Santa Rosa

We arrived at the Santa Rosa Fairground after driving through the Anderson Valley, well known for its vineyards, which passed every mile or so for the last 30 miles from Boonville. Each vineyard offered the promise of tasty tastings of the wines they produced. If we had stopped at one tenth of them we would have had great difficulty in driving straight to Santa Rosa. However the many fields and terraces of grapes, with their leaves now turning golden, made a very attractive landscape.

This morning we were determined to explore Santa Rosa, having revealed to Sally the one important must see tourist spot: The actual house used for filming Sally's most cherished childhood film - Pollyanna. The house was the McDonald Mansion on McDonald St. We savoured the moment all day, saving our visit until the end of our day of exploration. To this we also added another legendary figure, that of Charlie Brown.
We started at the Railroad Square, a pleasant enough centrepiece of the Historical Center of Santa Rosa, had a coffee and walked the few streets mentioned in the self guided walk - stopping off at a couple of Thrift Shops (Charity shops), where we saw some interesting items and got some books. We stopped to admire and pose with some life size statues of Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy. Their link with Santa Rosa is that Charles M. Shultz lived and worked here for many years, there is even a museum to him (we did not visit this). We were also looking for our likely lunch spot, unfortunately none of them came up to our tight specification (yes they were all too expensive), so we went out of town to the retail area and had a very pleasant lunch in Chilli's.
The afternoon was given over to visiting a garden in the centre of Santa Rosa, one owned by Luther Burbank (who?). He was a horticulturist who set up in the nice fertile Santa Rosa and through cross pollination, selection and the use of cuttings was responsible for producing some 800 different plant species which could be bought from a catalogue. It made for a fascinating afternoon.
Finally we drove to McDonald St, to find Pollyanna's house. The street is a very leafy upmarket street in the old part of Santa Rosa, with many big old trees, including one huge acacia tree that looked like it was a couple of hundred years old. We eventually found the house, which was very exciting, and identified the front garden and drive, also the steps up to the front door, and the front door, also the mezzanine roof and wide frontage of the first floor. Alas, the top floor of the perfect Pollyanna House was missing! Strangely enough the Disney Team had chosen a house with only two floors! The top story was added to the building in the art studio, painted onto the film using a matte process. Though slightly disappointing the rest of the house was exactly the same and a beautiful example of Victorian architecture. Only slightly disappointing because we already knew that only the two floors of the house was real. In the film the house was painted white but now it is a wonderful combination of green, russet red and cream, which emphasises all the intricate wooden tracery. Still it made for a great afternoon, one of Sally's childhood icons made real.
Tomorrow it's Petaluma and another film icon location: American Graffiti.

Mendocino and More

Today was as unswervingly sunny as it has been most of the previous weeks. As though the fact that it had rained and been miserable the previous three days was a trick of your own mind. We packed a picnic and we set off the the 'must see' town of Mendocino, which is described in the tour guides as 'an eclectic' collection of Victorian houses, art boutiques, coffee house and cafes nestling in the protection of the southerns slopes of a hill, on a cliff top above a blue water bay.
Unfortunately we drove straight past it on the road, as it was so small, however that gave us the chance to see the town from the South, as well as some surfers in the bay. The town is very pretty and comprises almost completely New England Style clapperboard houses, mostly because the first settlers were lumber people from New England, who had to sail all the way round Cape Horn to find a rocky coast like theirs back home. It is so New England that the U.S. T.V. Series of Murder She Wrote was filmed here. As was parts of Karate Kid III.
We had a lovely time wandering round just looking, then we stopped off a the Mendocino Cafe for lunch. Sally had a Beef Pot Roast, while I had mussels and a burger, very nice. Very Eclectic.
After lunch we ran into our next door neighbours and stood and chatted, also watching a very friendly hummingbird.

We drove slowly back along the coast to the Point Cabrillo Light Station, this is a fascinating light station built in 1909 to protect this rocky coast for the lumber ships. Lovely view of the sea and coast in either direction.

To See The Sea

One of the reasons for visiting this coast is to see the sea at it's rugged best, well today (Sunday) was the day to do it. Even though there was no more than a gentle breeze the sea was quite rough, blowing on shore. When it stopped raining we wrapped up warm and set out to the local State Park.
We were able to park right on the beach, by the bay. There is a boardwalk which takes up right out onto the headland, where we could appreciate the majesty of the sea.
I tried to get some good shots of the waves/shore with the camera, there were a number of bird species there, best of all are the pelicans, so graceful in flight, but also cormorants, oyster catchers, geese and of course a number of types of gull. We sat and watched from the viewpoint for a good twenty minutes before we saw a seal! We eventually realised that just a few yards away there were loads of Harbor Seals, which were fascinating to watch.
By the time we returned to the car the sun was setting, but I resisted the temptation to wait for a sunset picture. Another great day on our vacation.

