A nice sunny morning as we headed off from Arcata. Kris needed to do a quick stop in Eureka at Talisman Beads to pick up some more supplies but unfortunately they don't open until 11:00 and we didn't really want to wait around for more than an hour so off we went (there is a bead store in Garberville, our planned lunch stop).
Another beautiful day for a drive along the Eel River valley to a late morning stop in Garberville. The Paradise Cafe where we have often had lunch did not open until noon so we had about 45 minutes to kill. The bead store was open so Kris picked up the needed supplies. We looked around in a few shops until the anointed hour then went into the cafe for lunch which within a minute or so of opening was packed with a variety of rather rugged looking working class men. Although we have normally had quite good lunches here, it was a bit of a bust this time. Kris had the special grilled chicken on a hoagie (she asked for it without the hoagie but it came on one anyway). I, Brian had the pulled pork salad which turned out to be tough as shoe leather re-heated chunks of roast pork. The guy at the table beside us asked what my meal was and when I said it was the pulled pork salad, he suggested that they forgot to pull it! NO sh*t!
After lunch we headed on down US 101 to Cloverdale, our next stop for 3 nights. The KOA there is one of our favorites. We stopped at the Ray's supermarket in Cloverdale before heading for the KOA. We decided to take the north route and it was lucky we did as the south route is closed due to the bridge being out. We arrived to find the KOA office closed early for the day so we found a spot (can you believe it...only two other RVs in the place and one was on our favorite spot!), set up the wee trailer and headed for the swimming pool since the temperature was now in the low 30's C. These folks have one of the best pools we have encountered anywhere. The views out over the valley are stunning...
While at Ray's we passed on buying some ice because we know that "the KOA office always has some"... but since the office was closed for the day we had to make another trip back into town for some ice. Oh well.
For dinner we pulled out our faithful Lodge hibachi and grilled up the tri-tip steaks we picked up at Ray's. Very nice. Built a fire (this time with dry wood) and sat outside in the wonderfully warm mountain air and just relaxed. Finished off the evening with some more Breaking Bad episodes.
Tuesday morning we fiddled with attempting to get our blog week 1 post completed but for some reason Picasa insisted on creating multiple albums when we uploaded photos. We'll try again tonight and tomorrow morning.
That morning, chatting with Pamela in the KOA office we found that the bridge outage is a semi-annual affair. The bailey bridge to the south is removed twice a year for salmon runs because it is over a spawning ground. She said they have tried for many years (she has owned the KOA for 20 years) to have a permanent bridge built but environmentalists block every attempt due to the gravel area being a spawning ground. I asked if a permanent bridge would, in the long run, be less disruptive of the spawning grounds and she said that is the argument everyone has been using to no avail... so twice a year bulldozers go in and move the gravel around to form berms for the bailey bridge then go in later to remove the bridge, respread the gravel around etc etc etc... who knows???
Leaving the campground we stopped in Geyserville for a coffee at Geyserville Mud Espresso and Coffee. Then we headed for Healdsburg a bit south where we spent a couple of hours around the downtown central square area. They have a beautiful central square with cool street banners...
While Kris wandered the shops Brian went off and got a haircut. For lunch we headed back up US 101 to Independence Lane to the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. Sitting on the lovely patio we lunched on a burger and grilled salmon. The scenery was very nice as usual, looking out over the beautiful rose garden onto the vineyards...
After lunch we stopped in at Ray's supermarket for some shrimp to have with a salad for dinner then back to the KOA for some serious pool time. Later we did some work on our travel sketching/painting journals (a new experience for both of us and quite fun). Had the shrimp salad for dinner, reviewed last week's blog, watched a couple more episodes of Breaking Bad and called it a night. A bit cooler tonight than last night.
On Wednesday we toured a bit further afield, driving east on state highway 28 to Calistoga. Known primarily for it's "mud baths", the main drag in town is only about 3 or 4 blocks long. We strolled up one side and down the other, stopping in the excellent bookstore, ACE hardware and a few local boutiques. It seems like the town is going through a bit of a hard time as numerous stores have closed with the store fronts not showing any signs of "coming soon" businesses. We decided to try Buster's Southern BBQ on the edge of town for lunch and had a decent combination of ribs, chicken and hot sausage along with potato salad and slaw between us. We didn't include a link to their website here because McAfee warned that it was rated as a "risky site" but on Yelp they currently rate a 4 out of 5 after 283 reviews so it looks like lots of folks like their stuff.
