So we made our track from Santa Barbara to Encinitas. We hated to leave Santa Barbara, and on our way out stopped at some super cool surf shops. We mostly looked at their inventory of vintage surfboards. Its kinda fun walking through a shop just looking up overhead to view the awesome singlefin longboards from the early days.

We drove down through Santa Monica pier, down sunset blvd, and kept heading south. Lots of people, and Rob and I like to drive away from lots of people. Drove by the famed Venice Beach and kept driving. We were heading to meet Rob’s Uncle Jon and Aunt Pam South of LA in in Costa Mesa. On our way we saw these bikers… This is how I want to do this trip next time.

Bike down the 101

We wanted to try to avoid some LA traffic, so we headed down a bit early. stumbled upon Newport Brewing company and stopped in for a look and taste. It was a cool little joint and you could see the one brew master working hard. I had a blonde ale and Rob had the Double IPA and wood aged IPA. (Rob reminded me of these)

Newport Brewery

Newport Brewing

Off to meet family for dinner and then to our place in Encinitas for the night.

We left Monterey to drive down the absolute most beautiful coastline. Not a lot of breweries between Monterey and Santa Barbara. (Plus we didn’t realize it was presidents day and may be closed) The coastline is as dramatic as its reputation, but to experience it was amazing. This day we had a long day of driving and wanted to get to Santa Barbara so we passed through a lot of places which were full with people.

So dramatic

Check out the Whale Spout just straight back from the rock!

On our drive, we see WHALES!!! Oh man I got so excited!! Rob could not pull over fast enough. We found a quiet turnout spot on the side and watched the blow holes one after the next. We could even hear their blow holes even though we were high on the cliff. Sitting in quiet and looking out at the ocean with whale spouts= pretty amazing. Thank you Big Whales for sharing your beauty with us!

As we made it into Santa Barbara, our good local buddy Kirk hooked us up with some great places to hit up. Stop #1= Santa Barbara Brew house. Rob had the IPA and tried the chocolate stout. I had an apricot whit beer. My beer was very good and probably even better for hot summer days.

Santa Barbara Brew House

As we sat in the Santa Barbara Brew house, We looked up hotels to book. We found the Santa Barbara Inn. Right overlooking the Ocean. What a cool hotel, takes me back to retro Cali. Sitting at the table on the Deck, Rob had a few beers and I opened Preston’s wine we got from Healdsburg. Sititng on the deck, we did not want to leave, but knew we needed some food.

Kirk recomended Santa Barbara Shellfish Company for dinner. It is at the tip end of the Wharf pier and was really within walking distance of the hotel.  We needed to walk at this point, I was deep in my wine and Rob in his beer.

The Santa Barbara Shellfish company was awesome! I had Spider Crab, and they just pulled it right out of the tank. Very cool Crowd, We sat at the bar talking with the locals next to us about our journey south. Our bartender Diego, from Brazil was telling us how looks like the swell is dying for surf, (which is what we heard)  but maybe more south toward Encinitas we could get some good Swell.

We walked along the beach last night back to the hotel to see a dramatic moon rise over the bay. Forgot my camera in the room but I can tell you it was awesome.

LOVE LOVE LOOOVEE Santa Barbara!!

Love Life!!

So we have been a little out of touch the past few days.

off the Deck!

San Francisco was CRAZY BUSY!!! Saturday we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Point Reyes national Park. It was amazing! Rob and I both know we are not big city people, so we had a nice break from the hussle and bussle when we got out to Point Reyes.

On our drive in to the Inn, we say a Racoon, Fox, and beautiful dear walking across the street. AWWWWW this was more our speed. We had stocked up on food from whole foods and planed to make it a picnic night. We had an amazing room in a house overlooking the long stretch of open fields of point Reyes. Before sunset we decided to head to a little hike around the actual point. FINALLY no RAIN!!

We walked through a very cool old dairy creamy from the 1800′s. It was such a cool little community with its own school house. I actually walked through the old barn. I could feel the amazing history as I stepped in.

1800's dairy farm

On our hike, we had heard about the Tule Elk perseve we were on, but as we first entered, we did not see any.  We walked a bit into the hike and then decided to sit an take in the sounds of the ocean. I could not help myself by laying down and rolling over the hill.

Robs Favorite Photos (He took)

What an amazing sunset show. THANK YOU BIG WORLD! Off in the distance we admired the Whale spouts as the sun went down over the ocean. Rob did spot the first whale spout!  Rob tried to get a copy of the green flash but it was still and amazing show. Once the sun went down…B

RRRRRR. IT got COLD FAST!!

