Jennifer and I left Portland and immediately ran into a small town having a UFO Festival, as one often does. Therefore, stopping was a requirement. People were dressed up and dancing to music about aliens. Ah, Oregon. The drive down the coast was so gorgeous and the scenery was unbelievable. We ended up staying in a small town called Florence for the night at a seedy hotel. Apparently we were there for "Rodey weekend."
"What?"
"Rodey Weekend"
"Um....okay...."
"It's our rhododendron festival weekend."
Obviously. How did we not know that?! Coming from Tucson, I thought I heard him say "Rodeo Weekend," which I thought was really odd for a small waterfront town in Oregon. For "Rhodey Weekend" they had a small carnival area set up in town with games and rides that make you vomit. We had dinner at a small restaurant and I ordered an amazing seafood soup that burned my tongue for three days. It was so good, though!! In the morning, we were treated to large, oversized men riding tiny bicycles because apparently the clowns were staying in the same motel as us. Ah, Oregon.
The next day, we drove south some more and visited some more beach. We visited a small museum with a mess of taxidermy animals (freaky if you ask me) then stopped at the Trees of Mystery and talked to a massive Paul Bunyan. He is quite friendly! I also got pulled over by a cop because the speed limit changes every five miles. Apparently I was going 41 in a 30 zone in town. Luckily the cop was very nice an just gave me a warning. Ah, Oregon (did I mention that already?). We ended up staying the night in Willits, CA at a fancy Super 8 (ha!)
Day 3 was a bit of visiting San Fran. We tried to find the Golden Gate Park, but apparently Siri doesn't really know where it is. She took us to a tiny road with CAT machines. Not exactly scenic central. But we got to visit my favorite SF store, Karakter, which has Tintin stuff. It is right next to Hotel Triton which is where my mom and I used to stay. It has an amazing lobby and chair that looks like Salvador Dali designed. We ate lunch at in Chinatown because....why not?! Afterward, we hit up Pier 39 to buy sourdough and taffy.
Jenn and I were going to spend the night a bit south of Monterrey along CA 1, but apparently there is nothing there!! The maps show "towns" but they end up being one or two shops and possibly one lodging area that was way out of our prince range. It was the most gorgeous drive along the Pacific (and a bit curvy) and luckily we got to see most of it during daylight. Since there were no places to stay we ended up driving through to Lompoc to stay with Jenn's parents arriving around midnight. What a long day!
