Drive days don’t need to be dud days. Great scenery and short leg stretchers can be very decompressing, be they from buses, trains or automobiles.

Snobben trodde han va’ cool

The drive through southern Oregon towards north California was a pleasant one. Farmlands, rivers, mountains and the occasional small town. We stopped at a handicraft/trinkets deli, with a kind of eat-pray-live vibe. In addition, they had some local brews on tap, so why not? However, the machine wouldn’t work with my digital credit card, so we had to dig from the cash stash. The owner felt bad for her equipment not working, and so presented me with an additional beer for dessert. Am I one to say no to a free beer?

Charles M Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, lived most of his life in Santa Rosa. Throughout town, there are statues of Snoopy and his friends on every street corner, and on the outskirts they have a Snoopy gift shop, museum, café and even an ice rink.

For me, this was a dream I didn’t know I had come true. I have been travelling for 12 years with a miniature Snoops, and at University, he was the patron saint of the Civil Engineering department.

A full size RAF plane, Snoopy’s dog house, artwork recreated with Peanuts characters and so much more. We wanted to buy everything in the store, but limited by budget and baggage space, we settled for a framed picture and some stickers.

Even though Santa Rosa is in wine country, they do have a, get this, brewery. Russian River is named so because the Russians actually colonised much of the Pacific Northwest, from Alaska down to northern California, where they were countered by the Spanish, working their way northwards from Mexico. Russian River is also the name of the brewery we went to after our Peruvian* dinner, to try out their award winning beer Pliny the Elder.

Oysters and Redwoods and Bridges, oh my!

Another big driving day followed. But with plenty of stops and scenic surroundings, that’s no worries.

Goat Rock beach was just that (GOAT), with its rock formations, foggy shrouds and pelicans.

Driving through Bodega Bay, we stopped by the former Potter School, made famous as a backdrop from Alfred Hitchkock’s The Birds, before heading to Hog Island to pick up today’s lunch: oysters. Chucking away, we had a moderately messy mollusc meal, complete with the mandatory stout, before going for a swim in the Pacific waves.

Now definitely in California, it was time to visit the ginormous redwood trees in Muir Woods. The calm majesty of these ent-like titans leaves one in awe. Due to their length and straightness, they were extremely valuable for logging, and the redwood forests that once stretched all the way to the coast were quickly reduced when the colonisers came. In Muir, however, they were too far away from rivers and other modes of transportation, and combined with the effort of a few early grass roots** environmentalists, the area was made into a State Park, and later a National Park for future conservation.

From Muir Woods it’s a surprisingly short drive to Golden Gate Recreational Area, in which can be found an old abandoned battery, Battery Spencer. It’s rundown concrete bunkers are filled with graffiti, and it gives an eerie feel. You just know that teenagers come here at night to drink and smoke, and probably play that untzy-untzy “music” the youngsters listen to these days. But sometimes, when the wisps of fog temporarily lifts, one can get a nice view of a cool cable bridge, all painted in glorious International Orange.

It’s a well known fact, for those who know it well, that Golden Gate is the name of the strait, and therefore the famous bridge is called the Golden Gate Bridge, despite not being golden, but rather red. Which is actually orange. Driving across it, we at last arrived in San Francisco, the city by the bay.

Urbanista

Caroline’s cousin lives and work in SF, and so we set off to the hip neighbourhood in which she works as a barkeep. Dinner was the usual billing, but as a barlord she was in a position to let the taps flow without needing to charge, and so, the freebeers list was expanded.

Our stay in the City by the Bay was short. Unfortunately, the cousin had work to do next day, so us visitors set off on an awfully hilly walk to catch what I had missed on my last visit: Lombard Street, the cirvy round, surrounded by shrubbery, made famous by countless car chase scenes.

As the hotel didn’t offer luggage storage we had our big backpacks stored at another designated place that charged by the bag. Cheapskates as we can be, we therefore had to carry our daypacks, which becpmes increasingly heavy and big with more elevation, of which SF has in droves.

It was therefore nice to get on level ground at Fisherman’s Wharf. Strollinh along the piers, we got to see the large amount of sea lions and and even larger amount of people queuing for the famous Californian burger joint In-n-Out. Not to miss too much of town we quickly decided to go on another hop-on-hop-off bus.

This one had a very entertaining driver/guide, but the time and stop info we got turned out to be less than correct. That meant that the afternoon’s catch-up with Cousin M was cut short before we had to collect our bags and head to the bus stop for further transport to Emeryville train station.