The Chandelier Tree

Today is our last 'Big Redwood Day', we are driving back down to the coast, to Fort Bragg, but we are stopping on the way to see the Chandelier Tree. This tree is famous as in the 1930's someone cut a hole through the trunk. The tree is so large that a car can be driven through the hole! We couldn't miss that. The tree itself is beautiful and very large, although we could not get our truck and trailer through we did watch as other people drove their own cars through quite easily. I don't quite know what the fascination is of driving your car though a hole in a tree, but it was great fun.
The only explanation I can come up with is that because these trees are so large you are constantly trying to give some scale to them, so a six foot square hole with a car in it really does give some indication of just how big these trees are.

Tree Hugging Day

Today we are driving down U.S.101 through the Humboldt Redwood State Park. We have taken the scenic byway, which winds for 31 miles through some of the biggest Redwood trees. Words and photos cannot express the feelings as we walk among the silent giants. On our first stop we just sat and listened to the silence, then we picked out a slight pitter patter, even though the sun was shining under the forest canopy is was gently raining, I don't know if it was condensation, or droplets falling from the branches, but it was very strange. We made many stops to look at some of the larger trees. Most interesting was the visitor's Center which had a National Geographic film about the Redwoods and climbing them to find the highest (379ft) and study the topmost branches, which have their own ecosystem with soil, flowers, ferns, small trees and animals, some of which never leave the tree they live in. Fascinating. It also described the 'Tree Wars of the nineties when protesters managed to stop the logging of the last of the Old Growth Redwoods (up to 2000 years old), enabling us to continue to enjoy these amazing trees. We also visited the third largest of these trees and were distinctly impressed by its size.
Tonight we have stopped at Standish Hickey State Park. Even on a Friday night it is completely empty, we are alone in the woods with the bears and things. One good feature is that because there is no Camp Host we have nabbed the Camp Host spot, which means we have full Hook Up! and can keep warm using their electricity. We are not surprised that the park is empty as they charge $35 per night for very small sites and no facilities.

Heading back South

We are now past the mid point in our trip, the weather has been really good so far on this trip, sunny, blues skies and gentle winds. However the signs are all there that winter is on it's way. Cool mornings and sometimes misty is a message that we cannot ignore for long, so we have decided to bid farewell to Oregon and reluctantly start our long journey back South into the warmer climes fo California.
So on Wednesday we packed up, hitched up our rig and set off soth. We crossed the border back into California, again running the gauntlet of the Ca. Agricultural Police, worrying in case we have forgotten to declare some tasty orange or an avacado pear and thus find ourselves deported or thrown into alcatraz.
Having lost faith in Ca's State Parks and knowing that RV parks are expensive we are trying to use fairgrounds, as many small towns have their own fairground and many of them have RV Hookups which are very cheap.

I think that we all enjoy waves.

I think that we all enjoy waves.
The thing about waves is that as you watch them they become something different, as they reflect or enhance the thoughts, moods and emotion through which you are interpreting what you see.
Though the photographer plans for the picture to try to demonstrate those feelings, photographs cannot demonstrate the meaning of a wave after it has been filtered by your mindset. It can only present the evidence, hoping that the viewer will become involved in looking for the reason for a picture. Having sat for some time watching waves the photos try to demonstrate my feelings.
They also say something about how magnificently energy organises the water in waves. At the same time how the power of that energy is at the same time directed and chaotic.

Ride up the Oregon Coast

On Tuesday the sun was shining and the sky was blue so we packed a picnic and drove up the coast to visit the Samuel H. Boardman State Park for the day. This is a 12 mile strech of coast north of Brookings.
The trouble with Oregon Beaches (and I suspect that this is also true of Californian beaches, if not all beaches) is that though they are quite spectacular and special as individual beaches, when you describe or photograph them they all sound/look the same. Having said that we did see many beautiful beaches, some of which were accessible to us. From cliff top headlands we could see sweeping vistas of sandy bays and other headlands, lots of islands, but also some arches that had been created by the waves. . We spent some time watching the waves as there was a nice swell, though it wasn't too windy. Some of the rocky outcrops and islands forced the waves into lovely patterns and we were fascinated by the size and raw power of the waves rolling in and breaking either on rocks or sand.
I tried to gets some photos which demonstrated these feelings/observations, but it is very difficult to do that.
The land is coast was almost all temperate rainforest which comes right down to the cliffs, so many views were found by wlking through the forests, which in themselves were quite spectacular, though not on the scale of the Giant Redwood forests, as usual we were also on the lookout for birds and animals and I managed to get pics of a couple.
This was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time just wave watching.

Eureka

Tuesday.

We have now returned to California and having driven through the delightful little town of Trinidad, reached that metropolis of the civilized world that is Eureka. Having arrived we have decided to stay two nights. Tonight we ate at a restaurant recommended by K.C. (a fireman friend from Folsom), called the Samoa Cookhouse. It is a relic of the Lumber Camp days of Eureka, when Samoa Island was owned by a lumber company and used it to house all the lumber workers. They had a communal cookhouse, which served one main dish, with soup, bread to all its workers. When the lumber company pulled out/went bust the cookhouse stayed on as a very well known local 'experience dining' location. We went and sat at long trestle tables, just like a school dining room, and were served up all you could eat soup, beef and pork, jacket potato and peas. It was great fun.
On Wednesday we took a quiet look at some of the wooden Victorian houses, some are quite grotesque, but fascinating.
One of the things that we have noticed is that there are a lot of 'down and out' types, within the town or we have noticed them on the road. I suppose the relatively warmer weather of the coast may make it a better environment to live.