After lunch we drove a bit further south to St Helena where again we wandered the main downtown area for a while. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and nothing bought in this case. St Helena is an interesting place. Lots of shops featuring rustic, simple looking stuff at sky high prices. An example would be a plain grey t-shirt, with a Scandinavian designer label and said t-shirt would have a price tag somewhere north of $200. Kris went into an art gallery which featured sculptures by Calder, so this is not a crafts-by-your-granny place. The other artist featured was not known to us, but the work was interesting - even if it did fall into the 'take a photo and I'll make one of these when we get home' category. The gallery owner/attendant did not even look up from her laptop to acknowledge us. How rude and stupid. You need to be a trillionaire to live in the area, so there is a lot of snootiness from people who are really just jumped up little shop girls. Leaving town we stopped at a Safeway and finally found some Cowgirl Creamery Cheese with their Mt Tam being our favorite of any American made cheese we have tasted on our travels.
The drive from Cloverdale to Calistoga and back along highway 28 is very pretty but it is a very winding road (they have signs advising long vehicle/trailer combinations against going that way) and you are constantly driving in and out of shadows which some of us find a bit tiring so be careful not to doze off while driving this route!!!
For dinner Wednesday night we decided to try Ruth McGowan's Brewpub in Cloverdale. We sat at the bar. Nice atmosphere and the waitress was super friendly and seemed to enjoy telling us about the history of the place (ie we asked who Ruth McGowan was) and answering other assorted questions. The food was good to. Kris had a chicken salad and Brian had a bacon cheese burger.
Unfortunately, after the great weather we had when we arrived in Cloverdale it has cooled down the last couple of days and by Wednesday evening it was only about 15 C which by our normal standards is pretty nice but compared to the 30+ on Monday afternoon it seemed chilly, especially the slight wind...so we passed on hitting the pool.
Thursday morning we made some coffee for the road then packed up the wee trailer and headed south towards San Francisco. Our planned stop for the rest of the week being Santa Cruz, about an hour or so south of San Francisco. The last time we were through this area there was massive redoing on many sections of highway 101 but that has all been completed and, for the most part, the drive into San Fransisco was smooth and easy. They have a state law in California that for all vehicles towing a trailer the speed limit is 55 but otherwise it is 65 most of that stretch. So we set the cruise on about 58 or 59, kept to the slow lane, took it easy and watched the rest of the traffic world speed by. It took about an hour and a half to get to the Golden Gate bridge. As we approached the bridge we noticed signs that said the toll plaza did not accept cash... hmmmm... credit card??? Not so... they have introduced an automatic payment system (just started March 27 this year) whereby they have scanners taking in license plate numbers and they send you an invoice. So it should be interesting to see what's in our mail when we get home. Their website indicates we should get an invoice for $18 (because with the trailer we are a 3-axle combination).
After getting across the bridge and heading towards highway 1, we stopped at the Stonestown Galleria Mall for a lunch break at Nordstrom's, wander around the mall to stretch our legs, and for Kris to pick up a couple of nice clothing items at J Jill. Then it was south through Pacifica where, just south of town, they have opened the new Tom Lantos Tunnels which bypass the infamous Devil's Slide area along the coast. The tunnels recently opened March 25th this year. We were quite surprised to find the tunnels were built as only one lane in each direction, although it looks like there is sufficient room for a vehicle to pull over in the tunnel if required.
Anyway, after a quick grocery stop in Half Moon Bay we continued on. We hit Santa Cruz at about 4:00 pm and it must have been the beginning of a rush hour as the traffic south or the city on highway 1 came to a complete halt and it took us just about an hour to go the 15 or so kms to the San Andreas Road exit to the KOA.
We were able to choose a site at the KOA and decided on #49. It is larger than the sites we have stayed in before (normally site #33 or 34) but has a cement pad which is a bit nicer than the dirt in the smaller sites and only a couple of $$ more per night... and is close to the restrooms as well. Looking around it appears that sites 52, 53 and 54 would be good ones to know about for the future.