But before we left, I went for a quick snack run. I also bought beer, and one of them lacked a barcode. Not knowing the actual price, the cashier just rang it up to an even dollar, so I count that as another freebeer.

Am I a track to you?

In America, they make you line up on the platform for ticket check, on one end of the train (regardless of what actual cart you’re supposed to board), rather than upon boarding or while seated. But as soon as that’s over with, the train ride is a soothing one. A small, yet functional compartment was our home for the next day. The panorama lounge on the top deck offers nice views of the landscape, but we mostly hung out in our own little space, as it’s sometimes necessary to decompress without too many others around.

Unbeknownst to us, it turns out that sleeper passangers have their meal included, and not just the breakfast, but the luncheon and the dinner too. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

Evenflow

Back in Seattle, it was about time to do some proper touristing, as well as a romantic dinner this last night together. Next to the grunge movement, Seattle’s biggest claim to fame is probably the Space Needle. How convenient is it not then, that right next to the iconic tower, there is a museum commemorating that very movement.

In fairness, MoPop has expanded to cover much more than just the grunge era. All sorts of pop culture is on display, including Sci-Fi, horror and fantasy. It was nerdgasm galore for this cross-sectional geek, upon seeing actual props of Luke Skywalker’s*** light saber’^, the Facehugger and Mr Pointy, the latter of which produced a squeee and Anna-hands from yours truly.

Most of the museum was dedicated to grunge in general and Nirvana in particular, and well worth a visit to anyone remotely interested in proper music.

Seattle Center was built for the World Fair in 1962, with its Needle as its pinnacle. Construction took only 9 months, and there were no casualties. The visit itself is well worth it for the views, the rotating floor and the many photo and selfie ops, but in the end it’s just a viewing platform, no more, no less.

Chihuly garden and glass is another gem in the Center. Dave Chihuly is an American artist and glass blower, and he finds ways of making incredible shapes and colours, turning them into eye-catching sculptures. Usually, they have glass blowers showing their trade in action at the museum, but that section was closed that day due to a private event. Well worth a visit, even so.

Taking the monorail^ (another squeee) back downtown, we went to Pike Place, hoping to find a decent seafood restaurant. The ones in the actual market were closed or about to, but just below, towards the waterfront, a fancier place named Place Pigalle was open, as were their welcoming arms. Alaskan waters had provided a salmon that the wife was ready to elope with, and a halibut that was good enough for Jehovah. A beautiful sunset view, with the tastiest fish meal one could hope for, concluded our common travel for this time.

Caroline’s Corner

Medford. What can I say about Medford? Not much. It has some good microbreweries and some good murals going on but otherwise, nothing. We used it as a wellplanned sleeping spot before our real adventure.

Snoopy

Yes, we visited Santa Rosa aka Snoopyville. I have adored Snoopy basically all my life. He is a dog after all. But to see the joy in my partners face was even better than the actual joy of beeing at Snoopy ground zero.
We passed the petrified woods due to the long lines of tourists and because the admissions were not worth the visit. No vineyards were inspected but we viewed them from our vehicle. Very nice indeed.

Santa Rosa is indeed the land of the adorable Snoopster and his friends. Many of streetcorners were adorned with statues of either the white charmer himself or his friends. Very nice.
When in Santa Rosa one must partake in the local cuisine so we went to our guide’s favourite restaurant. He had spent the entire covid years in Santa Rosa so he was well acquainted with the local specialities. So Peruan food it was. And what a good choice . As was the beverage.

We traveled with a small group. One Australian bloke, and two Swiss strangers. I write strangers because even though they are from the same country, even from the same neigbourhood, prior to this trip they had not met. Anyhow. The Swiss guy, despite being just as lactose intolerant as me, had a great fondness for icecream. Alas, the Peruvian dessert meny did not meet Swiss needs so off we went. 3 whole meters (that is 9.84 feet for you non metrics) to the very, very hip icecream store. We had 10 minutes before closing so I decided to be daring. I tried the Black Sesame seed icecream. I doesn’t sound like a tasty dessert n’est pas? But no, au contraire mes amis. It was divine. I like to try new things. Sometimes it is a real dud, but often enough one gets to try new flavours and experience mouthgasms. And this was a pure mouthful of bliss.

