Day 6 - Oakland CA to Ukiah CA
Day 6 - 22 June 2006 - Thursday
Starting on Day 6 we merged into one big traveling family, all wedged into
one vehicle (poor Vince!).
What follows are our adventures north to Washington state
and then back east. The pictures here are from 3 different sources,
so thank you to Kristina's sisters for letting me use their pictures in
cases where mine did not turn out.
--- Starting in Oakland, California ---
We had stayed in the Motel 6 near the Oakland airport. Disturbingly,
there was a manned gate and fence around the motel, which made
us wonder about the safety of our location (Though
no one with any sense would rob the Motel 6 when there was a Hilton
next door).
Having lived nearby last year, Kristina and I were eager to move to new
territory. Kristina's family had not been here for a long time though,
so the decision was made to see San Francisco.
First we stopped at the old Spanish mission, though the picture we have
is of the newer part, the
Basilica Dolores:
We then went to see the
Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park:
Here is a really neat bridge... unfortunately the picture
of me on top of it didn't turn out:
Here's a neat archway:
And here's a pagoda:
And here's a deer sculpture that we thought looked like it
deserved its own Saturday morning cartoon show:
We then rushed onward, getting stuck on Market street, really wanting
to turn left but finding out left turns aren't permitted.
(It's a miracle we escaped in one piece!)
We went past
City
Hall:
We eventually stopped briefly and did a quick tour of the waterfront.
We stopped at Pier 39 (where Kristina and I almost got left behind
when buying fudge), saw the sea lions, and went to the
San Francisco Maritime
National Historic Park. Nearby someone was giving out free
ice-cream, which was a much welcomed treat.
We went down Lombard Street (the first time I've done that by car).
Everyone admired the
bougainvillea flowers that were everywhere:
We climbed up Telegraph Hill from the back, and this time got to see
the Wild Parrots
that Kevin and I couldn't find last time we were here:
We then went to the Cable Car museum, and this time I got a much better
picture of the cable car machinery than last time:
After this it was time to leave the city. We went to the Golden
Gate Bridge. It was an amazingly clear day, the clearest I've ever
seen there. No one wanted to walk out over the bridge though. I did
take this picture of Berkeley from across the Bay, and I apologize to my
friends there that I didn't get a chance to visit:
We then went on to Sausalito, and we went to see the
Army Corp of Engineer's
Bay Model Visitor Center. (Very cool!).
This is a scale-model of the San Francisco
Bay, built a while back to model its behavior. Originally someone
wanted to dam up either side of the bay to create two giant fresh-water
reservoirs with a narrow channel to the ports. Luckily this didn't happen.
In any case, the model is still there, though most real work these days
is done by computer modeling. You'll notice there is no water in it;
apparently the Pacific Ocean had sprung a leak and they were fixing it.
We then drove to Muir Woods
National Monument, marking my third time seeing the redwoods there.
Here I am walking among the redwoods:
More redwoods:
Here was an amusing sign on a steep trail saying
"Strollers Not Advised":
After Muir Woods, we drove along the coast a bit. The path out onto
the rocks at the Muir Beach Overlook was closed for some reason.
We stopped briefly at Stimson Beach. We then took a really scenic
(ie, really scary) road to Petaluma.
We drove through the Napa wine country, but alas for our friends who like
wine, we did not stop and get any. We kept driving until Cloverdale,
where we stopped at an extremely good Mexican Restaurant around 9pm.
We now tried to get a room at the last minute, and had horrible troubles.
We made some sort of reservation at the Motel 6 in Ukiah, but when
we got there the rooms we had were unavailable. We ended up spending
the night crowded into one room (setting
a dangerous standard).
--- Ending in Ukiah, California ---
Continue on to Day 7