Amazing sunset at Point Reyes

On our walk back, Rob and I look up and to our amazment see a Heard of Tule Elk!! Wow, they just sat and checked us out! All of a sudden, we saw them everywhere. Heards of at least 30+.

amazing coastline!

The only on at Point Reyes, you have to roll around!

So off to bed and then the next day we decided to make our trek to Monterey and Carmel.

On the way we stopped for lunch in Santa Cruz. Got a chance to see the Surf spot Steamers. And found Surfrider Cafe (AKA Santa Cruz Breweing company). We didnt realize it was a brewing company when we first found it, but to our surprise when we got there and found they have brew.Heard they had great fish tacos, so we had to make a stop. I would judge the fish tacos as Great, but we did not need to eat them with Sweet potatoe fries. (Rob and I find we have no self control when it comes to sweet potatoe fries)

Awesome town, I wish we could have spent more time there. (Maybe Next time)

Just the Two of us!

Once we got down to Monterey and Carmel, we drove around Carmel to see if we could find a hotel. At this point, Rob and I were full of fish tacos and had been in the car way to long. We parked and borrowed a wifi and called a hotel Hofsas and found they had a room. We booked it and started heading there. We get there to find out it is worse than any hotel $30 night hotel. The carpet had probably the original carpet from 1960′s with cigarette burns. Smelled musty like a Grandmas house. I am not doing justice to describe it, it was awful!!! We quickly found a different Hotel in the heart of Monterey, Much better night sleep!!!

Loved Monterey! Carmel was tooooo cramed, but Monterey offered space to walk and not as many people. The next morning went for a long walk on the coastline to see the Sea Lions. Will start the trek to Santa Barbara!  The adventure continues!

02/18/2011

Rob started his morning with a run as I walked through the streets of the Dry creek vineyards. It froze last night and it was hard to open the car door this morning. The nature in the valley is so peaceful with the birds singing and the giant squirrels. We had to say goodbye to the awesome cabin (zinscape) Bruce let us stay in and head toward San Francisco.

Our awesome Zinscape cabin

Before San Francisco, we stop in Petaluma where we can update the blog. Again google helps me find an awesome coffee shop called Aqus Cafe with free wifi. Super cool and filled with Hippies! My speed! I was able to update the latest posting but this will be the first chance I can update since visiting Lagunitas.

Lagunitas tasting room

Bruce called his friend Allen (Manager at Lagunitas Brewery) and said Allen would be at the brewery at 1pm and would give us a brew tour. So after a cup of coffee (which was strong enough to start my diesel Jetta) we headed to the brewery. Rob called Allen and he invited us to come over early. (The brewery does not open until 2 to the public) Soooo Awesome!!

Allen, Jamie and Rob on the Brew tour. Thanks Jamie!

We met Allen, super AWESOME guy! He and Jamie gave us a real close look at the brewing system they have there. As Rob was asking questions, all I could do was snap photos. Even I was truely blown away with the massive production they have going at this facility. The pictures do not do it justice! Over 100 employees and still growing! The owner even came to have a beer at the bar. (He was busy talking with other customers, so we didn’t get to introduce ourselves. ) So neat that the owner remembers his passion and is still very hands on.

Mass production! They were hard at work!

After about a 45 minute tour, we made our way to the tasting room. Allen gave us so many amazing tasters: lil sumpin wild was my favorite!(I am not the biggest hop head) it was great! Rob continued to enjoy all the tasters, which I am sure he will update.

Tasters

The desert was the cappuccino stout float! Yes I said FLOAT! It is the local dairy ice cream topped with cappuccino stout beer. It doesn’t sound like it works, but WOW it was amazing! I bet we might just be having that for desert sometimes at home.

It was great to talk to Allen. He really had some great insight into how such a successful brewery is run. Rob definitely learned so much from him. Thanks Allen, you were awesome!!

I need water!! After drinking the tasters, I Can’t forget that part!

Allen walked us into what they call the swag room where Rob got himself another shirt, and bottle. Allen even gave us 2 of the awesome beer mugs and a hat.

Seriously, we have met so many awesome people on this trip! It has all worked out so amazing!

On our way to San Francisco, we stopped in at Marin Brew company. We were still feeling some of the effects of our Lagunitas tasters, bur we decided we needed to definitely stop in. I enjoyed a raspberry pale ale and Rob got an IPA. The raspberry Pale ale was very refreshing! I would live for Ballyhoo brew to make one Luke that in the future!!

