Oregon - my favourite US State. You are beautiful.

Friday 2 November 2018

Today I drove from Crescent City California to Medford Oregon. I took it slowly so that I could stop and enjoy the mind blowing beauty that is Northern California and Oregon.  As I was leaving my motel I met this little girl and it made my heart ache for my little Trevor. Not long now Trev :)

Abby

Gorgeous scenery

Love my truck :)

This fly is on the roof of the loo at a
tiny little town called O'Brien.
In 2011 we limped in here when
our van nearly lost a wheel.

Oregon

Jacksonville Oregon has to be one of the most beautiful towns I've been to in all my travels, especially with the autumn leaves turning.

I'm just going to put a whole bunch of Jacksonville photos on here - it's such a gorgeous town.

I'm now in Medford Oregon for the next two sleeps and hope to catch up tomorrow with a friend, Thomas.

Crescent City California

Thursday 1 November 2018

A quiet day taken up with washing and blogging and a wonderful lunch at the Chartroom in Crescent City with Angie. I forgot to take a photo of my yummy Chicken Caesar Salad and Blackberry Cobbler but I can assure you it was quite delicious.

The Chart Room Restaurant

Sign out the front of the Chart Room

The Chart Room is on a wharf and there are a lot of seals honking away - I love these fat boys!

Fat Boy Seals

Old Lighthouse

I found the laundromat and played games on my iPad while my stuff whizzed and spun. I folded it all nicely and got back to my motel and realised I didn't have my iPad WTF!!  I couldn't find the phone number of the place so I hopped in my giant truuuuuck and hot tailed it back there ....albeit slowly because I had to focus on not driving on the wrong side of the road. I raced in and there it was..... sitting exactly where I left it. How lucky am I?

Angie bought me a some Crescent City souvenirs which included this hat. I love it and yes..... I know... I do look like Elmer Fudd!!

It's Rabbit season!!

Halloween - my first Trick or Treat

Wednesday 31 October 2018 - Halloween

Gavin's Halloween Pumpkin

Breakfast at Denny's and an early start north.

Perfect.

I got into my big truck (still makes me giggle) and drove from Fort Bragg to Crescent City which took about 4 1/2 hours. The coastline of northern California is quite incredible. One minute you see beautiful craggy beaches and then you are right into deep dark redwood forests with mist swirling around.  Quite eerie. Some of these redwood trees are just humungous and defy belief.

Danny & Gavin dwarfed 
by a 2,500 old tree

Beautiful coastline

After getting settled in I went to visit with Larry & Angie & their kids Gavin & Danny. Larry is Commander of the Crescent City area of California Highway Patrol.  He came to my rescue in 2011 when my rental van gave up the ghost on a country road and we've remained in touch since and visited a couple of times.

I had my first experience of Trick and Treating with his sons Gavin and Danny.

Danny and Gavin

There were some very clever and cute outfits on some very clever and cute kids....and puppies.

Add caption

A good day but my hyper vigilance while driving drained my energy .... sleep is needed.

Aah got me a truuuuck!

Tuesday 30 October 2018

After I finished my blog last night I headed out to Mel's Diner for a grilled cheese sandwich. Very tasty. I love the decor in this place and they even have one of those little juke box doohickeys on the tables.

Grilled Cheese Sanger

Table top juke box

Mel's Diner

Good bye San Francisco. Time to head farther north. I uberred to a north side Enterprise Car rental to minimise having to drive myself through the chaos SF calls traffic.

I've rented a car for the next 12 days with the plan of leaving it in LA when I leave. Another plan gone awry. The rental for a compact car for 12 days is $350 but if I leave it in LA it will be $850.  Whaaaat? While I was humming and hahing and lifting my bottom jaw off the ground, the manager came in. The girl told him the issue and he asked me what type of vehicle I drove in Australia. When I told him it's a VW Transporter Camper Van he offered me the choice of 2 vehicles he had on the lot that he was currently arranging to go back to LA. If I took one he would waive the $500 fee.

I chose the smaller of the two but it is a pick up truck so  quite large. It drives like a dream though so I'm very happy with our deal.

I had a 3 hour drive to Fort Bragg where I'm staying the night in a less than desirable Motel 6.

My room smells of bleach and I'm not convinced it's not had a crime scene clean up.

Once I'd booked in I went for a drive to see the sights and that took about ten minutes so I hit the local Denny's. No dinner for me tonight. The best nachos I've ever had with freshly made corn chips followed by a decadent chocolate lava pudding.  Back to the motel for a post meal nap.

Make me fat dessert

Nachos

There's a glass beach here and I tried to get to it but it's part of a State Park and there were no Rangers in the office and the road was blocked so I'll try again in the morning before I leave.

Glass Beach - Stock Photo

Crabs and Sashimi and Oysters and more in San Francisco

Monday 29 October 2018

In San Francisco there's a  little seafood shop called Swan Oyster Depot. It's tiny, old and very famous and you need to queue up to get in. Apparently this was Anthony Bourdain's first port of call whenever he got to San Francisco and I can understand why. If you are ever in town you must add this to your itinerary but get there early.

Anthony Bourdain's favourite seafood in SF

Tiny shop - no tables.
Just a stool at the counter.

This place opens at 10:30 am and is so popular you need to line up. Under strict instructions from my daughter, Lee I was there at 9:30 and was first in line. By the time I entered the shop the queue snaked right back to the next block. Only about twenty people can eat at any given time so there were some very patient people out on the foot path.

Lee had already texted me  the "must have's" so I just flashed my phone at the very nice man behind the counter and said "I'll have these, please"

This is what I had.............

Crab, wonderful bread, prawns
and 2 different sauces. These were the
best and freshest and
tastiest prawns I've ever had. 

6 different types of oysters x 2
and a very spicy sauce top left.

Look at the size of that oyster
YUGE!!

Sicilian Sashimi. A bucket list
thing - raw fish hmmm.
OK  ... I admit it was tasty.

I toddled out, feeling very full but pleasantly so and walked the 2.5 kms back to the hotel to counteract the bread :)

Lunch will not be needed so I'll repack my bags ready for an early start north tomorrow morning and I'll take a walk later to say goodbye to San Francisco.