do that ahead of our arrival (and how on earth can you plan for a 30-minute window arrival time a week in advance?) As we were walking, I did make the final parking reservation of the day—3:30 to 4 p.m. There was a caution that the park closed at sunset, “so good luck with that.” But it was better than nothing, since I really wanted to see the Muir Woods (and Buck had already purchased a Muir Woods medallion for his walking stick, so we HAD to go!).

Unfortunately, this  parking time restriction messed up my cute little lasso loop of the area. We had several hours in between, and so decided to go north to Point Reyes National Seashore before the woods, which was the opposite of my plan. We missed the road through the park, and instead wove through little towns. There was a section of state park that was gorgeously treed, but I wish both our GPS systems would have agreed with the printed map, so we could have enjoyed more of the park. Oh well : )

We got to the Bear Valley Visitor Center about 40 minutes later and snagged G$ a Junior Ranger book (success!!). Outside the doors, a pressed penny machine—bingo! In the van, I hastily made pb and j sandwiches for our lunch, handing them back as quickly as I could slap them together (Brennen had three). I used up a loaf and a half of bread in record time. Gonzos. Graysen started on his required booklet pages with a little help from Gabby, as we drove toward the coast.



Those wormy lumps (not clear to the beach, but right behind the fence posts) are elephant seals!

Below, Buck bought a new phone as a tax write off for next year, and it has cool features, like selective focus. Can you see the difference? It's like those spot what's different pictures in Highlights magazines (well, sort of :)

Another half hour brought us through a flooded out road (there is so much water in Cali right now!) over which tourists had to take turns traversing a single lane that hadn’t fully washed away like the area under the floating caution cone. The land past the flooded lane seemed empty but for cattle ranches, a few fluffy deer, and a herd of elk—yes, ELK on this little disconnected bit of greenery that reminded me for all the world of Ireland. It was at this point, on the narrow Ireland-like roads, that I flipped over the map and saw that we were driving along the San Andreas Fault—and not the continental side. Eeeeeek!!

Thankfully, there were no shakies while we visited Point Reyes—unless you count the numerous, impressive potholes littering the road. We drove to the other visitor center, Kenneth something-something. Graysen was almost done with his booklet by now, so we could turn it in and he could get his badge. As we were on our way in, we noticed a crowd of people and bunch of caution tape and more traffic cones. Guess what was just a few feet away? Elephant seals!! They’d followed the tide up to the sea grass area right in front of the visitor center! They were HUGE. The males and the babies stay on the beach while the mamas swim to Hawaii for food. They molt and wait for the ladies to get back so they can migrate again. A happy, young docent (she reminded me of the cute secretary Erin on The Office) asked us if we had any questions. Since she asked, we came up with a bunch, and so she answered. From her pocket, she pulled a chunk of elephant seal fur (she said the seals molt on the beach, she didn’t shave it off one of them while it was sleeping). The texture was amazing, kind of like the grippy Velcro pad coils on the inside, and softer, more fur-like on the outside. We observed the massive hunks of mammal for a while longer then headed into the ranger station.

While Buck and the older kids wandered the museum part, looking at beachy things and elephant seal bones, Graysen attempted to collect his badge. This ranger was a bit more particular about completion than most rangers. On one page, G$ had unscrambled words, thinking they were answers to the questions on the same page. But actually, he needed to do some reading, answer the questions, AND unscramble the words. This took us about 15 more minutes, with a little help from the somewhat gruff ranger. I don’t know how anybody can be gruff in that setting. It was gorgeous!! But, eventually, all the required pages were satisfactorily filled in, the seashore pledge was taken, and Graysen received a patch. Not his favorite, he likes the pin-on badges better, but still cool : )

Did you spot the elephant seal in the picture above? Here's a zoom in of him, lots of battle scars on that gray back!

We drove farther south or west or something, and tried to see the lighthouse (closed for renovations) and seals on the beach (not accessible), but the cliffs we climbed were stunning. So green, so blue, so far down!! Our next drive was sketchy, because it really was a single lane road (with a few somewhat strategic pullouts for passing) with muddy grass along each side. You didn’t want to get off the path. We waited for parking, which took a hot minute, in a tiny parking lot at the end of the lane. After donning coats and hats, we took off for the cliff walk to see the sea lion beach. We could hear them before we could see them, honking, squawking, howling, such a crazy mixture of sounds! Far down on the beach cove, we saw hundreds of wormlike bodies that seemed to lie without care, basking in the setting sun.

Yes, the sun was setting and we were nowhere near the woods. I said farewell to my eight dollar reservation, and we just enjoyed where we were. So much natural beauty, the seascapes were breathtaking, the emptiness of the land around us—only home to a handful of ranchers and their herds for hundreds of years, so much space in the otherwise crowded state of California. Oh, and moving north at about two inches a year. The island is pushed north along the Pacific Plate, its rocks matching rocks found hundreds of miles down the coast. The continental plate is pushing west. These two meet at that aforementioned San Andreas Fault. Crazy to be right there in all that unfeelable (thankfully) action.

The drive back to the mainland was a bit challenging. Many end-of-the-day visitors hurried to catch the fading sunlight on the beach. We saw a limping deer slowly trying to climb a hill and, soon, a small car missing its bumper; the driver collecting the hunk of plastic and stowing it in his backseat. Buck thought the deer must have just been recently hit. I don’t know how you could hit an animal at the extremely slow speeds we were allowed to drive, at least not hard enough to hurt it. But that guy obviously did. We saw a ranger racing that direction, so someone must have reported it. Hopefully, he was able to help the animal and address the driver.

By now, we were tired—that was a long day! We beelined for the hotel check-in. We dropped our bags in our room, excitedly connected to wifi (90 percent of data used and five days to go . . . only on vacation), and researched a nearby restaurant. We found something right up Buck’s alley, a taqueria with an awning and everything! Hole-in-the-wall, dive . . . but the reviews were good, and it seemed (from photos) to be frequented by all sorts of people, so off we went! The food was delicious, authentic, and we ordered so many chimichangas it made the waitress laugh.

Back at the hotel, I took the boys to the pool to burn off some in-the-car-most-of-the-day energy. I got caught up on facebook and send some texts with the wifi. I know, not secured. But much appreciated! When the boys were done swimming, we pretty much ran all the kids through the showers, unpacked and donned all the pjs, and went to bed. Good night, Cali!