Pint glasses

The bartender found out we were from Texas and gave us each a pint glass, one from Marin brew and the other from their other brewery Moylans. Again such awesome and amazing people we meet on the way! Now off o San Francisco before rush hour so off we went!

Here’s a note to self….. It cost 6 bucks to get across the golden gate bridge!!!! ( and you have no other option) I didn’t read that one in the guide books!

Well we got into San Francisco just in time for rainy rush hour traffic!! I think we went 4 blocks in 45 minutes! Not fun with Rob in the car when he needs to pee! Finally made it to our hotel and Thank goodness!!! I already know I don’t do big city traffic, I really don’t need to remind myself! Such a change of pace from the amazing zinscape cabin I was in at Healdsburg! I want to go back!!

This is more my speed!! Zinscape- can I come back!

We are off to dinner and explore the city. It’s a bit rainy, but that can make for a much more fun time!

I need an Umbrella!!! We get in a cab with this awesome hippie guy. He tells us that we are in San Francisco during the Chinese New year! Only San Francisco can have a Chinese New year and a beer week in the same weekend!! Our cab driver quote to put nicely “Don’t drive in this city, with all the people here for the Chinese parade, You know they stink at driving!”

As we are exiting the Cab, he says “hey you want this umbrella the last people left?” WOW, I am GOOOD!!! I needed that umbrella!
A recommendation from Allen was Ristorante Milano, a great Italian restaurant in town. It was a hidden treasure. Allen reminded us to ask for Aldo the owner, so we did. Again we are so welcomed and feel we are so fortunate! Allen,  he did say he makes you crazy.

Walked back to the hotel with our new adopted umbrella in hand!. Tomorrow will be a day filled with San Francisco exploration.

Back to some civilization (unfortunately?) – we are in San Francisco tonight. As updates have shown – we have been in the country! It really has been nice.

Our first night in Cali was spent at the historic Requa Inn – this hotel was originally built in the late 1800′s – but it burned to the ground in the early 1900′s and was rebuilt afterward.

Requa Inn

The hotel is on Yu-Rok Native American Land and is run by Yu-Roks – very cool people! They served us an amazing dinner cooked by their son, and an awesome breakfast in the morning. I paired the dinner with an Upright Brewing Company 4 (special edition of some sort) and it was a world class beer.

I can’t believe I didn’t make it by Upright while in Portland – shucks – guess that means I need to go back.

Fire place at Requa

The Requa Inn is small and quaint – the lobby is the living room – since the rooms are small. They have a great fire place, some really cool books, a ukulele and a guitar. I gave the other guest the unfortunate opportunity to hear me play a little.

We left the Requa Inn after one night for a trek through the Red Wood forests of Nor-Cal.

Kimber next to the tallest Red Wood known to man!

The forests were amazing. Hard to believe that some of the trees we saw were over 2000 years old. The drive was fun – probably even more fun when driving something other than a Kia Optima.

The spirited driving was limited, however, due to a WINTER STORM. Once we got south of the forest, we noticed that all of the rain in wind that we had been driving through recently was turning into ICE. In fact, the sleet and ice was so bad as we entered into Eureka, CA that the SUV in front of us slid into the guard rail at about 70 mph.

Snow... in coastal California?

I thought we were going to cash it in there as we slid towards the out of control car. We some how maintained control and drove away unscathed – although I, as the driver, had a newly found respect for the weather conditions we were approaching. The entire drive from Eureka to Healdsburg was in sleet, snow, ice or all of the above. Cal-Trans had snow-plows all over the place. The drive was slow and stressful. A South Texas boy like myself is not cut out for winter driving!

Bear Republic

Once we arrived in Healdsburg – we headed straight to Bear Republic Brewing Company and Pub for some much needed relaxation. While there we started Googling places to stay. We found a cottage out in the middle of the Healdsburg wine country, and we gave them a call – ends up that we found Bruce and Issabel’s cottage – called Zenscape. It was a great place (and the price was awesome…)

Road Through the Wine Country

The small cottage overlooked a huge Zinfandel farm (is that what the call it?) Best of all – Bruce’s good friend is Allan – general manager at Lagunitas Brewing Company! The wine country really is amazing. I have never seen so many acres of land, dedicated to grapes. We visited a few wineries and found that we are not fans of the big pretentious wine nerd placed – and much rather visit the places that feel more like a working farm.

