This was another long day of driving, and an eventful one. The weather was perfect and the scenery was glorious. This was the day that we left the familiar brown hills behind and drove into green country. We started in Santa Cruz and drove along the coast north through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County, then down past the Muir Woods redwoods to Point Reyes and up the coast past Bodega Bay to Point Stewart and Mendocino. Here are the details.
After a fine breakfast at Zachary's on Pacific Ave, we drove north along the coast to Pescadero. There are farms all along the road, mostly to the west but a few on the water side of the highway, but they do not obstruct the view at all. Near the lighthouse at Pescadero there's a fine farmstand with beautiful local produce and a convenient porta-potty.
Long time readers of this blog know that we try to alternate our big vacations between domestic and overseas travel, and the domestic travel usually takes us to California in July. On our first trip many years ago, we were driving up the Central Valley on a terrifically hot day. There were farms on both sides of the road for miles and miles. We stopped at a fruitstand; Lorna and Melissa were hoping for a rest room and could wait no longer. They got a rank fly-filled porta-potty steaming in the hot sun. While I waited, I selected an apricot and it was about the most delicious fruit I'd ever eaten. Ever since then, I find an apricot on every trip, like this one in Pescadero.
The Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in the famous Frisco fog, so I did not get a good photo of that, but the rest of the drive was lovely.
As we drove along with the sea on our left, we passed acres of wildflowers and the hills turned greener and greener. After a while the trees were taller, and the road shadier in places. The towns were smaller and further apart, and the traffic dwindled to just about nothing - it was a gorgeous and easy drive!