DAY 9: San Francisco to Sonoma to Eureka, California
We boarded the bus for our drive to, and over, the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty foggy (or low lying cloud?) this morning so we didn't stop at the entrance to the bridge, where we had a couple of days earlier, but on the other side. We couldn't see the whole bridge as it turns out - we'll call it atmospheric shall we?
Not hanging about long, we got back on the road as we headed for Sonoma and our 10am wine tasting. Yay. S'ok, I'm happy to taste wine at any time. As we drove, we passed Horseshoe Bay and San Quentin prison, which it seems Arnie was hoping to close, but he ran out of time.
We stopped at the Roche Family Vineyard for the wine tasting. A chardonnay, merlot, blush and syrah later (hic!) we were ready to hit the road again. Just time for a little bread dipped in their home-made olive oil, which was also very nice.
Our lunch stop was at Willits, California. It was a 45-minute stop where we could get pizza, a supermarket (Rays), Subway and a Mexican place. According to the sign, Willits is "Gateway to the Redwoods". The plan for the afternoon was a little tree-hugging. Mind you, those redwoods are pretty huge - it may take several of us! We made another quick stop at a little wood-carving shop - they had some impressive ornaments, including some cool bears (as well as me!)
Then we arrived at The Founder's Grove, in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The Founder's Tree is 346 feet tall, 12.7 feet across and 190 feet to the lowest limb. Amazing. Doesn't the sun look good through the leaves? It's tricky, with my little camera, to give you an idea of scale, but take a look at this one - I'm about 12 inches (1 foot) tall, so imagine 346 Teds up into the sky. Cool, eh? We did see some of those weird tree-huggers I was telling you about...oh, no, it was just some of the guys off our bus!
We took a little walk, about a mile, around Founder's Grove. I took some more photos to give you an idea of scale. That's me in front of a fallen root, then the third photo is the same root, but with me sitting on it - at about 3 o'clock, really, I'm there! I'm tiny, but I'm there!! Inside the light blue oval.
The Fire Department were working on the roots of Founder's Tree. They mentioned that, at certain times of the year, when birds are mating or hatching chicks, they are not permitted to use chain saws, so instead they have to use hand saws, cutting away the part of the tree that is blocking the path in manageable 12-inch square chunks. Rather them than me - that sounds like hard work! As long as a fallen tree doesn't block a path, they don't bother to remove it.
As we left the redwoods, we went from beautiful, sunny blue skies to thicker, darker, more ominous looking clouds. I had heard of the town of Eureka from the 1970s movie, Heroes, with Henry Winkler, Sally Field and Harrison Ford, but this was my first visit to the city of Eureka, California. We took the time for a stop at the Carson Mansion, the 1881 home of William Carson, a pioneer lumberman, then we crossed the street to his son's house, known as the Carson House or the Pink Lady.
Next stop was our hotel, the Best Western Humboldt Bay Inn. We had a personal welcome, and better still, the red carpet treatment. The room wasn't bad at all, with a 42-inch Panasonic flat screen television with HBO! They even had free (and working) wifi! There was a swimming pool and pool table (also free) and free breakfast was to be provided in the lobby. They even told us they had complimentary limo service to the local restaurants. Blimey.
Dave took himself off to the Sea Grill, in town, but my guys aren't fishy people. We decided to go to Kristina's restaurant next door to the hotel. We were seated quickly - they have an extensive menu with no less than five different veggie options! Wow. Pasta, burger, salad, grilled cheese sandwich and something else, but heck, she's not used to having choices! She opted for the grilled cheese sandwich with fries, while I ordered a carafe of red wine for $10.99! We even managed to squeeze in a dessert as portion sizes were reasonable for a change. The vanilla ice cream and whipped cream finished us off nicely. The whole bill, including the wine only came to $34 plus tip, so there was absolutely nothing to complain about. A great meal at a bargain price made this the first restaurant of the trip to gain five Teds. Ignore those whining one-star folk on TripAdvisor. They apparently know nothing.
The only reason I dropped the hotel a Ted - and it really wasn't their fault, I'm just vindictive - was the horrible fishy smell in the neighborhood. I hear there is oyster processing nearby (it seems 75% of the oysters in the US com from Humboldt Bay), but yuck. It was horrible. Dave got back in time for a game of pool before we headed to bed. While Paul is obviously the better player, they were all rubbish. I didn't like to show them up (much) but I had to show them how it should be done.