I bought a boat

The wine tastings were great – but I am a wine novice. White whine tastes like white wine to me. Red wine tastes like red whine to me. Give me a big flavorful IPA or stout! To entertain my self, I walked around the winery or vineyard and found trouble. In this case – I found a boat. I tried to get in it, but Kimber wouldn’t let me.

Wilson Vinyard

While driving around we found our good friends – Charlie and Christi – their next home.

Lucky me – the town of Santa Rosa, CA is only about 15 miles from our wine country cottage. Santa Rosa is home to Russian River Brewing Company – probably my second most anticipated brewery on this trip… We decided that we should make an early visit (opens at 11:00 am so why not show up then?) Little did we know that it was the last day that their highly hyped Pliny the Younger would be served. As I walked in to the bar at 11:00 am – I was certain that we would be met with stares of judgment as the employees thought to themselves – “WHO DRINKS BEER AT 11:00 AM ON A THURSDAY?!” However, the bar was packed already and was more reminiscent of a pub at 11:00 pm!

Pliny the Younger and Sanctification

Russian River did not disappoint. I was lucky enough to taste Pliny the Younger (three rounds worth) and enjoyed every sip (in between text messaging my brothers and friends to brag).

Today, we left Healdsburg with San Francisco as our final destination. Along the way we stopped at Laguintas and Marin Brewing. Lagunitas was really great. Bruce, who had provided our housing in Healdsburg, had called his buddy Allan (the General Manager at Lagunitas) ahead of time and given him ample warning that we were coming. We were greeted with smiles and sampling glasses!

Allan Serving me a Tasting at Lagunitas

Allan and Jennie gave us a full tour of the HUGE facility. They pumped out over 100,000 bbl’s (30% increase from 2009 – which was a 30% increase from 2008!) of beer last year. They anticipate another year of 30% growth – almost all driven by distribution increases. The whole tour and tasting was amazing. Allan stayed with us the entire time, answered tons of questions, shared beers, and talked about the industry for a couple of hours. Allan insisted that the entire thing was on the house. He even hooked us up with glasses and hats.

Lagunitas Tasting Room

The best beer I tried there was the Lagunitas SF Special – which was created by a select group of San Francisco Bar Owners and the Brewers at Lagunitas. The beer is around 208 IBU (sounds like something Rick and I have brewed before!). It was light blonde / straw in color and had an aggressive hop aroma and taste.

The tour was something else. The bottling line and distribution center were huge. The brew house was HUGE.

Lagunitas

Awe and Amazement.

The fermenters were large and plentiful. Really interesting to see how a big guy does it and stays true to the “craft”.

Viewing of the Distribution Center from the Employee's private bar!

After the tour, we got back on the road and stopped at the Marin Brew-pub – one of the largest Brew-pub’s in the nation (they are a part of the Marin / Moylan’s group). The beer was great. The brewery was small. And the crowd was fun. We met all types at the bar and the waitress gave us two pint glasses to keep!

Marin Brewing Co

Getting into San Francisco was no fun (all of the time up in the country did not prepare us for city driving or congestion!) We are about to go grab a beer and some food at Magnolia Brew-Pub. I hope everyone that is reading this is doing well and enjoying our adventure.

-Cheers

Rob

02/17/2011

This morning we woke up to more rain. It was Soooo peaceful, we didn’t want to get out of bed. No Internet at the Cabin, so a little late on uploading these updates. We decided go head into the town of Healdsburg for more yogurt,and supplies. Made it to Santa Rosa early to make sure we got to Russian river Brewery early. We arrived at Russian River at 11:03 right after they opened. The entire bar seats were taken. (I mean full of beer Nerds!!)

Russian River

Russian River at 11:03am. Pliny the Younger release

Rob was super excited to find today was the last day for Pliny the Younger. Only released at the Brewery. AWESOME, Somehow timing has been perfect on this trip so far!

Rob enjoyed tasters of all the sours and enjoyed 3 pours of Pliny the Younger.

I am sure he will update with the info on the tasters etc.

Unfortunately the brewers were too busy to give us a tour, but walking outside you could smell the wort from the batch they were working on. It was sooo heaven for Rob.

Pliny the Younger

Rob with his Tasters

After the great beers at Russian River, we decided we couldn’t leave wine country without trying some wineries.  Stopped by some wineries which were recommended to us, but our Favorite was Preston Wine. Full Organic winery with a full garden and hens. They let sheep out through the vines during the winter to allow for great fertilization.

