Days 25-31: Oregon Coast, Redwoods Forest, Point Reyes National Seashore, San Francisco, CA, and Sacramento, CA

Sunday morning, we woke up and began our trip down the Oregon Coast on the infamous Highway 101. We stopped at Depoe Bay and saw gray whales. We camped out that night at Beachside State Park, which was within spitting distance of the ocean. We heard the ocean waves all night long, but at the time, we thought it was wind in the trees because it was so intermittent.

We were awakened Monday night to very cold temperatures. We only had our fleece sleeping bags with us in the tent. Luckily, we also had a huge flannel sleeping bag as our mattress pad. So, we both zipped ourselves into the 1-person flannel sleeping bag for warmth. It was close quarters indeed. I don't think either of us moved the entire night, and therefore didn't get much sleep.

On Monday, we continued our journey down the Oregon coast and into California. We set up camp at Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park near Crescent City, CA. We had seen some big trees along our trip, but the redwoods put all of those to shame. After setting up camp, we ventured into Crescent City to explore. There was a lighthouse, which was only accessible during low-tide. Luckily, we were there at the right time. On the walk to the lighthouse, we were able to see many starfish clinging to the exposed rocks due to the low tide. That night, we went to a Ranger talk about bears. This didn't help Marissa fall asleep that night.

We went on a small hike on the Boy Scout Tree Trail. Along the way, we finally saw banana slugs! These things were huge! We had been wanting to see these since we had first heard about them in Olympic National Park in Washington. It was a very exciting moment for us when we were actually able to see many of them slithering across the trail. The picture below shows the tip of a shoe compared to the size of the slug.

After the excitement of seeing the slugs, we ventured to our next stop of the night at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. (We should mention that in California, the Redwoods are managed by both the National government, as well as the state of California.) We just hunkered down for the evening and read some books.

Wednesday was a long day for us. We drove from Prairie Creek to Point Reyes National Seashore. Normally it's about a 4.5 hour drive. Somehow, we made it in 6-7 hours. We did stop a few times for attractions along the side of the road. One such attraction was the One-Log House. That's right...a house made out of the trunk of one Redwood.

Once we finally arrived at Point Reyes, we picked up our back country camping permit from the Ranger station. The ranger warned us as we were heading out to watch out for the raccoons and skunks that were being pests at our particular campground. We hiked to our campsite, which was a few hundred feet from the ocean. We had our gourmet meal of Ramen noodles, then once again, bedded down for the evening as it was really foggy and dreary out. In the middle of the night, Jeremy woke up to a strange sound. He thought it was a critter nibbling at our shoes, which were just outside our tent in the tent's vestibule. Mountain lions were known to be in the area as well, so neither of us wanted to move or turn on a light to find out what was making the noise. Finally, Jeremy got up and realized it was the camping permit flapping on our tent. Marissa was able to fall back asleep, but Jeremy was up half the night hearing seals barking on the beach, elk walking down a path next to our campsite, critters squeaking close to us, etc.

We hiked back to our car the next morning. We went on a very short walk on Earthquake trail, which runs alongside the San Andreas fault. There's a fence along the trail that was in existence during the 1906 earthquake and part of the fence was moved 20 feet away. We set out for San Francisco shortly after that. One of the first things we saw was the Golden Gate Bridge. We got off at the exit right before the bridge and parked our car. (A lady that we sat next to in Jackson at the chuck wagon told us that this was a great spot for taking pictures of the bridge.) We walked part way across the bridge. Along the way were signs and phones for crisis management for people contemplating suicide. Then, we drove around Marin Headwaters National Site and saw some cold war bunkers and missile defense systems. After this, we headed to our hotel via the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. As we were getting on the Bay Bridge, Jeremy had a revelation that this was the same bridge that collapsed during the 1988 earthquake. We happened to be driving on the lower deck of the bridge for the entire 7-8 miles of the bridge span. Needless to say, Marissa did not appreciate the timing of Jeremy's comment. Oops!

Friday was a busy day for us as we rode the subway into San Francisco. We were pleasantly surprised at the first stop of the day...The Ferry Building. We had only heard about it because we were going to be eating some raw oysters at a little cafe there. The building itself was quite something. They also had many local vendors selling various products such as breads, caviar, cheese, and of course, seafood. We had never had raw oysters before, and we actually really enjoyed them. Oh yeah, and we shouldn't forget to mention that we walked by the coolest toilets. They are on the sidewalk, kind of like port-a-potties. Except, you have to push a button for the door to open. Once you use the restroom and leave it, the door closes and cleans the floor for 55 seconds.

We then walked to Union Square and bought tickets for the trolley. We had to wait in line for 30-45 minutes just to get on the trolley. Even though it was a long wait, the street performers were very entertaining. We hopped off the trolley at Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. (In actuality, there's an even more crooked street in San Francisco, but it was less scenic.) From there, we walked down to Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf. Jeremy thinks that we had the best cupcakes in the world at a cupcake bakery at Ghiradelli Square. We shared a S'More and a double chocolate cupcake. Yum, yum, oh so good! We also went to another National Park-sponsored site that had several historic ferry boats. After a long day in San Francisco, we hopped back on the subway and went back to the 'burbs for the evening.

On Saturday, we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory on our way to Sacramento. It was a free tour, and they gave free samples. You can't beat that price! It was a pretty neat tour, but it would've been better if they would've been in production. (Jelly Belly gives its' employees the weekend off.) We also stopped at In-N-Out for lunch as we had never been to one, and it's supposedly a fast food icon in southern California. It was pretty tasty. We made our way to Sacramento, and Jeremy was excited to be able to see the start (or the end) of US Highway 50. (This is the highway that runs across the nation, including Kansas. It's known as the loneliest road in America.) We drove down to the state capital building and also to the California State Fair. Compared to Kansas' State Fair, California's fair has a lot more food vendors and midway rides. We didn't really see any 4-H projects or a butter sculpture, and they definitely didn't have The Old Mill ride. They did, however, have 3 rides from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch to ride on.