Where the land meets the ocean

Since leaving the rolling hills of San Francisco, we have been cruising down Highway 1. Highway 1 is actually how Amy and I ended up here in this crazy state. It all started at a Sarah Harmer concert back in November, when I had mentioned that I always wanted to drive down Highway 1. Amy looked and me with a twinkle in her eye and well now here we are, highway 1! The section that we've just completed, Point Reyes to Santa Maria is the best part of the highway. You literally drive on the edge of the cliffs that crumble into the pacific coast some 200 feet below you. The water is turquoise as it smashes on the black coarse rock and is utterly amazing! Literally every turn is picture worthy and well we took advantage of every turn, making the trip just a little longer but worth every stop!

View along Highway 1

After leaving Berkeley we headed to Point Reyes National Sea Shore, just north of the city. This is a pretty unique place in that it is on the San Andreas Fault zone, meaning it is moving north and slowly separating from the main land. In true park entrance fashion, we headed straight to the visitors centers to snap some photos for our picture documentation, because we are here for school in case you (as well as us) forgot! This visitor center was the best one we had been in so far, it was filled with all sorts of great information about the parks flora and fauna. After a look around we went to book our campsite. Now ordinarily this is pretty uneventful, but at other parks we did not have the pleasure of having Chris the Park Ranger book our site. He was quite the character! He spoke so quickly that neither Amy or I could understand him. When he asked what site we wanted he proceeded to say site number 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12 and 14 were available, at lightening speed. We stared blankly and he then spoke up saying "well everything except 1 and 13 are available". Oh Chris you wacko why didn't you just say that. Just when we didn’t think it could get any better (or worse) he then proceeded to tell us that we had to put everything into the bear box provided at the site, including (again at lighting speed) soap, deodorant, shampoo, dishes (washed and dirty), toothpaste, lip chap, mouthwash and the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink! He listed everything that could possibly smell, our list doesn't do what he mentioned justice. HT reason for all this was that park has "psychotic raccoons" hahaha. Once out of that visitors center Amy and I laughed so hard we were crying. We would forget about it for a few minutes and enjoy the nice road we were driving down to get to our campsite and then we would just loose it, we laughed so hard we were crying and barely looking at the road! Chris has no idea how much joy he has brought to us, we still talk about him now!

The campsite that we were staying at was a hike in campsite, the first of this kind that we had been to. SO we loaded all our crap and 3 miles later we were there! There were few people there and the site was only a few meters from the ocean, it was beautiful. The sky was very clear and great for star gazing as well. With warmer nights we were able to stay out side a little longer than 7:00.

The beach just down from our site

The next morning we woke up nice and chipper and psychotic raccoon free! We started making breakfast when I noticed that the bag to my MSR stove had large holes in it... what the heck! A mouse! Chris did not warn us about mice. The little bugger had eaten large holes in my bag, as well as some energy squares we had bought! He must have been living in that bear box... i wanted to kill him. But of course he was too cute to kill so i just yelled and kicked the the box instead (surprisingly gratifying!)

The culprit that ate my stuff! Shaking in his fur in the corner... wimp, I win!

As mentioned earlier Point Reyes is on the San Andreas fault and in 1906 or 1909 there has an earthquake in the area where a fence, which straddled the fault line, completely separate tearing it into two.

The fence that is now two

There is something about Point Reyes and weird people, but we ran into some serious birders with all the equipment, who never fail to entertain. There were four of them. Amy and i decided to have a little lunch before we left the park and hit the road, thank goodness we did because what unfolded around us was amazing. We were eating away our sandwiches when we noticed that the birders were back, one birder Rick started to walk away from the group towards the parking lot when all of a sudden another birder began to scream, "Rick, Rick, a golden eagle". As she's screaming the three of them take off in hot pursuit with binoculars in hand to catch a glimpse of THE golden eagle! It was the funniest thing we had seen since Chris. They freaked, over a bird! It was priceless!

We continued our drive south along highway 1 to Santa Cruz, then to Big Sur. The drive along the highway is breathtaking and has several redwood sections which are very cool. When we got to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park we got to camp in a large Redwood grove. There wasn't much sunlight but the size of the trees made it feel cozy. We went for a nice hike to a waterfall within the park. Along the trail there are lots of redwoods with huge holes in them that you can squeeze through, so Amy and I pretty much got a picture in every hole we could find.

The wild and rare Alaina-in-tree-hole

Arriving at this site was one of our earlier arrivals and nice for a change to really enjoy the area instead of snowball.

Me and Scarecrow just reading in a log

Pfeiffer Big Sur campsite- amongst the redwoods

The following day we decided to enter the world of tourism one last time, as we took a tour of Hearst Castle. The Hearst castle is located just off Highway 1 and over looks the coast. The castle is huge and was built by Mr. Hearst himself over the course of 15 years. He was an owner of newspapers and magazines in the US and had a lot of money, which is obvious as his house is a castle and elaborately decorated with all types of architecture. So for the afternoon we hung around with a bunch of middle aged overweight tourists and then went on our way to Refugio State beach... not exactly the nicest place we stayed in. The camp ground itself was decent, but was located right off the highway and also conveniently right beside the railroad tracks, which are used A LOT! However we made the best of it!

Part of Hearst Castle

The dinning hall at Hearst Castle

On our last day we hiked the Santa Monica Mountains which are just north of LA. The landscape is very rough and shrubby and dry. The hike was about 8 miles long, and was nice as we walked through a few clouds and we luckily saw not rattlesnakes. The weather has been getting much warmer the further south we go, but the ocean breezes make it more tolerable. After our hike we went to find our home for the night and ended up at Sycamore Canyon State Beach. There were few campsites left as it was Friday and the girl at the desk tried to give us a handicap spot which was fine but was located beside this sketchy dude with a greasy ponytail, who had the doors to his molester van open blasting some Evanescence while he starred at his fire. It was 3:30 in the afternoon, no thanks! So we managed to find another spot away from that guy and off to the side. However, a bunch of teenagers decided to show and then party until the wee hours of the night. I had to double up the earplugs that night!

So now we are back in LA, in the comfort of a home with laundry and comfortable beds ready to go back to Chadwick. We are going through a heat wave right now so it's 30C and sunny. Oh yah, and yesterday we picked oranges from the neighbours tree and ate them fresh, I know real rough!