Robert has worked at this winery for nearly 20 years, It was so neat to hear his stories. The winery felt more like a working farm than anything else. It was soooo inspiring! Got some great Farm raised eggs for breakfast while we were there and even one was a green EGG. (Seriously, sorry forgot to get a pic)

Winery stops

Heres another AMAZING conicidence. Bruce, the owner of our cabin, his best friend is the general manager of Lagunitas Brewery! He called up Allen, at Lagunitas Brewery and told us to arrive at 1 PM for a private tour!!!! (They don’t even open until 2 pm)  WOW, seriously we are so lucky!

Tomorrow we head to Petaluma to Lagunitas and make it to San Francisco.

I think the hardest part of this trip will be keeping him from drinking the bottles of beer he buys for other people. I am doing my best to remind him to take some home!

It was s crazy drive for us. Started off with a slight hail storm when we left Requa. Had to make one important stop at the Tallest Tree in Redwood 367 feet high. ( I wonder who was brave enough to climb it.)  We tried to get to the Biggest tree, but since we are in the middle of a great Pacific Winter storm, the seasonal bridge to get to it was very fast racing water.

Tall tree

Giant Redwood!

As we drove, we saw the Expedition in front of us hit a ice patch, slide out of control, hit the guardrail, turn 90 degrees then slam back around to whip his rear into the gaurdrail. Rob did an amazing job maintaing control as we slid into the same icy patch. Lucky for us, Rob maintained control. With all this said we just wanted to get to Healdsburg. (need something (Bear Republic) to calm our nerves after that close call)

Stopped on the side of the road to snap this pic.

HOPLAND!!

Bear Republic Brewery for a much needed beverage

After Rob drove through sleet, hail and snow we made it to Healdsburg. Straight to Bear Republic we went! As we drank some beers talking about the crazy drive, I was looking up places to stay the night. I found an advertisement for a cottage for a decent price. I called to find a guy name Bruce, super awesome guy to let us stay at his cottage on such short notice. He met us at Bear Republic to give us info on how to get to the cottage. As we converse about our trip, it turns out his best friend is the general manager of Lagunitas! ( our next brewery stop) How PERFECT! Maybe we can get the brewery tour!!

After Bear Republic, we found a great place to have dinner at Revenous. Great restaurant with nice wine and Rob sipped on Lagunitas Lil Sumpin Sumpin. We needed to unwind from the insane stressful snow drive.

Made it back to our cabin to find it was in the middle of the Dry Creek valley in the heart of Sonoma! Seriously…. What an awesome place! It is a cottage next to Bruce’s house! We look out over porch over land of solid vineyards!!! It is sooo amazing! We have had such great luck of places to crash on this trip!

Cottage

This cottage has s huge soaking tub with all the bath salts I could want provided! (Rob even enjoyed a soak!) Bruce even stocked the fridge with eggs and milk! Awesome!

View through doors of the cottage with a live spring waterfall out the door.

Next stop will be Russian River Brewery in the morning.

We have been in the heart of the Red Wood forest for the last few days with no cell coverage or Internet. I am blogging live from Russian River Brewing Company right now. We some how lucked into them having Pliny the Younger on tap! I will update later when I get an Internet connection. Typing on an iPhone is tricky after a few Youngers!

Cheers

Rob

Blown away at Cape Blanco

So the the buzz around town was the Gail force winds we had last night! Made our way to Cape Blanco to check out the 2nd most westerly point in the continental US. This place frequently feels the effect of 100 mpg gust causing the Spuce trees to appear as bent over Bonsai trees.

There are no words that can describe the power of this amazing place. We stepped out to take a picture, the Wind was incredible! I could barely open my door. This was once again an amazing reminder that mother nature is absolutely so much more powerful than us. The waves crashing over the sea stakes and the jetty was so overwhelming. I could barely stand up. Truly a moment to take in!

Cape Blanco

From Cape Blanco we kept driving, again through some rain and wind. We stopped to get some staples to make sandwiches on the road. (I also needed some bandaids for my poor blisters.)

We made it to Redwood Forrest. Oh another WOW, breathless moment for us. Even with the Rain, it is still breathtaking. We stepped out to take a few pictures. As I always say, it feels great to be reminded of how small I really am. Seeing these amazing Redwoods trees so old and have so much history is absolutely overwhelming. We tried to get to Fern Canyon today for a hike, but the road to get in was flooding and the rain was still coming down, so we opted to be safe and hope we can get in tomorrow.

