Jan. 30
We successfully made it across the boarder. Thanks to Steve for thinking ahead and removing his earrings, tie-dyed visor, and glacier sunglasses—who knows what they would have done with us otherwise.
Floating black rectangle at the boarder.
Freddie happily occupied her time with her magni-doodle and tiny toys as we made our way to Portland.
Traveling with a small child means you have to stop more frequently—so we stopped more frequently as seen here.
Jan.31
Pre Freddie, like all you other DINK’s out there, we would have stayed in the Portland city center. However, we are no longer DINK’s (dual income no kids), we are now
GIOSEOAOK’s (Government Income Occasionally Self Employed Artists with One Kid). This being said, we decided to stay by the airport. We saved money, got a free breakfast, swam in the indoor pool, and were close to IPD—the after market VOLVO auto parts store! Steve died and went to heaven but all I got were these mesh seat baskets. He would have liked to pick up a handful of other items, some anti-sway bars, shocks and struts, performance muffler, and maybe a high compression custom turbo engine, but for now we will settle for seats that don’t feel like a slab of concrete.
Of course we had to stop by the Rogue Brewery to pick up some of our favorites on the way out of town. We also made a quick stop at Hendrix and McGuire Optical to peruse their selection of dead-stock frames. We weren’t lucky this time, but if you’re ever looking for a “cool” pair of glasses and you happen to be in Portland H&M is the place to go--$75 for a pair of frames and there’s no tax of course!
Steve at IPD
elephant sculpture in Portland
faces
Seven hours later we were in our motel, Pacific Inn, in Crescent City.
Feb.1
Some time on the beach to start our day.
Listening to Luzmila Carpio’s traditional Bolivian folk music seems fitting while driving through the redwood forest along the 101--coastal highway. Giant, almost fictional trees tower overhead as Luzmila’s bird-like chirps and etherial melodies fill the car. What’s this!? Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox Babe! Pull over!
Freddie was fascinated with Babe's "funny bum"
What is this? Trees here are so big you can even build a house in the trunk of one of them.
Steve has started his video log in the log as seen here.
another "funny bum"
a couple more stops in the woods
Still February 1st, we headed to Ukiah for the night. Our friends Doug and Stephanie were our hosts, need I say more. We were greeted by the aroma of burgers sizzling on the grill and, since Doug works at a local brewery, we had an endless supply of beer in the welcome wagon as well. Freddie was excited to sit on the deck (in February—the weather is nice here in case you need reminding) and eat a burger with Uncle Doug. Stephanie was working the night shift at the hospital so we spent the first night reminiscing and catching up with Doug. If you’ve ever met him you know the cheer and laughs were endless.
The next day we got to see Stephanie!
Feb.2
Since we had so much fun we decided to stay a second night at Doug and Stephanie's. We still hadn’t seen Stephanie and we wanted to catch up with her too. A day at the beach seemed like a good idea so we drove the windy, red wood lined, forest road toward Fort Bragg. We started to feel the effects of the beer from the night before half way there with still another snaky 20 miles ahead. I think I may have actually turned green. We got to the beach and somehow we both felt better. Maybe it was the fresh air, but I think the 20 degree sunny weather had something to do with it.
Freddie entertaining herself on the way to Fort Bragg
the beach at Fort Bragg
Feb.3
How can a person ever feel bad in a place like this? T-shirt weather in February! Today we arrived in San Francisco. Sorry to brag but it’s great. We spent a big part of the day at Fisherman’s Wharf, riding the carousel, eating some sourdough bread, looking at the sites, watching the sea lions bark at each other—why is it so fascinating to watch them? They are like big fat people in a way, all smushed together on a small dock. One of them had his arm around a girl who I assume must have been his wife. Some other guy jumps up behind him trying to find a spot to catch some rays or snuggle next to a cutie, accidentally bumps him and right away he gets his head bitten off “watch it jack ass, back off!”. And if you’ve ever seen them yourself, you know it doesn’t even sound that polite. Their bark sounds more like a wretching, belch-like smokers cough/barf through a megaphone. It’s really funny.
Here I am posing like the lady before me. Why hadn’t I thought of that—it’s the perfect expression to depict how happy one feels when they are basking in the sunny rays of a San Francisco afternoon.
On our way back to the car we stopped to watch these guys.
We had supper in the hotel room. It was good!
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