California Trip!

WE'RE HERE!
After an uneventful, looooooooooong flight across the country, we have arrived at our destination in the San Francisco area.

We are trying very hard to keep our bodies on east coast time, so I'll only take time to post a few details right now. It is 10:20 p.m. eastern time, but only 7:20 here. We are getting ready to go to bed, but it is really hard when it is so light outside!

When we arrived Sunday evening (5:00 p.m. Pacific time), the weather at the San Francisco was cold and damp, and in the 50's. Brrrrrrrrr! We got our rental car without any problems (which Tom is having a lot of fun driving -- I'll post a picture tomorrow), and arrived at the Mill Valley Inn we had reservations at in Mill Valley, CA.

For my dad, who loves maps:

Marin County, CA Map
(zoom in to see the the route we drove on 7-29)

Remember to click on the picture for the full view!

7-27 - Alcatraz, the first picture I took as we were heading north towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

7 - 27 - Looking back at the fog covering San Francisco, as we were driving north.

7-27 - As we got out of the San Francisco area, the fog lifted and it was beautiful! I have never been to California, and really didn't know what to expect -- the terrain is breathtaking!

7 - 28 - The Mill Valley Inn sits in the middle of a red wood grove -- they are huge! I took the 3 pictures above of the one outside of our room. We were up on the third floor, so I couldn't get a good picture of the base. What you are seeing in the bottom left of the picture are roofs of buildings.

7 - 28 - Standing in the midst of the red wood grove, looking up -- you can't see the tops!

7 - 28 - Tom's impression of a California citizen.

We originally were planning on staying at the Mill Valley Inn for our whole trip, but we didn't really care for the location. It was in a busy part of a town that was actually, quaint, but bustling. The modern, minimalist, Spanish styling was a real turn off for us, and everything was located outside, reminding us of a motel. After shivering through our continental breakfast (it was in the 50's and located outside) we decided to move on.

We found a wonderful Bed & Breakfast up in San Rafael, The Gerstle Park Inn, and were thrilled to find that they had a vacancy. I'll post pictures of the inn tomorrow.

7 - 28 - Everywhere we go, the terrain is so hilly and mountainous!

7 - 29 - We had our whole day free and decided to drive north up the coast. But before we headed north, we went south to see if we could get some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge from a look out point. This is a picture I took from the top of the look out point, looking southwest, and again, the San Francisco area was covered in fog.

7 - 29 - I took this picture looking northeast, and you can see that the fog begins to lift further north.

7 - 29 - Tom standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, with San Francisco in the background.

7 - 29 The Golden Gate Bridge, looking south, towards San Francisco.

7 - 29 - I'm almost embarrassed -- no, I AM embarrassed to post this picture! It was SO WINDY on top of this look out point, and COLD! Tom is fortunate that his "do" never gets messed up. ~wink~

7 - 29 - Another picture looking northeast.

7 - 29 - A picture of the coast as we drove north on highway 1, looking towards Stinson Beach.

7 - 29 - I'm not sure where in our adventures I took this picture, but isn't it beautiful?

7 - 29 - Ummm, not sure what this one is of either, but how gorgeous!

7 - 29 - We turned off of the Shoreline Hwy onto Bolinas Fairfax Rd (I know that doesn't mean anything to you -- those are notes for me for when I go back and label these pictures), heading for Fairfax. Oh my goodness! It was the steepest at times, most winding road I have ever been on! Tom was LOVING it! Part of the road winds along Alpine Lake, pictured above.

7 - 29 - Another view of Alpine Lake.

7 - 29 - After we reached Fairfax, we continued in an easterly direction until we came to Point San Pedro Road, and drove on that around to the San Francisco Bay. As were driving just north of China Camp State Park, I took the picture above. We were looking north across the bay at Sonoma County, which looked utterly desolate and dry. If you click on the picture, you will see what looks like a cloud just above the water. It was a dust storm blowing off of the hills in the left of the picture!

It is now 11:10 p.m., eastern time, and the sun is beginning to go down here on the west coast, so I'm going to try and get some sleep. To my dear children who are reading this, I miss you so much, and look forward to coming home on Thursday!