Month: January 2025

The Birds and The Golden Hind.

OOOO…the pick of iconic spots to visit in California. One of the picks that seemed obvious was Bodega Bay. I’m not sure if there are any spots on the Californian Pacific coast that are not spectacularly beautiful….. or that don’t have an almost eerie Deja vu vibe …… ( there cannot be much of the landscape here that has not featured in multiple movies and tv shows)

Bodega Bay was no exception.

We drove up to Bodega Head to follow the trail around the clifftop looking down into the bay. It was lovely…and lovely to bask in that cool sea breeze.

The first part of the trail looks down across the bay back towards the town….and many tourist beaches. ( You can almost see Tippi Hedren running for her life through the grass…!! Yes this where Alfred Hitchcock filmed ‘The Birds’)

Looking down we could sea the walrus on the rock island in the distance and watch the fishing boats come in….

…further along we stopped to watch the seabirds flying, diving and doing general seabird stuff…..

The Pacific coast is something else……the clifftop view along this path is wonderful.

…and here is a classic blogtographer picture….can you spot me standing out on the point ( well not quite…but as far as I dared go…!!!)

Next choice for the day was a trip out to Point Reyes.

Point Reyes is another US National Seashore and had been recommended by a couple of different people.

First stop in the park has to be the visitor centre. The US National Park Rangers have , in our experience, have always been tremendous resources for the best spots to go to…..and Point Reyes was no exception.

The ranger directed us first to Drakes beach as the most likely spot to spy some walrus…..that sounded good so off we went.

We did not realise until we arrived…that Drakes beach is the actual beach where Sir Francis Drake landed the Golden Hind in 1579 during his circumnavigation of the earth ( which is why its called Drakes beach…!!!)

There was no one else on the beach that day…..we walked to the end of the beach….but no walrus to be seen…darn…. lovely walk tho.

On the walk back some young families arrived and put their kites up in the wind….

Back in the truck…next ‘must see’ spot at Point Reyes is the lighthouse.

It’s a bit of a hike from the parking lot up to the visitor centre and then down stairway to the lighthouse…

313 steps down to the lighthouse. The further down the steps you go…the more aware you are that you have to go back up…LOL….

Down at the lighthouse itself, you could see the whales breeching out in the bay….fabulous…!!!

…a passing sealion put in a performance….

The climb back up wasn’t that bad….LOL….

A grand day out indeed. As we hopped back into the truck for the journey back to Santa Rosa, it would seem the adventure was not over. The check engine light blinked ominously on the dashboard (sigh). We had just enough time to make it back to a AAA garage in Santa Rosa before they closed. The fuel pump we had installed in Arizona, 6 days previously, was faulty….needed to be replaced again…thankfully under AAA warranty…b/c the job in Arizona at $870USD….in California….$1760USD….oooufff…!!!…that felt like a bullet dodged….!!!

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Sonoma Valley and the Presidio

After our epic run from Barstow to Santa Monica Pier, and the End of the Trail sign, we were feeling mighty pleased with ourselves for doing that chunk in the early hours of the morning…missing all the commuter traffic. (we were just trying to beat the heat…the traffic was bonus…!!) We were back at the trailer for 8.30 am…..and collapsed back into bed and slept through the hottest part of the day.

The plan for the next bit of the journey….essentially the road home, with a few stops…was a couple of days at a KOA in Visalia California.

Visalia is the jump off point for Sequoia National Park. It seemed like a good idea to utilise my National Park pass and get a hike in….we had been sadly lacking much physical activity.

The best laid plans of mice and men however……it was still just too hot….low 40’s celcius…..and the bit of the park closest to the gate we would be accessing….was on fire……

So…Sequoia went on the growing list of places to go back to……in cooler season.

Next leg of the journey was north to the Sonoma Valley to meet up with a couple of high school friends of mine and a university buddy of Scott. They were telling us how hot it was but by that time…33 Celcius sounded almost chilly….LOL.

I booked a spot at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds….its reviews were mixed…but I have learned that reviews reflect peoples expectations as much as the reality of the place. We had a well shaded spot, it was clean, the showers were clean, the laundry was clean and the staff were helpful and friendly. Plus the campground was a stones throw from Santa Rosa and close to the highway so pretty convenient.

The big shock entering California is how expensive it is, gas , groceries…eye wateringly expensive….but the wine, good wine, incredibly inexpensive…..

I have been in California before…but I flew into LAX and really only saw the coast…..I had no concept of how mountainous California is. and the roads……the paved surfaces are mostly in good condition….but windy, twisty, narrow and steep…….and busy…everywhere is busy.

Two of my good friends from high school live in the Sonoma valley…conveniently for me just 5 minutes apart from each other.

The beauty of reconnecting with friends from ones’ youth….you may not have seen these people for may years…..but when they are people you have known for so long its like there was no gap. A bit of a homecoming sense…like finding your favourite old jeans at the back of the closet…and they still fit….

Our first foray out from Sonoma , on a recommendation from my good friend Paul, was a trip back to San Francisco to take a short hike through the Presidio on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was a beautiful day and the view of the bridge and the beach from the trails is quite impressive.

It was a pleasant stroll down the trail to the beach.

….and the chance to get all the way down to the beach was very attractive

……..we got to watch these huge flocks of pelicans take flight…

There was a small boat beached just a little down from where we were. We were kept entertained by the arrival of a coastguard boat and their ensuing effort to (unsuccessfully) free the boat from the grip of the sand.

It felt very agreeable to be in milder temperatures and to have a little exercise…even on that short little trail.

We did a short jaunt into the big city itself, parked at the chocolate factory to meet Scotts friend for a late lunch and a welcome beer.

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2025..Normal service about to resume.

Closing out 2024 turned into a bit more drama than I would have liked. As I was constructing the ‘year in review’ post for Christmas I cracked the screen on my laptop. The crack left the poor beast thinking I was touching the touchscreen all the time and thereby made bloggery nigh on impossible.

Living in the middle of nowhere has its benefits but swift delivery of new technology is not one of them. ….and then transferring information from one hard drive to another always seems like it should be much simpler than it actually is…… (believe me when I say that this is the much abbreviated version of the story.)

Our adventures in the last couple of weeks include our furnace dying in a -25 cold snap, replaced 2 1/2 weeks later (not a good thing in Alberta winter), the starter motor in the truck dying and left abandoned on the main street in town over New Year until everything reopened (also not ideal in winter) and the heat bulbs in the pumphouse both blowing resulting in frozen pipes (and no running water)

All situations have been successfully resolved …and for the most part resulted in significant upgrades….so in the name of using up lots of bad Karma early in the year….hooray for us…….

….and now back to the conclusion of the 2024 travel tale…..the next travel post should wing its way to your inbox on Friday ….