We asked about the raccoon situation and buddy told us that they are around but no problems so far this year. He said there is also a bob cat around but no recent sightings. After an excellent grilled pork chop dinner we cleaned up and pushed our coolers under the seats of the picnic table (to help prevent the lids from opening).
In the morning we awoke to find some raccoon foot prints on the top of one of the coolers but no real attempt at a break and enter. Other places we've been told that raccoons will eat through a cooler to get into it. Maybe ours didn't have a real good raccoon attractant odor to it or something and it gave up after a rather casual look... or maybe this being a large campground there are always easy pickings somewhere.
Friday morning we drove over to Watsonville to see if we could find the Wax Works West studio where they focus on encaustic wax techniques. Kris wanted to find out more as these folks are scheduled for a workshop at Maiwa in Vancouver in the fall. We lucked out as one of the instructors (Judy) was there setting up for a course on Saturday. She was nice enough to take the time to show us around and explain many aspects of the way the wax is used. Very inspiring. The class on Saturday was full but she took Kris' name and contact info in case there was a cancellation. Alas there was no cancellation. Oh well, we picked up a couple of DVDs and an instruction book to get more ideas.
Afterwards we drove south to Carmel for a wander around the main street areas looking in boutique stores and a lunch at a burger bar. On the way back we drove back into Watsonville where we wandered through a farmer's market before stopping at a latino super mercado where we picked up some nice tri-tip beef for dinner. One of the cool features of downtown Watsonville are the many murals, depicting the farming life of the area, painted on sides of buildings, for example...
Although the KOA was virtually empty Thursday night it filled up rather quickly Friday night as expected. Apparently this is also an annual "father-daughter" weekend for a large group from San Jose. Saturday morning featured a parade of young girls and their fathers (with a lot of face painting having been applied) around part of the campground. We only notice the face painting because one of the dads, from a distance appeared to have a large facial tattoo, despite looking like a corporate sort of guy in khakis and having a large RV. On closer investigation he appeared to have some flowers and vines painted all over his face. Talk about taking one for the team.
For the day, Saturday, we headed for Santa Cruz where we started with a coffee at Peet's on the main downtown street. There is a huge O'Neill Surfing Outfitter store which along with other stores was having a sidewalk sale so we looked through lots of clothing racks where Kris picked up a cool long sleeved t-shirt. Across the street is an art supply store where we also bought some more supplies. After a brief time downtown we drove over to the beach/cliff area where the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is and once again we lucked out with a surfing competition going on. The waves weren't as good this time so it wasn't as exciting watching as the last time we were here.
We watched a bit then decided to head back into downtown for some lunch and more wandering before Kris' hair appointment later in the afternoon.
Later we headed to Capitola where we stopped in at a beach side bar for a couple of glasses of wine and some chicken wings before calling it a day. Then it was back to the trailer for some more Breaking Bad episodes (nearing the end of season 3 now). Sunay we awoke to a fairly foggy day. We decided to drive into Watsonville to go to the Starbucks for a coffee. Busy busy place! We followed the coffee stop with a breakfast at Norma's Restaurant. This is a Mexican flavored place where they make huge omelets... very large breakfasts... we both ordered an omelet but passed on the 3 pancakes and huge side of hashbrowns that came with it (we could see what others around us had on their plates) and it was all we could do to just get through the omelet. Afterwards we drove south to Marina to see what DVD sets the Costco there had (zipola), stopped in at Target and Ulta for a few things then went back to the campground for a mid afternoon nap...aaah!
In the late afternoon we headed into Santa Cruz again, stopped at Trader Joe's for some wine for the evening then drove around the cliffs to the surfing museum to see if there were still any surfers out and about. A few diehards were sitting out in the water but there wasn't much in the way of waves to speak about so we continued on along the boardwalk area. As it was getting a bit late in the afternoon we decided not to stop and wander along the boardwalk so just drove around looking at old houses etc and found ourselves on Seabright Ave where we had a great pizza at Engfer Pizza Works the last time we were here. However, we had some salads etc awaiting us back at the campground so we headed on "home". Had dinner, watched some more Breaking Bad and called it a week...
It is too bad there is no 'smell-a-vision' app for blogs. One of the things we enjoy the most in this area is the intense aroma of the eucalyptus gum trees along San Andreas Road towards the KOA. It is a dusty woodsy smell that is eucalyptus, but not like cough drops.... mmmmm...
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