HEADING NORTH

 We spent the night in Pasadena at the Pasadena Rose & Crown hotel.

We got up and left early and headed north out of town, going home.

We drove almost non-stop on Hwy 99 to just south of Sacramento for a much needed walk in The Consumnes River Preserve.

There have been some very nice improvements since last we've been here.  The trails are well marked, some are paved but most are just natural.  There are hundreds and hundreds of birds to see and hear.  It was so relaxing and enjoyable.  It's another of our favorite places.

The next stop was in West Sacramento.  Darrell wanted to stop in and meet his Felder dealer, Fergus.  They've talked on the phone for years, but never met in person.  

While they were talking and looking at the machinery, I sketched.

This is a semi-blind contour drawing with a bit of watercolor added (and a photo added later).

We left Fergus and headed north on I-5 to Redding, where we spent the night.  We bought some dinner at Sprouts Grocery.  

THE GAMBLE HOUSE

 Here we are at the Gamble House in Pasadena California.  The whole purpose of the trip.  

My friend, Ethylene, was able to drive up from her home to meet us there and we all went on the tour.  It was great fun to see her.  And, of course, it was fun to see the house again.

But, before that, we made a stop at the Blacker House, the biggest of the Greene & Greene ultimate bungalows.

WILL ROGERS STATE PARK

 First thing this morning we left Santa Clarita and headed to Will Rogers State Park for our morning walk in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Of course, as our luck would have it, the house tour at the park was not open on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  But, there are great trails to walk, which was obvious, by all the locals that were taking their morning walks here, too.

We walked up a trail called 'Inspiration Point' which wound around up to a lookout point where we could see the surrounding area and out to the ocean.  There were lots of wild flowers, shrubs and birds.  The weather was perfect, but cloudy with marine air.  I like it.

I was fascinated by these beautifully symmetrical flowers? weeds? seeds?

When we got back to the pickup, we notice something hanging down underneath.  It was some kind of shroud.  Darrell was able to get underneath and unscrew the last screw holding in place, it was hand tight.  We called the local Chevrolet dealer and headed to Van Nuys.  We had 10:30 tickets for The Getty, but, we were not going to be able to make it there unfortunately. 

 The Van Nuys dealer wouldn't honor the work done at our Chev dealer and wanted $80 or something to put the other screws back in place.  They said there were no other problems and we could leave it off until we get home.  Which we did and went on our way.  Next stop Pasadena.

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK

 We left Newark very early for the 4+hour drive, 250 miles) to Sequoia National Park.  Darrell really wanted to see General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world, a giant Sequoia in the park.  We arrived a little after 9am.

What we didn't realize was that there has been a lot of flooding in the park and roads washed out.  So, the roads are blocked about 5 miles in.  We would see no Sequoias today.  We stopped at the Visitor Center for a bit.  I got my NPS Passport stamped, then Darrell walked down to the river to see the rushing waters while I stayed and sketched the Visitors Center.

We did drive in as far as we could.  Considering it isn't really open, there were a lot of people there (it is Memorial Day afterall).  We stopped along the way to see a few of the sights.

Tunnel Rock - the road used to go thru here.  See Darrell up on top?

At Hospital Rock, you could climb up to see native symbols painted on this rock.

A little disappointed, we left the park, but are putting it high on our list of places to re-visit.  We headed south to Santa Clarita, where we will the night, another 3 hours and 175 miles of driving.  

INTO SAN FRANCISCO

 We spent the night in Santa Rosa, got up early and headed into San Francisco.  Of course, it was foggy on the bay.

We stopped in Golden Gate Park for a walk.  We went straight to Stowe Lake and walked up to the top of the hill on the lake's island.  We've done this almost every time we've visited.

Then we looked on Yelp for a good breakfast place and headed there.  When we got to where it sent us, it wasn't what we were expecting, but down the street a few doors was a very nice little place.  The menu outside looked very promising.  So, we lucked into another great place.  They make their own breads, including English Muffin (my fav).  So, I indulged in one with homemade pear jam along with my yummy scramble.  It is LaLe at 731 Irving Street.  If in town, check it out!

After breakfast, we stopped at Haight & Ashbury.

Next stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. 

Then it was on to another National Park site, Fort Point, which is located under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's a very interesting place.  There was a Spanish Castillo built on this site in 1794.  Americans took it in 1846 and started building the current structure in 1853.  It housed many cannons to protect the opening of SF Bay.  

Looking out thru a cannon porthole.

We headed out of San Francisco, across the bay to Fremont, where Darrell met up with one of his buddies.  We visited with them for a while, getting a tour of his woodshop and garden.

We spent the night in Newark.

LUNCH IN EUREKA

 We left behind the Redwoods and stopped in Eureka for lunch.  From Crescent City to Eureka is about 85 miles, about 1 hour 45 minutes driving.

We found another great place for lunch, The Greene Lily (516 2nd St, Eureka, CA 95501).  They serve breakfast all day.  It was very crowded by the time we got there.  We waited a few minutes for someone to finish and leave before we were seated.  The food was great.

When we walked out of the restaurant we walked by a quilt/yarn store with a big MOVING SALE sign in the window.  I couldn't resist but to go  inside and see what treasure might be left.  There really wasn't much to pick from, but I did find a few $8 a yard pieces and one really cool fabric that was $22 a yard that I got a half yard of.  It's Eureka Fabrics.  You can go to their website and get 50% off what's left, for a while.

WALK IN THE REDWOODS

We perused the list of walks in the Redwoods National Park, decided on one that started at the Big Tree Wayside.  Once we found it (that took a u-turn) we stopped for a photo at the Big Tree.

There were lots of trails, we decided on one we thought was a loop trail, the Cathedral Trees trail, but turned out not to be.  It was a beautiful walk, plenty to see.  There were twists and turns, ups and downs, and lots of stepping over roots and rocks.  We saw not only Redwood trees, but lots of ferns and clover ( I was amazed at all of the clover ). 

Yes, that is Darrell standing at the base of that tree.

Plus we encountered a few Banana Slugs and Snails, too.

 

It was a lot of fun - until we got lost.  There was very little signage and we had no map and no internet service.  We encountered a runner and told him we were lost.  He had a map and gave us some directions.  We headed out that way and got lost again.  I got very frustrated and tired, and thirsty.  We eventually encountered the same runner again.  He gave us directions again, we even took a picture of his map.  And we got lost again.  We ended up back in the same spot where we first met the runner, which was near the road.  So, Darrell walked back to the pickup on the road (scarey, because there were no shoulders) and I walked to the Prairie Creek Visitors Center in hopes of water.  

I got a little worried that it took him so long to get back to me.  I began to think he'd been run over on the road.  But, he finally showed up, safe and sound (he had stopped to take pictures ! ).  We made our complaints to the staff there and they agreed the signage was horrible and they've been trying to get it fixed.  They gave us a complaint form.

I got my passport stamped, bought some stickers and then we were off, headed south again.

We love this park though.

SAYING GOOD MORNING TO BABE AND PAUL

 We left our horrible motel in Crescent City heading to the Redwoods National Park.  But, first, we had to make the obligatory stop to take a selfie with Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe.

Good morning!