Beer & beans

We are bombarded by news articles about how the Conservative and dark movements in the US are gaining traction but traveling around the western part of the states I could see that the majority consists of people with a very loving and liberal mindset. The freedom of being ones true self is very obvious as what we saw at yet another great food/beer place we got to experience. Beans & beer is a bar/restaurant/art centre/gallery/LGBTQ+ haven in Santa Rosa. Two women who discovered the holy Bean by them elves and then when they had mastered the art of creating real coffee (not the brown water Americans mistakenly calls coffee), they also discovered the amazing tastes of the west coast micro breweries. When they met, fell in love and discovered their shared passions; what else could they do but open a bar/restaurant/art centre/gallery/LGBTQ+ haven aka Bean & Beer.
As we had breakfast we could not in good conscience drink beer. But we could buy one or two, to sample a bit later. Which we did. Or one of us did. The other one had a sudden hankering for sparkling wine. But that is a later story.

Hogs head is the place were they filmed one, single outdoor scene in a very iconic movie. Iconic at least, for the ironic generation (as I’m part of).
Most of the shooting took place in Oregon but for one very pivotal scene. Which movie am I blubbering about? Well none other then the great 80ies classic ” The goonies”. The scene I’m talking about is the beach scene where the ancient pirate ship sails past a large set of rocks/cliffs. That place is Hogs head.
No swimming as the currents are as dangerous as the currents of the black beach in Iceland (see, yet another correlation between our chosen vacation destinations. We did not choose willy, nor nilly).
Just as our touring of Iceland we also had amazing scenery. This part of Califonia is breathtakingly beautiful.
Oysters is a big part of the local economy. Many small businesses are family owned and operated. They are also very eco minded so we definitely had to support them. And support them we did. 5 dozen oysters, fresh from the sea. To bad we were only three who really loves oysters. Ok, only two. Our lovely tourleader Mike and yours truly. Martin and one of our Swiss companions had a few. So Mike and I could stuff our bellies like it was the last time we would ever have an oyster again.

Shucking oysters and then watching my partner throw himself in the waves breaking on the beach. A very happy husband and an even happier wife. The water was to cold for me. I was happy to just dip my toes and leaving the cold churling waves to the cold resistent man seal.

Approaching the redwood forests was a sacral experience. Just as the fog started to slowly roll in we approached the gigant trees. Visiting the Muir national park was a very profound and spiritual experience. Walking on the gangways in between the tall, straight giants we all did lower our voices, walk quietly and reverently.
What an experience! And what a privilege to be able to experience these woods.

Our tour was almost at an end. But not yet. We still had ro experience the iconic Golden gate. And of course the San Francisco fog. That fog is almost sentient. It moves, svirls, and teases. The bridge surrounded by the fog was just as cool as the visible parts. We could see the famous Alcatraz clearly and at the same time the Golden Gate bridge was completely obscured. Truly fascinating.
The main attraction for me in San Francisco was not the steep streets, the cable cars, not the wharf with the Sea lions, nor the Seven sisters , not even the “crookedest street in the world “; Lombard street. No, the main attraction was seeing my cousin M again. That was just so good to meet up again.

Amtrak

Travelling by railroads should probably have been nicer if we would have had a dry run before. Now we learned the hard way that the nice scenic free seats in the scenic car operated according the same principles as the sun loungers on a charter destination. You have to get up at ridiculous o’clock to find an empty seat. Then you hog that seat the entire journey.
But the food was included in the ticket, the bathrooms clean and we had our own tiny cabin. I would definitely try to travel via Amtrak again.
But where did we end up? We took the Amtrak back to Seattle.

We had one whole day together before Martin would join his other tour and I would head back home and start working again.

A whole day being touristy together. That was definitely a good day. We bought a citypass. Martin got one with three touristy activites included and i got the one with five. Three entries to do together and two more for me on my last day aka the first day of Martin’s last tour.
The space needle, MoPop and the spectacular glass works by the glass artist Dave Chihuly. Three very different landmarks of Seattle. Equally cool and visually impressive.

We hopped on the monorail to go downtown and to check out Pike market. I can’t say that we did it in a dignified and suave manner. What I can say is that we might have squeee:ed and weeee:ed a little tiny bit. One might even say that we wispered “monorail, monorail, monorail…!!!”.

The former brothel, now restaurant Place Pigalle showed that even though they no longer pandered in selling bodies, they were still in the pleasure business. What a gastronomical dream! Excellent food, perfectly balanced wine and a breathtaking view. Our last evening together on this adventure was a success.

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*) Pisco, Pisco Sour, Pisco Sour, We had Pisco Sour!

**) or rather, tree root

***) before anyone says “ummm, ackchually….” I know it was originally Anakin’s, but it was the one used in Empire, and Luke had properly inherited it by then

`^) complete with cut-off hand

^) the Seattle monorail is probably even more “on the map” than the ones in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook

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