We are all soo small

Instead of making it to Fern Canyon, we found ourselves with an amazing view of about 30 ELk in a nice prairie. Another WOW! Rob tried to get the attention of the females, to lure them closer, but apparently he does not have a sexy Elk call. We watched them in such amazment, then decided to head back to the car.

Rob is soooo small

As we walked closer to the car, we saw some people waving us down. We crossed the street to find 5 HUGE Bull Elks. There racks were amazing. We were within 20 feet of the absolutely beautful creatures. Thank you Elk for sharing your amazing home with us!

SOOOO BEAUTIFUL

We decided to take a Hike down Redwood Creek trail before we go check into our B&B. So we started down the trial, my blisters reminding me of every step. I looked at Rob and said, “does it feel like its raining harder?” YUP!!! It started Sleeting!!!! BRRRRRR and BRRRRRR. I dont mind some rain to hike in, but when it starts sleeting, its time to have a warm fire and hot tea.  So thats what we did! Hot tea, warm meal and sitting by the fireplace. Rob has been missing his guitar and guess what….. They have a guitar!!

Warm and cozy at Requa inn.

We met a great couple from Wales (England) who were heading North to Washington from LA as we are heading South to LA. So neat to hear their stories and share road trip ideas and stops.
Off to bed with the windows cracked, the sound of frogs and falling rain outside….awww soooo great..

So this morning was an early one. Woke up at 6:30, to the sounds of those amazing waves. Decided to start with my cup of chai tea and have some yogurt. Rob was up and ready to go for a jog. In the middle of all out brewery stops, we must exercise! I decided to hike Cape Kiwanda while Rob went running.

Cape Kiwanda

Cape Kiwanda Sand Dune

Apparently we picked a good  week to experience those Pacific Northwest storms. WOW, the ocean is truely AMAZING. The waves are so powerful. I hiked to the top of the Cape, and listened to the Deep pounding of the waves against the rough and rocky shoreline.  What a great place to do some Yoga and meditate! Had to walk around the back side to escape the powerful winds.  On the way back to the hotel, I got to go down this awesome sand dune. (Almost did the roll, but was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop rolling, instead opted for the skip jump). Apparently Rob claims to have climbed this hill, but I did not see him do it. His quote “it was scary!”

Off to breakfast and Rob got to enjoy a very personal Brewery tour. Long talk with Darren, who obviously was one of the “scientist” behind the pelican brews. I just wish I knew a little of what they mean with they say dry tank, fermenter, etc….Now on the Road..Good Bye Pacific City…. I loved this town!!!

Thanks Darren for such great info, and the Dry Hop red ale from the filter off the fermenter.

Next stop….Somewhere south.

Driving south we make a stop in Lincoln city at Lincoln City Surf Shop. I had heard this guy was a collector of old surf boards particularly Greg Knoll shapes. Had to pop in and check it out! Amazing and beautiful boards… he has been collected for over 20 years. Insane shapes and great history in the shop. These also come with  a nice pricetag too.

Keep Up Rob

After Lincoln City, we headed to Drift Creek Falls. Decided our legs could use some walking after driving.

Rob made it across the Bridge. 254 feet high!

A huge suspension bridge overlooking the falls, 254 feet high. It was amazing! About 25 minute hike into Siuslaw National forest. Apparently my shoes are not the best for hiking, good thing I packed bandaids! . I wish I would have done a handstand on the bridge!!

on the Bridge over Drift Creek Falls

I love feeling sooo small

Started off the hike it was raining, but ended with a break in the rain enough to get my heels cleaned up.

45 minute hike to Drift Creek Falls

Apparently we should listen to the weather. Reported 70mph gust!! 20 foot seas!  Driving Hwy 101 with rainy gusty conditions is a bit scary. Rob did an Awesome job.

We tracked through to Bandon, Saw some amazing HUGE dune formations. lots of Dune Buggies!

The Seas were absolutley incredible! With the 70 mph gust and steady wind with 15+ seas, I really feel we got an amazing feel of how you must respect the world around us!

We found our way to Bandon, and a great motel to crash for the night. Allowing us to update the blog and take hot showers. (which made me yelp in pain from my blisters) Lucky for us, they are offering winter rates.

Wanted to stay in a yurt tonight, but with 70mph gust and projected 20 foot seas, probably not the safest and most comfortable idea. More to come.