The Northern California Coast

I need new words. Awesome, extraordinary, amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, incredible, or spectacular just don’t seem enough to describe that which takes my breath away. If you haven’t driven the California Coast, you must put it on your bucket list and drive it. It makes the world seem so much more. It almost makes me want to stay.

I have been on the road for 30 days and I’m tired. Even a good night’s rest isn’t quite enough to recharge completely. A month seems to be long enough to miss the comforts of home, but not long enough to feel long gone and only long enough to experience a tad of all I want. While I had planned to read and paint some, I think I have decided that those sorts of relaxing activities will have to wait until I am back home where I don’t feel like I am missing something better, nor have a need to fill myself with the local sights. I would much rather take a hike in the big woods, climb rocks, or walk around an artsy downtown. I feel caught up in my own days and a dream making its own path.

If I didn’t have to sleep, I wouldn’t. There is so much to see and do. I am inspired and feeling creative, but lack the time and serious thought to actually be able to start anything anyway. I can’t even plan my itinerary for the next day, but rather make spontaneous decisions or act on whim when I feel a pull or nudge, and just in case, fate has a plan for me. So far I haven’t noticed any reasons or chance encounters of a significant nature, but then fate may be protecting me for nothing unfortunate has occurred either. As they say in Jamaica, “No problems.”

I used to stop for garage sales, but now I stop for rocky beaches. I search for ocean polished rocks of every color. I fill my pockets. It is kind of nice to do this on my own, at my own speed, with no one waiting, no one to look bored while I kill an hour on the rocks. I search for sea glass and driftwood, too. This is my idea of a truly pleasurable afternoon. When the tide was out, I discovered orange, red, and blue starfish clinging to the rocks, sea urchins in tide pools, and giant kelp. There are caves and hidden treasures, too.

Being alone has been OK, but there are times I want to share. I want to say to someone beside me, “Wow, isn’t that something? Do you see that? Trying to tell someone about it later on isn’t quite the same. But then again, what fascinates me, doesn’t necessarily fascinate someone else, so on the other hand there is no one to diminish my awe either.

I stop often to take pictures, just to savor the moment, but I know the photos just can’t capture what I feel while taking the picture. It can’t even capture what I see. Besides I am not a very good photographer and when I look back I am disappointed at the photos which lack a great deal of what was so breathtaking.

I remember seeing the Redwoods once before somewhere along in my lifetime but cannot remember when that was. It might have been in my youth on vacation with my parents or it might have been on one of my later vacations with my own family. I feel like I am seeing the northern California Coast, however, for the first time in my life.

After leaving Benicia, I headed for the coast and the Redwoods. Following the coastal highways, I find myself either driving along the shore or on the other side of the mountain. The shore drive is curvy and slow but spectacular, the other side of the mountain is the freeway, faster, but without the expansive view. The drive between, through the mountains along CA 128, an ear popping road, was pretty special too. The Avenue of the Giants was astounding. Still in awe. Every turn in the road brings another spectacular view. I camped out for two nights among the Redwoods. I felt so small among the giant trees. Like a gnome protected by and tucked into a nook in a mossy tree trunk! The beauty of the area is just incredible. I don’t want to rush. I want to make this feeling last. I want to take it home with me.

On the third night after Benicia I stayed at the Curly Redwood Lodge, in Crescent City. The 36 unit Lodge was built from one Curly Redwood tree. The top had been struck by lighting at about 100 feet. It was 18 feet across at the cut and produced 57,000 board feet of lumber. Imagine that!

It is hard to imagine that not so long ago, many of the ancient redwood trees were harvested and the 1000 year old forests devastated. I saw a sign that said the Redwood forest needs man’s protection. I think, like the whales, the Redwoods needs protection from man more than by man. I also found it fascinating that when a Redwood dies, often new trees grow in an orderly circle around the old stump, from burls on the tree, almost as if honoring it or protecting it, like guards around a treasure.

I took myself out to the Chart Room Restaurant where I order fish and chips and watch seals playing on the docks just outside my window. One big fellow is trying to climb on, but another big one keeps pushing him off as if they are playing a game of ‘King on the Mountain.”

The hostess is interested in my solitary journey from Florida, telling me how she once traveled Europe alone, when she was younger. I share a long table with a couple who hardly talked to each other, let alone to me. Eating at a restaurant alone is not one of the advantages of solitary travel. But seal entertainment makes it better.

I can’t help thinking about how to live the good life. I am in that frame of mind. While in Napa Valley, it seemed to me, that money being no object, owning a vineyard and winery could make for a wonderful life. It is incredibly beautiful in the valley. And I can picture myself walking through my vineyard, watching the grapes grow that will ultimately become a fine wine. Seems like a very appealing life. And since I am fantasizing, I need not thing about the hazards that grapes may face, for I am sure even such an idyllic life has its stuff to deal with. But now, on the California coast, I am thinking how wonderful it would be to live here with the beauty of the place, pick wild strawberries and raspberries, hike to the top of a mountain, and watch the changes in the ocean. And since I am still fantasizing, I don’t have to think about the cold north winds that will whip up in the winter.

Another aside. Propelled by circumstance, I am traveling alone and I find it liberating. Without the safety net of company, each obstacle is all the more challenging, each event very personal. I must rely on myself, put fears aside, and move forward. I hope to find a memorable, if not fleeting bond with someone alone the way, someone I do not yet know. I am open.

I will continue north along Hwy 101 to explore Oregon.