Brookings - A Nice Place To Be

We are really enjoying relaxing in Brookings, the Harrris Beach State Park is just down the road from the city.

Roam around Brookings and a strange story

Another bright day dawned.

We had confessed to Steve and Mary that we now had possession of their bread knife (having forgotten to return it last week) and all was well with the world. A nice gentle start to the day was augmented by Sally getting a trip to a local ladies hairdresser in Brookings, leaving me a couple of hours to clamber over rocks at Chetco Park, a beach headland. Took some lovely pics and enjoyed the sunshine.

Dropped in to the local Tourist Info and picked up the start of a fascinating tale with its roots way back into World War II. A tale which makes Brookings unique in American history.
After picking Sally up from the hairdressers we ate a Chinese lunch at the Onion Steak House and Grill. It was really nice. We decided to explore Brookings a little more. We wanted to explore its little harbour, its beach and the river which runs in to the sea there. We successfully did all those things and had a gentle but pleasant afternoon.
First though we just had to go to Brookings Library. Why? To see a famous Samurai Sword which belongs to Brookings City.
Why? Because it was given to the city by a japanese man called Nobuo Fujita.
So what is the story? Brookings is the only place on the American Mainland that was ever attacked by the Japanese.
The story is: On September 9th 1942 a Japanese submarine modified to carry a tiny modified Zero plane surfaced 25 miles off Cape Blanco, the plane carried two incendiary bombs. The plan was to drop the bombs on the tinder dry West Coast of America and cause devastating wildfires which would create terror in the hearts of Americans and cause a lot of damage. The pilot was Nobuo Fujita, he took off and flew to the mainland, when he reached land he dutifully dropped his two incendiary bombs about 16 miles from Brookings, creating a strong fire. He then returned to his submarine. He returned to Japan a hero.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) one incendiary device failed to ignite properly and the other one landed away from people and property and because of an exceptionally wet summer did very little damage.
However the plane and the fire were seen by two spotters, though they could not identify it because it was foggy, but could see the smoke caused by the fire. They hiked to the spot and found the fragments of the bomb, a small crater and some smoldering tree trunks.
Because of war time censorship the news was not released widely.
So how did Brookings get the Samurai Sword? In 1962 the Junior Chamber of Commerce thought it would be a good idea to invite the pilot to attend the annual Azalea Festival as a guest. This of course promoted all sorts of argument, with intervention even from the president himself, however it turns out that the pilot had spent years racked with remorse at his action and was only too willing to come to Brookings to promote peace. Despite threats to himself and family he came over in May 1962. He presented his family's Samurai sword, which is over 400 years old, as an offering of peace and goodwill to the country that was a former enemy, a genuine act of contrition and friendship that made the sword a 'gift of peace'. Nubuo Fujita returned three times to Brookings, the last time he planted a redwood tree in the spot where the bomb struck. He died in 1997 and the sword is now proudly on display in the Brookings library.
So we had to go and pay our respects to it and to the promotion of international friendship and goodwill that it symbolises.
What a great story - Only In America

Sunrise at Harris Beach

Managed to get up early and wander down to the beach to get some Dawn Views of the beach

Travelling through Oregon to Harris Beach S.P.

After leaving Crater Lake we drove through some lovely Oregon countryside, down the Rogue Valley, stopping at the Rogue Valley Gorge, which is another beautiful spot.
We camped overnight at Thevalley of The Rogues S.P., which is full of trees in their their Fall colours. On Saturday we pushed on, eager to get to the coast and start the return leg of our journey, but taking time for a bowl of soup and some chips in a wayside cafe called Sue Sue's, which was definitely pink.

We have been very impressed with Oregon State Parks, so rather than returning to California, where the parks are a bit iffy, we took the road to the coast, but turned back North into Oregon again and stopped at Brookings. A state Park called Harris Beach, which is wonderful. it sits above a very rocky beach, with little islands, headlands and bays. Our first thought was "Goonies" we could almost see the pirate ship sailing amongst the jagged rocks of the beach.

Crater Lake - A difficult task

We had come this way so that we could see Crater Lake, as it seemed l ike a good idea. What we did not realise is that it is so gobsmackingly awesome. It merits almost every superlative you can come up with.

It is the remains of a volcano, which poured out its basalt innards, then the central cone collapsed down into the space left when the basalt erupted. Over the years the crater that was left filled with water to create a lake. There is no way out so the water just gets deeper until the surface area evaporation equals the reainwater entering.
The end result is an almost circular lake which is 6 miles across, with 1,000ft sheer volcanic cliffs all the way round. The lake is 1900 feet deep, absolutely clear and the deepest blue you can imagine. The overall effect when the road reaches the crater rim is achingly beautiful. You just stand and look and look and look. Photos of course cannot do it justice. It just has to remain in our memory as one of the most beautiful natural wonders we have seen. So beautiful that it is a difficult task to describe it.