7/30/10 - 8/5/10 San Francisco, Redwoods, Forks and La Push

PICTURES: 1) Lake Crescent (on the way to Port Angeles), 2) the campfire on the La Push beach, 3) Rialto Beach, 4) our campsite in Forks, 5) inside a Forks tree stump, 6) "Bella's" truck, 7) sitting on the Riatlto Beach, 8) in the Hoh Rainforest, 9) in a tree in the Hoh, 10) girls in Portland, 11) tree hugging the redwoods, 12) fern canyon with Matt, 13) climbing a Fern Canyon tree with Matt, 14) in Fern Canyon with everyone, 15) in a redwood, 16) Point Reyes Lighthouse on the way to McKinleyville, 17) San Fran "pink ladies", 18) with the Golden Gate, 19) in San Fran

On Friday we left Erin’s house in San Fran and walked through the Castro district (a very colorful and unique area of Frisco) and into the center in order to buy a 3 day transit pass there. I was reminded, as I walked along, of London with its mists and cool air. We all started off in jackets, but after about 30 minutes, it was warmer (or perhaps we’d just warmed up thanks to the San Francisco hills). When we made it to the area near the capitol building, there was an outdoor market that was very cute, so we browsed there and I bought a pair of polarized sunglasses. When we finally got our transit passes, we took the bus to Coit Tower where you have an excellent view of San Fran and the golden gate from afar. Unfortunately, the fog was so low that half the bridge was shrouded in mist, but it was still a pretty sight. Next we went to Pier 39 where there were tons of shops and eateries. It was fun walking through there and just feeling the energy.

I went into an Irish shop where they sold beautiful silver jewelry and it made me so happy because when I walked in the owner said, “How can I help you love?” I miss real Irish people. Lol As we were leaving Pier 39 we noticed all these people gathered around watching something in the marina. When we went over, we realized they were watching sea lions that were all over the marina docks, sunbathing and chatting amongst each other. Then, this man and his family pulled up to their docking space and got out, and this HUGE sea lion was still on their pier and as they approached, the sea lion honked at them ferociously. The little girl was getting scared so the man put everyone back in the boat except himself and tried to shout at the sea lion to move, but the sea lion just stood up taller and shouted back at the man, flapping its feet from side to side. Finally, the man threw a buoy toward the thing and while it honked louder than ever, it moved off toward the main dock walkway. The man and his family were able to exit. Meanwhile, a different man started down the main dock walkway toward his boat, and when he passed the sea lion, it honked and started running after him, and the guy RAN for his boat and we were all doubled over in laughter. It was quite an amusing sight.

From there we walked through China Town and got a few little knick knacks and gifts for our CS hosts. As we waited for a trolley to take us back toward the Castro district near Erin’s house, someone saw Carmen and said “Hola Chica!” It was a friend of hers from Spain! So random! He ended up chatting with us the whole ride to the Castro and I’m sure Carmen really enjoyed seeing a familiar face. After seeing an old church, we made it back to Erin’s and fixed ourselves some dinner (quite late) and chilled out until we went to bed.

The next day we went to the Presidio (old military base area) and got lost trying to find the visitors center where a free tour was supposed to start. Since we missed that, we just proceeded to the Oriental Theater which is an outdoor round dome structure in a park in the Presidio. It was very pretty and there were several people taking wedding pictures there. We ate our packed lunches and then caught a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was misty by the time we got there, and thus our pictures were not the best, but it was still cool to see. We chilled out there for a while and then took a bus to Alamo Square where the famous “painted lady” houses are. These can be seen in the background of the intro song to Full House. Suddenly, the sun came out, and I got some lovely pictures of the houses and lied in the grass and enjoyed the rays. I was tired after that and I took a bus back to Erin’s to chill out while the rest of them walked around more and went shopping. They came back later, ate, and then the girls went out again with some people they’d met while shopping. I was boring that night and stayed in, enjoying the peace and quiet.

The next morning we left and headed for McKinleyville which is near Eureka in the middle of the redwoods area. Our CS host there was named Matt and he was very kind to host us given that it was his friend Johnny we’d first contacted and who had then passed us over to Matt as Johnny’s house was full. Matt was a very interesting and unique guy. He was a history education major at a nearby college and his roommate Julian was also living in the house and majoring in globalization. They were very fun and we all sat around talking for many hours after we arrived. The next day Matt accompanied us to Fern Canyon where they filmed Jurassic Park II. It was like a little creek running through the bottom of a lush canyon with huge walls on both sides of you covered in huge ferns. Inside the canyon, huge trees that had fallen crossed the area and made you feel like an ant. I felt like I could see a dinosaur appearing at any minute. It was really, really cool.

