Day 7: 8/15/14
Sand Dollar Beach
Mileage: Beach day. Driving is not important
People:2
Dogs: 2
Seagulls: significantly less than Morro Strand
Today
was beach day. We sat and did nothing on the beach ALL DAY. And it was good.
The dogs got to be off leash a little and spent their time running in & out
of the waves, drinking the ocean, and napping. Everyone got sunburned. As we
were packing up to head home, dolphins came in to play with the surfers and in
a “right place at the right time” moment, we watched them jump and ride the
waves in before they headed back out to sea.
On our
way home, Wormy started wigging out and was panting out of control. We thought
he was all messed up from being in the car so much and drinking ocean water.
Turns out he was and peed all over the back seat. All. Over. Moose thinks he’s
a jerk. Brandon cleaned it up while I walked him and he peed like five more
times everywhere. That little gem is for you parents. (See yesterday’s post.)
We car
camped again, but this time for free in what the National Parks system calls
“dispersed camping” and what we call “hippie camping”. This is when you pull
off the road, in our case on the side of a mountain overlooking PCH and the
ocean, and camp in a pull out area. We learned a valuable lesson that night: if
you car camp with the trunk sloping down a hill to catch a breeze, your
sleeping bags coupled with your foam mat will act something like a slip &
slide trying to catapult you and the dogs out of the back of the car all night.
It will also mean, that the big fluffy dog spends the night on your pillow, in
an effort to send everyone else out of the car before him. Also, the whole car
smelled like dog pee. Wormy is a jerk.
Today’s
feature on Go! Go! Camping Gadgets! is baby wipes. We’ve been pretty lucky with
the weather being mostly grey and a little chilly so we’re not really too
sweaty, but dispersed camping (and most California camp sites for that matter)
mean no showers. Baby wipes are a must if you want other people to be able to
stand you in the car all day.
Day 8: 8/16/14
Julia Pheiffer Burns State Park, Pheiffer Big Sur, PCH
Mileage: Not important
People:2
Dogs: 2
I think
today was my favorite day. The part of the trip I’ve been dreaming about for
years. Today we drove PCH through Big Sur. It is hands down the best bit of
driving we’ve ever done. Absolutely gorgeous. One rocky cliff is bigger and
more beautiful than the next. We pulled off the road for some quick photos and
were treated to a whale off shore, swirling and smacking his fin in the water. We
drove over Bixby Bridge and stopped in Julia Pheiffer Burns State Park to walk
to McWay Falls. This area looks like a postcard. Because the cliffs are so
rocky and dangerous, there’s no developed pathway down to the falls, which
empty out onto a pristine white sandy beach that leads into clear turquoise
ocean water. You can hear the waves crash onto the nearby rocks and sandy
shore. And if you’re lucky like us, you can look down onto the sand and see
where some asshole snuck down and wrote YOLO in giant rocks right across the
middle of the beach. YOLO? Really? I don’t know which is worse, polluting
everyone’s perfect view or writing YOLO. Yes, I do. Its writing YOLO. Asshole.
We took
some creative pictures to avoid the idiot’s contribution to the beach and
continued on our way. We stopped to pick up another sticker for the ‘ole mule
and Brandon almost died when gas was $5.79 a gallon. A bag of ice was $3.50.
Well played minimart, well played.
We
continued on our way to Monterey Bay which is filled with rich white people,
with very lovely gardens, so we quickly left and traveled up to Moss Landing to
stretch our legs with a walk on the beach. We were quickly rewarded with
another whale sighting and seals and sea otters playing in the harbor. The sea
otters wrap themselves in kelp and tangle the kelp together so they can all
float together in a big sea otter raft, or
“oodle” as Brandon calls them. An oodle of otters. We walked back to the
car past Elkhorn Slough and watched the Marbled Godwit (my favorite bird) stick
its long pointy beak in the sand looking for worms and bugs and pelicans
(Brandon’s favorite bird) coast on the sea air currents.
Onward
and northward we traveled, to San Francisco, where we spent the night in a
hotel and everyone, including Moose & wormy got a bath.
Day 9: 8/17/14
San Francisco to Bodega Bay
Mileage: mmmm…no clue
People:2
Dogs: 2
Sourdough bread consumed: it wasn’t pretty…
Welcome
to San Francisco friends! Today was a colossal day! We got to Battery East just
in time to easily find a parking spot and walk up to the Golden Gate Bridge.
While on the bridge some morons with a death wish stopped traffic in the
northward side so their even more moronic friend could do doughnuts on the
bridge at break-neck speed while his brilliant girlfriend filmed it out the
window. I really hope they got arrested at the end. I wouldn’t know because we
walked half way across and turned around. You get the point about half way
across, and I had to get to the sourdough bread bakery before our parking ran
out, so that was enough of that. We took some pictures, saw the important
stuff, and headed to find food. Also of note: there are people passing out
suicide prevention literature with religious undertones at the entrance to the
bridge. They really want you to live and then find Jesus. There are also
special phones for suicide hotlines on the bridge. Let me just say that killing
yourself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge is not only lame, but a really
stupid idea. But I’ve never wanted to kill myself and I don’t like being cold
& wet so what do I know.
From
the Golden Gate Bridge we hoofed it 3.5 miles along the bay to get to
Fisherman’s Wharf and Boudin Sourdough Bread. This lunch was life changing. If
I lived in San Fran, I’d be morbidly obese. I had the MOST delicious smokey
tomato soup in a sourdough bread bowl and Brandon? Brandon ordered fish tacos.
Seriously, who orders fish tacos at the famous sourdough bread place? Brandon
would like me to point out: he does. He orders fish tacos. May I also point out
that while it was sunny at Fisherman’s wharf, it had been rainy & dreary
all morning at the National Suicide Monument and despite the sun, was still
windy and crisp at about 70 degrees. Perfect for soup. Or fish tacos I
suppose…Anyway, I digress yet again because the point of this is to tell you
how amazing all the bread was! This place was enormous and it’s allegedly San
Fran’s oldest sourdough bread bakery. When you walk in the left side is all
cooking gadgets in the front and lunch counter in the back. While you wait in
line to pick up your delicious, delicious soup and bread bowl (or fish tacos) you
can look at the monthly bread specials, which are loaves of sourdough bread baked
into different shapes, i.e. a heart for February, pumpkin for October,
Christmas tree for December. To the right, you’ll find the bakery line which I
happily stood in and gave them all my money. I walked away with a loaf of
sourdough bread to take to Joan & Nick’s, two sourdough sandwich rolls to
be savored in the car later, and a lemon bar and chocolate brownie for dessert.
(All of these things were amazing.) On the far right past the bakery line, yes,
I actually made it past the bakery line, is the bakery itself. They make so
much bread that they actually need a conveyor basket system to carry the bread
to the bakery and the lunch line.
We ate
our lunch quickly outside on the wharf and went to Pier 39 to see the sea
lions. They were there. We saw them. Then we turned around and headed back 3.5
miles to get to the car before the lot closed.
A few
things to add about San Francisco: they have these Go Car things that are tiny
midget cars that you can rent and go for a driving audio tour. They also have fitness
stops along the bay trail with all kinds of pull up bars & stretchy things.
That’s nice for fitness minded people.
From
the car, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and headed on to our way back to
PCH and ended up in Bodega Bay at Bodega Dunes to camp for the night.
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