Two Miles and Four Feet from Home: Going to the Coast

We slept much better but several times I thought I heard bears and sat straight up only to see Jasper laying on his back scratching the tent with his feet. He had a look on his face like he got me but I think he was just dreaming. Our plan was to leave early and get a jump on the 7 hour drive ahead of us. something I forgot to mention is that last night Lyn thought she left her phone in the bathroom and after going back to retrieve it, it was no longer there. She is due a new phone anyway so that was no problem but most of our good photos were on there plus all of her contacts. We decided to leave later to give the chance for someone to turn it into the ranger and I also posted notes on both bathroom doors. At 7 we decided to get packed and then check with the Ranger about 9 one last time before leaving. Anyway while packing up Lyn found her phone! It had fallen between the mattress and the tent. So by the time we got packed up it was only 7:40 AM and we hit the road. The plan was to stop at the University of California at Berkeley take a picture at the sign and just check it out in general and then head up the coast. One of our International students (Coco) that spent her Senior year with us was accepted there and is going to be a freshman next year. After about 3.5 hours we arrived at the very cool town of Berkeley. We loved the vibe and were hoping to park and tour it and get a picture at the sign. We pulled up to the campus and there was open parking everywhere so we pulled right in and went to pay. As it turns out the public can only park there after 5. We had already tried to find parking in town and since we had the camper in tow we could not find a spot. While we were sitting there illegally parked the parking police came up and asked us what we were doing parking our camper at their campus. We did look out of place. We told him about Coco and asked if we could just take a few minutes and have lunch get a picture of the sign and then we would hit the road. He agreed to let us stay as long as we stayed with the car for about 20 minutes so we had lunch while sitting on the cooler and using the camper as our picnic table. I bet we were a sight but we seemed to blend right in. After lunch we ran down to the sign and took a picture and ran back to the car and were on our way.We really want to go back, the town was the definition of cool. We got on our way and soon were crossing the step sister bridge of the Golden Gate. This time we crossed the Bay Bridge. It is actually longer than the Golden Gate bridge but it does not look as nice. They charged us $15 to cross with the trailer and in about 15 minutes we were on Highway 101 heading north. After about two hours it was time to cut over to Highway 1. It was super curvy but after about an hour we dropped into the redwood forest. It was super cool and you could see pockets of gold everywhere that the sunshine made its way through the thick foliage. We were in them for about 45 minutes and then we popped up and headed down south on Highway 1. We had to go down the coast about 25 miles to get to our campground in Manchester. The road was right on the coast and gave us great views and curvy roads complete with no guard rails! Finally after about an hour we pulled into camp. The campground backed up to the ocean. (Actually we were about .5 miles away but nothing was between the campground and the ocean.) When we got out of the car we noticed how cool it was. It was about 55 and it felt great. \They sent us too our site and we had the biggest site we had yet fully covered by trees and our site was backed up to an ocean view. With the shade the temperature dropped to 51 and we had about a 15 mph constant wind coming off the ocean I figure the windchill temp was about 42. Yikes. For the first time on the trip I had to put on long pants so I zipped on the legs to my pants and quickly figured out that a coat was in order. After that it seemed that a full on hat was needed. Luckily I had brought a crazy hat from Yellowstone and with in minutes I looked like a mountain man. Back at the camp store due to the sun being out and the wind being blocked you had kids in the shorts with no shirts running around yet in the tent section we were all hunkered down in winter clothing. It really was a sight to see. Lyn fixed dinner while trying to stay warm and for the first time of our trip we ate in the camper. After dinner we walked down to the camp office and the festivities had already started. They had a large bond fire for people to stay warm and even had Karaoke with some really good singers. We went back to our camper around 9 got Jasper tucked in and then we got under all of our covers and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we are going to Fort Bragg and checking out Glass beach and the town in general. We will be here for two nights and then we will head up the coast to Oregon.

Day 2
We actually slept like rocks. Neither one of us moved or went to the bathroom. We slept in til 6:00 AM. It felt great. Once we got out from the covers we were greeted with a very crisp morning. Lyn made us a porridge called Champ-O-Rado. It is like eating warmed up coco crispy porridge. Just what we needed on this cold day. We had two choices build a fire or head up to Fort Bragg. We decided to head out for Fort Bragg. It was about 30 miles north and would take a little over an hour to get there thanks to the super curvy roads and the occasional stops just to look at the spectacular views. It was super curvy and beautiful almost the entire way there. We went through a few small towns and then we hit Fort Bragg. It was huge....well at least by our new standards. We were so use to towns having just a few streets and shops and this one had everything. They even had a full on Safeway grocery store. We stopped and got gas and then as soon as we hit the downtown area we saw signs for glass beach. Another camper had told us that it was really cool and that Jasper was welcome as long as he was on a leash. Since we arrived kind of early parking was no problem and we joined the handful of people that were headed that way. It had lots of coves and rocks and was just beautiful in every way. Oh yeah it was also 65 degrees. Nice!!!! Glass beach got its name because you can find all kids of glass on the beach that has been smoothed down by the ocean for decades. Apparently after a major earthquake in the early 1900's the nearby towns had a problem. What to do with all of the debris. They decided they would just chuck it in the ocean. (Not exactly uncommon at the time.) Well after years of doing that someone decided that they better clean it up but there was no way to get it all and a lot of glass was left. By now it has turned into this beautiful beach area and is actually a protected area. You are not allowed to take the glass but you can admire it and we did just that. We took a lot of pictures and just had a great time. This "rest" day was starting out nicely. After that we went to the Chamber of Commerce to get the lay of the land. A young lady that had lived there her entire life was there and gave us some great suggestions. She also told us about a bunch of movies that had been made there. We headed downtown and just checked out all of the shops. It was really a great town and we will be back for sure. By now it was about noon and time for lunch. The place she had recommended was a place called Django's. It was down a hill in a fishing cove area with several other places of interest. They had a patio looking over the Wharf and Jasper was totally welcome. In fact the waitress made sure he had water before she took our order. We ended up getting Calamari and fish and chips and splitting the whole thing. It was delicious and we actually had some left over. After lunch we headed home and stopped in a little town that had cool town area and a bakery. We stopped and got a few items and a hot chocolate. Then we headed home and took a two hour nap. Ahhhh fully rested. Lyn made her usual eggplant dinner that I love at home even using the charcoal grill since we did not have an oven to broil it. It was delicious and after sitting by the fire for awhile we headed to bed. Tomorrow we are going up the coast and hopefully will end up in Oregon!