The next day was a mileage day. We needed to get some highway under the tires if we were ever going to make it to Seattle. Our objective was getting to the redwoods and staying with Bre, a fellow naturalist and ex-coworker of Triina’s in Arcata, CA. Just south of the Redwoods National Park. Where we planned to take the day off and see the tall tall trees, we just had to get there first.
It was a beautiful drive, with the road winding along, up and down the cliffs and headlands of the northern California coast. We did power stops at interesting overlooks and took pics. Power stops are when you get out of the car and run around the area with an almost Chinese fire-drill style frenzy until you got all the pictures you wanted and had seen everything. Then you raced back to the car and waited till we did it again. I love power stops, it allows for short sprints to wake your sleepy legs and lets you see everything without it turning into a half-hour to hour long stop.
We took a longer break for sammies and a small hike around the headlands of Russian Gulch State Park. It’s a really sweet coastline that featured seacaves, tunnels, arches, and blowholes carved out of the sandstone rock. Triina and I had such a great time climbing over the rough rocks and doing a bit of exploring in the warm sunshine. Because it was such sunny and amazing day, it was hard to get back in the car, but we still had more miles to go.
Mid-afternoon, highway 1/101 turns away from the shoreline and heads deep into the forest, where you begin to see the start of the redwood protected state park areas and fun kitschy tourist stops. We didn’t have much time, but I convinced Triina and Niina that we needed for sure to stop at one of these old-school delights. The guides and reviews I had previously read, told us one of the best tourist stops was the Chandelier Tree. It’s a big redwood that they cut a gapping hole out of its base sometime in the 1930s and you get the novelty of driving your car through it for a mere $5/car. It also clearly had restrooms, a gift shop, and you could take hikes/picnic on their 250 acres of redwoods. As silly as it sounded, Triina (who was the all-powerful driver that day), humored my request and we got to drive through it. Yay! I was highly amused.
The brief divergence into kitsch over, we kept on truckin’ and followed highway 101 as it made its way back toward the coast out to Arcata. Bre was still at work and we had yet to fulfill the ice cream portion of our daily requirements (we had decided to take the day off drinking wine) so we headed for the best place in town for such things: the greasy-spoon truck stop known for burgers and shakes called Toni’s 24-hour Restaurant. With pre-ssert taken care of (dessert before dinner), we were invited to tasty vegetarian dishes prepared by Bre’s boyfriend while she was at work. Triina celebrated the well-prepared dinner by opening the sparkling rose she had got from the champagne house. It was a pretty sweet ending to a nice mileage day.
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