We drove out to the coast again. After hours on Interstate 5 and then smaller highways weaving through the stubbly, clear-cut hills, it was a relief to see the Pacific again when we reached Newport. We quickly found a room at the Shilo Inn, which had a fabulous view overlooking Newport’s enormous beach. From our room, we could see a few people, tiny as ants, traversing the vast expanse of sand, bordered between a scrubby hill and the gentle surf. I completely failed to get a photo of this. So, I present, instead, some horses from the previous morning at the treehouse place.

After checking in, and settling in a bit, we went out in search of a restaurant with a view of the ocean, so we could watch the sun set as we ate dinner. You’d think it would be easy to find this, but you’d be wrong. There were few apparent restaurants in Newport with a nice view of the sea. We finally found the Best Western hotel’s on-site restaurant, which had a partially obstructed view. The atmosphere was dismal, and the food was forgettable. Driving around town later, eventually finding an all-night Safeway grocery store was actually much more fun.

Ok, I didn’t entirely fail to get a picture of Newport’s beach, but I did fail to get a picture I liked. After we went back to the hotel, I grabbed my camera to take some night shots of the beach, but I struggled because the hotels had huge flood lights aimed at the beach. These threw awkward and unnatural shadows of everything everywhere, and I just couldn’t find an angle that looked good and worked with these shadows.

Anyway, we decided that the next morning, instead of heading up the coast to another beach town, we’d make directly for Seattle. This would give us two nights in the city, and some time to enjoy and explore a little. We drove back inland, and got to Interstate 5 again, and plowed directly up the middle of Oregon, through Salem and Portland, and into Washington State. We got to our Holiday Inn in downtown Seattle around 5. After our usual settling-in routine, we selected a restaurant from among a zillion mouth-watering choices, and made a reservation online. Dinner was great. Laura and I both had wild salmon. It was served on a bed of whipped avocado and grapefruit, of all things. We also had a small dish of wild mushrooms, sauteed in garlic butter. Yum. Later on, we went for a dessert at an artsy cafe/bar.

Now it’s time to sleep. It’s our last full day of the trip tomorrow, and Seattle awaits exploration.

Yesterday, we drove from Fort Bragg to Crescent City today, stopping for a picnic on the beach. Each turn in the road brought a new spectacular vista. Further north, we entered the giant redwood forests, where trees live up to 2000 years. Today we’ll do some hiking among the trees, and then leave California for Oregon. I’ve booked a treehouse for us near Takilma, about 2 hours from here. Thanks for that tip, D!

We checked out of the Intercontinental at about 11 and left our stuff in the luggage room. We wanted to spend a couple more hours enjoying San Francisco before hitting the road. After a light breakfast consisting of a small bottle of superfoods juice blend from Odwalla, consumed on a bench in Union Square, we climbed to the top of Powell Street, where the streetcars named Desire trawl for tourists. We relaxed in a park at the top for a while, and then we picked up our rental car. The car is a huge, bright blue Dodge Grand Caravan, the granddaddy of minivans. We named it the Cookie Monster. We gathered our luggage from the hotel and had a relaxing late lunch at FIsherman’s Wharf. We explored the galleries there for a while, checking out the original Picasso and Dali works on display, etchings by Rembrandt, as well as a wonderful exhibit of Dr. Seuss art prints and sculptures.

By the time we got on the road again, it was nearly 3pm. The road, however, was spectacular. We decided to take Highway 1, which provided plenty of twisting and turning thrills for the Cookie Monster as it dives and weaves among the mountains along the coast of Northern California.

Occasionally, I’d stop to take a picture, but soon it was dark, and we searched for a place to stay. Just north of Fort Bragg, we found the Beachcomber Motel, and negotiated a room for $59. The place is actually quite nice, freshly renovated and right on the edge of the ocean. I felt inspired to shoot, so I went out onto the beach with my camera and took some night shots.