From there we went to a nearby beach, but on our way toward the water, Carmen slipped and got covered in mud, so we went back to Matt’s house first. After she changed, we went to another beach and just sat and chilled. The sand was quite dark but very fine and soft. It was cool (per usual) so we were all wearing jackets and not swimming. From there we headed to the grocery store and picked up food for dinner, then returned home and made a huge dinner of Spanish omelets (scrambled eggs with fried potatoes inside), tofu, chicken, and various other things. It was a fun night but I went to bed earlier than the others since we had to leave for Portland the next morning. They stayed up till about 4 am, and thus all fell asleep in the car the next day.

The next morning we left for Portland and stopped to see more redwoods on the way. We made it to Portland around 6 pm and met Patrick’s friend Chris who was hosting us. He was very nice and reminded me a lot of Patrick in his mannerisms and way of speaking - I could see how they were friends. He set us up in the “pillow room” which is a room full of pillows covering the floor. It had a low ceiling so Chris said it was the best use for the room since standing was a bit difficult, but sitting or laying was easy. After settling in, we sat out on the trampoline for a while chatting with Chris and one of his roomies until we were ready to go. We then drove into the city and first went to Powell’s book store which is the largest new and used book store in the world. It covers an entire city block. It was very cool. I bought two used books there for about $11. From there we just sort of walked around Portland. It was pretty for the most part, but there were an incredible number of homeless people sleeping everywhere and asking for money. And given that it was a Tuesday night, there was almost nothing going on. However, we did go to Voo-Doo Donuts which is famous in Portland. They had all different kinds of donuts in all different shapes including one jelly donut shaped like a man with a pretzel stick stuck in him. Lol We ended the night by walking along the river and came back to the house around 11:30 pm. The rest of them watched “Wall-E” while I went to bed and slept marvelously in the pillow room. Lol

The next morning we drove to Forks, WA (the home of the Twilight books) and stopped at the Hoh Rainforest on the way. The rainforest was pretty cool. The trees were very tall, though not as big as the redwoods. Everything was covered in moss (since it rains most of the time - though it was sunny when we were there) and it was pretty and rather eerie in a way. From there we went to Forks and ate dinner and then went to our campsite to set up tent which was in between La Push and Forks. It was a pretty nice camp site and it was only $14 for the night. From there we went to Rialto Beach which is in the National Forest and was really pretty, though very eerie. The white fog was so dense that you could barely see past the surf and it hung low into the black trees and reflected against the white drift wood littering the beach. We stayed for a while taking pictures and chilling - wanting to see the sunset, but it was too foggy to see anything. From there we drove to La Push and it was pretty much dark by this time. In the guide book it said to check out La Push beaches by night because people make bonfires on them and with the fog, it is really pretty. So, we parked at a parking lot for “Second Beach” and started up a trail, but it was pitch dark and the trail seemed to just be going up into the woods so we came back, thinking we were on the wrong trail. As we looked around for another trail, a girl walked by and we asked her about it and she said that was in fact the correct trail, but it was probably a little less than a mile through the woods before reaching the beach. We had flashlights, so we decided to go and the girl we’d met (Rachel) came with us. It was somewhat sketchy since it was a trail in the middle of the woods and it was so dark, but we made it all right and climbed over a bunch of drift wood in order to make it to the sand. There was all of one bonfire to our right, so we walked over there and joined some girls from Portland and 2 guys from China who’d made the fire and gladly let us join them. We warmed up and chatted a bit, then the four of us left since it was nearly 11 pm and we still had to walk back and Rachel stayed at the bonfire with them.

The other three were rather mad at me which they shared when we got back on the trail because they hadn’t talked to Rachel before we stated on the trail like I had and they thought she was just some sketchy person who could like, kill us all in the middle of the woods (yes, one small girl against all 4 of us…but anyway) and apparently Carmen is afraid of the dark (which no one told me) and since she and Theresa both have terrible balance they felt unsure of their footing on the trail with only the light of small flashlights. Anyway, I apologized for charging ahead and they promised that in future they would actually tell me how they were feeling and make a first stand against my executive decisions.

We got back to the camp ground and got ready for bed, finally hitting the sack around midnight. It was in the 50s, and actually really nice for camping. It was foggy, so the tent was moist by morning, but it didn’t rain, so that was good. We got up around 9:30 am, and then went into Forks and looked around in shops which were all full of overly-priced Twilight paraphernalia. I did however take a picture with “Bella’s car” and in a giant tree stump (since Forks is the logging capital of the US). After that we drove to Port Angeles (also full of Twilight stuff) where we ate lunch. The three of them went to a Chinese place and I walked around the town a bit and asked a guy at a book store where a good local place to eat was, and he pointed me to a nearby café where I had a tuna sandwich. I liked Port Angeles - it was sweet and quaint.