America "Happy Travellers": Day 71 of 73 Nights


Inside a redwood tree

We dropped off the RV in San Francisco and said our farewells to Helene and Dudley at the airport and continued on following the Route 1 up the Pacific Highway. Whoops, I am ahead of myself here, we had a great four days in San Francisco, avoiding too many touristy things we had all done previously, so decided we would walk both ways over the Golden Gate Bridge which was brilliant, although very windy, it took us about 30 minutes each way. We also caught a ferry from Fishermans Wharf to another part of the main land North of San Francisco bay called Tiburon, a very pretty arty, , weather boarded village, where we sat in the sun and had an Italian seafood lunch.

Another first, ever, in America we went to the cinema as we wanted to see The Lone Ranger, we gals enjoyed it (yes I now speak American) but the boys were not too impressed. We had a very authentic meal in China Town, which was not only amazingly cheap it also tasted really good.

Back to leaving SF via Route 1, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and headed North, our first stop was Sebastopol where we stayed with our American Host from the Affordable Travel Club, Emma, who was amazing, she even took us sightseeing for the whole day to see the Redwoods and to show us her fabulous town.

As we travelled further up towards Seattle the majestic redwoods blew us away and then we drove through the Avenue of Giants and saw the biggest, widest, tallest and oldest trees we have ever seen (some were 2 – 3 thousand years old and I am not exaggerating).

Sorry its so difficult not to make this a travel log.

Leaving California and into Oregan on the side of the road was a herd of Elks, there must have been about 20 of them just lazing around without a care in the world without a thought to the camera yielding tourists watching them. As we continued along the roads that were lined with multi coloured wild meadow flowers, we just had to keep stopping the car to look at the rugged coast line. The beaches along the Oregan coast are covered in huge driftwood trunks of trees that have make their way down rivers into the ocean, quite a beautiful sight.

We have now arrived in Seattle, a land of green islands and beauty, today we drove through the city, not deliberately, we ended up in a one way street that we wanted to go the other way, anyway….. we boarded a ferry to an island called Whidbey, which is were time has stood still, as you will see by the photograph of the house we are staying in tonight.

Must make a mention of our wonderful hosts at this B & B called Compass Rose, Marshall and Jan, we were met at the door with Jan in her long flowing dress and pearls and Marshall with his bow tie and overalls (he was working on his 1933 Pakard classic car) who immediately invited us into their spectacular antique adorned Victorian house to partake in champagne and chocolate truffles and meet the people from the local art school. We even met the world’s foremost bee geneticist, she was giving a course on bee insemination, apparently she is the woman who is saving bees from extinction from the world, and she only looked 35!!!!

Also we meet some ladies who were renowned artists in ‘wearable art” and in this little town called Coupeville and learning the art of fabric art called shibori.

I can’t begin to describe the interior of the house as it was covered in antiques, not a space to spare. Our breakfast this morning was on a beautiful mahogany table decorated with silver candelabras and lit candles, silver tableware, cut glass and bone china. Just check out the photos!!!

Only two more nights to go before we catch our plane to UK and then onto France, my plan is to write one more blog to encapsulate our trip of a lifetime into couple of paragraphs, but just to say now this has been a trip that has personally filled me with wonderment and joy, with many amazing memories to hopefully call upon in my dotage.

Highlights

Our first comfortable night sleep in a soft bed

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge

Seeing Elks in the wild

The Redwoods

The American people we have met on the way

Lowlights

The cold in San Francisco yuk!!!