We pick up our story as we arrive in beautiful Anacortes, Washington. 90 miles north of Seattle, Anacortes is the gateway to the San Juan Islands, a beautiful chain of islands connected by the excellent Washington State Ferry System. We were here for family reunion on my wife’s side. This post will cover very little from Anacortes, as that was all family activity, but much more on our drive south through the redwoods and down the California coast. But first, Anacortes.

If you visit Anacortes, you must visit Washington Park. Located at the far west end of the city, next to the ferry terminal, this large park has many hiking trails and accesses to the sound (I suppose it’s the sound and not the ocean, correct me if I am wrong). I went there with my daughters on a nice sunny day and came upon this small crab. He (it?) is in the lower left side of the picture. Remember that you can click on any picture to see a full-sized version.

For those of you reading from the blog home page, from here I will drop to “read more.” Click through to see a kayak trip, The redwoods, Point Reyes, and Monterey. Here is a teaser picture. If you are reading from a direct link, like from Facebook, then you can disregard this message.

On the Saturday after the family party, we had arranged a kayaking expedition in Bowman Bay, part of Deception Pass State Park. The expedition was arranged with Anacortes Kayak Tours who have a wide range of kayaking options. They were able to accommodate our group of 19 people for a very nice 90-minute kayaking adventure in the relatively calm waters of Bowman Bay. Here we are setting off from the beach at the Bowman Bay boat launch.

Our two guides kept us safe and were also very knowledgeable about local history and geography. Here one of the guides is explaining some history of the area. You can read much more about Deception Pass and its history in my post from June, 2017.

We were able to get close to the rocks in the slightly sloshing water.

The tides lead to a variety of plant life on the rocks as they are continually covered and uncovered by the water.

We left from Anacortes on Monday morning and headed to Eugene, Oregon. It was a straight drive day with just a stop at Fort Borst Park in Centralia, Washington, for a quick picnic lunch. On of the innovations for this road trip was the purchase of an Igloo Iceless cooler. We were able to keep our food and drinks cool without the hassle of ice. I’d recommend getting the A/C adapter for it so you can run it overnight in the motel room.

Traffic was slow through Portland, even in early afternoon. We checked into the Best Western New Oregon in Eugene. We had time for a swim and then a nice Mexican dinner at Chula’s Restaurant and Cantina in downtown Eugene. Very good food and fine service.

We were up early the next day and on our way south on I-5. We passed through a forest fire. It was mostly extinguished, but we did see plenty of firefighters and some spots of flame. It was very smokey for at least 50 miles. We turned off toward Crescent City, California in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, taking US 199. The drive down through the mountains is very pretty.

We picked up sandwiches at the Chevron Crescent City, which is actually outside of the main town in a place called Hiouchi. We then drove a half mile down the road to the Hiouchi Information Center of the Redwood National and State Parks. California State Parks and the National Park Service jointly operate all the parks in the redwoods area in northern California. This makes visiting easy as every visitor center knows about all the park resources. The ranger at the Hiouchi Information Center was very helpful and pointed out all the different things we could see.

Our first stop was at the Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. You follow a dirt road after turning off of the highway north of the Hiouchi Information Center. The road crosses the state park, and the Stout Grove is about three miles from where you turn off the highway. Situated along the Smith River, there is a parking lot and short, one-half mile trail among beautiful, virgin redwoods that dwarf you as you walk among them.

The trees tower above you.

It is a beautiful short hike.

From there we headed south on US-101 on a beautiful drive through woods and along the sea before arriving in Eureka, California. Checking into the Best Western Plus Humboldt Bay Inn, we made ourselves comfortable before having a nice dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel and making it an early evening. Our target the next morning was Fort Bragg, California, and the Skunk Train.

It was another pretty drive south to Fort Bragg. As you get off of US-101 onto CA-1, you find yourself on roads where I wondered if it wouldn’t have been easier to build the road straight rather than making it this curvy. We had a wonderful Thai food lunch in Fort Bragg at Nit’s Cafe, a little cash-only place run by Nit. The food was excellent. Then on to the Skunk Train.

The Skunk Train runs on a line between Fort Bragg and Willets. Early use of oil heating stoves and the smell of the engine gave the line its name. The line is currently interrupted about a half hour ride east of Fort Bragg due to a landslide. The ride out of Fort Bragg is a nice jaunt through redwood forest along a green creek. Very touristy, but a good time too.

Then it was south on CA-1 to CA-128, another winding drive along the coast and then through the mountains. This is a major grape and wine area, I believe an part of the Alexander Valley. Then we reached the US-101 and freeway driving. We had our first stop-and-go traffic since we were in Portland. We checked into the Best Western Garden Inn in Santa Rosa in time for a swim.

First thing the next morning, we headed out toward Point Reyes National Seashore. We headed southwest to catch up with CA-1 and drove down along the coast. We stopped at the Bear Valley Visitor Center to plan our visit to the seashore. The staff at the visitor center were friendly and helpful.

Unfortunately, the Point Reyes Lighthouse was under renovation so it was not a possible destination. Without a long time to spend at the seashore, we went to Limantour beach. It was a short, 20 minute drive to the beach. We were in fog in the mountains but it was just overcast at the beach.

You can park quite close to the beach, crossing a wetland to get to the shoreline.

We saw seals and many birds. Here are some pelicans flying by.

Grass covers the sand dunes by the beach.

We had been listening to a great podcast by Bill Whittle on the Apollo program, so I decided I needed to take an untouched sand immitation of Buzz Aldrin’s boot shot from Apollo 11.

Birds were circling above us as we returned to the car.

From there we headed south along the coast, through Stinson Beach and then turning inland at Muir Beach. More curvy roads brought us finally brought us into Marin City where we hooked up on the 101. We drove to the Golden Gate Bridge overlook accessible from the southbound 101, but it was foggy and we didn’t see much. From there, across the Golden Gate Bridge, then taking CA-1 south through San Francisco, switching to I-280 to take us south. We cut over to Santa Cruz on CA-17 where we rejoined CA-1 to take us to Monterey, California.

We checked into the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course (no, not a Best Western this time). We had a pleasant evening and set out to arrive at the Monterey Bay Aquarium right at opening time. I was able to purchase tickets on-line (the site is mobile-friendly), so we were able to get in very quickly. The aquarium is a tremendous place to visit. The displays are excellent, the staff are professional, and all of the animals seem healthy and well tended. I watched the sea otter feeding, which provided the one photo opportunity of our visit to the aquarium.

From there we grabbed a quick lunch at the local In-N-Out Burger and headed south to Paso Robles. After checking in at the Best Western Plus Black Oak, we visited the LXV Winery tasting room. Their tasting is a pairing of four wines with different spice mixes. It is great wine and the pairing with the spices is a treat for the taste buds. I know, I should have taken a picture when the wine glasses were with the setup.

We had a nice swim at the hotel followed by a tasty dinner in downtown Paso Robles at Fish Gaucho. We were up early the next day; we were on our way home. At this point, we were like horses eager to get back to the barn at the end of the day. We headed east on CA-46 to the I-5 south back home. Our trip was finally over.

And now the picture for Facebook to pick up as the thumbnail.