PNW - Fort Bragg to Arcata

On Tuesday, we got up and went to Egghead's for breakfast. They have two things Mr. Dwayne loves - Oz and breakfast! He enjoyed their eggy, Ozzy theme so much that he bought a hoody.

The early  bird gets the window seat!

And so does his lovely wife!

Dwayne had his usual favorite - a scramble with sausage, potatoes and toast. I went for their signature "Party on a Plate" cinnamon raisin French toast. Thank goodness they had real maple syrup!

Fort Bragg has a little town center with a museum and several educational displays. Unfortunately, we missed the museum's hours of operation, but we did see this enormous cross section of an old growth redwood. This tree was the largest felled in the area and took 60 man-hours to take down. 

This plaque identified important historical dates in the life of the tree. I felt sad to see such a huge and gentle life collected in such a way. But, we reflected on how our precious home was built of dry-aged redwood in the 1920's. Many have benefited from the amazing qualities of these tremendous trees.

This plaque states that the tree section is a monument to the founder of the town, but I like to think of it as in honor of the tree itself.

We could not pass through Fort Bragg without visiting Ms. Pauline. She is smart and funny and a green gardener of grand proportions. Mr. Dwayne waited patiently while Pauline and I had a little garden geek out.

Pauline was not happy with her garden. She has been taking care of her mom and has had her hands full. However, with good soil, rain and light, the growth goes on, beautiful, if a bit wild. All across her garden were flowers and flyers.

Because we have gone through the heartache of a slow loss of a beloved mother to dementia, we shared as much encouragement has we could with Pauline. She is such a loving woman. As we left, she asked me to hug a tree for her, so I did:

Not just any tree, the Founder's Tree in the Founder's Grove of the Avenue of the Giants.

The Founder's Grove is an easy walk and a great way to take in the quiet beauty of an old growth redwood forest. There were other families walking around, even one with little kids, but everyone enjoyed in hushed tones. It really is like being in a church.

We learned that these trees, while massive, have shallow root systems that make them vulnerable to being blown over. They are all dependent upon the forrest of enter-twined roots to make them strong.

Many of the fallen trees are old and in various stages of decay. This one is new. I don't know when it fell, but it wasn't there when I visited about 5 years ago. Notice the adult human standing near this exploded tree. That should give you some idea of the scale of this lumber explosion.

I can't imagine the noise this made when it fell and shattered.

 Mr. Dwayne is a book magnet. A soggy encyclopedia near the docks. 

Our next stop was Crescent City. I hate to say it, but we only stopped for gas. I need to stretch my legs and saw a promising path that looked like it might lead to a beach. What it lead to was a ship yard.

A fat mouser.

Butter Cups. 

While we managed to get a lot of pictures, I think we missed even more. My camera is old and wonky and was burning a set of batteries everyday. Between being on the road and the camera, we missed many of the best views of our trip. Truly, if you duplicate this ride, exercise your sense of wonder now, so you'll be able to take it all in without beauty fatigue. 

Pacific North West Road Trip - East Bay to Fort Bragg

The Port of Oakland

Nearly 6 years later, we are on the road again! We are driving up HWY 1 and 101 to Seattle and then back to Sacramento down I-5. We've tried to take this trip a couple of times and had to cancel. Not for all bad reasons either. Last year we had to skip a big vacation because I got a big promotion into a new job. I stock piled my vacation for a year, and here we are! These first few pictures show the view from our room at the Hilton Garden Inn Bay View in Emeryville.

 The Bay Bridge

 The Golden Gate

We came to Emeryville to launch our coastal adventure because our beloved Madelyn lives there. We had dinner in Oakland's China Town and breakfast at 900 Grayson. Both fun and good. Sorry about the lack of food pictures in the first round. I have to figure how to fit everything in my bag!

We had to take little Clara for walkies before breakfast. I really tried to take a picture of her darling face, but I think I was officially the Least Interesting Thing on the Walk.

After we parted from Madelyn, we crossed the Bay Bridge, when through San Francisco and North across the Golden Gate. Living near the Bay Area, there are so many things we take for granted. We always think we'll get around to some of the touristy things on day trips or a weekend and we seldom do. This time we pulled over on the North side of the Golden Gate and stopped at Vista Point.

There is a lovely memorial in honor of sea-faring service men.

 Fort Baker Jetty

 Fort Baker

 Susan and Dwayne, tourists at large...

Our next stop was Petaluma. I specifically wanted to visit the Seed Bank. It is actually housed in a former bank building with high, decorated ceilings and marble everywhere.  I've often ordered seeds from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, so it was great to see their store and all they have to offer.

 I only bought a few...

PIE!

As we strolled through Petaluma, we spotted the Petaluma Pie Company. They offered so many kinds of sweet and savory pies it was hard to make a choice. This sign helped...

and led us to our...

Lunch!

 I think I will gaze upon this picture the next time I feel mixed up.

I am so proud that I was able to spot a book for Dwayne to add to his collection. We found it in the rare books section of Copperfield Books. It is the James Bond Dossier. 

Here is where I got a little lazy about the pictures. It has been blowing so hard! It's beautifully sunny, but the wind coming in off the ocean is hard to walk into . I snapped this at a quick stop in Mendocino. It is the top of the Masonic Hall. It is a bank building now.

We are staying at a place called the Emerald Dolphin. It's quaint and comfy. There is even an adjacent mini golf course. I would have liked to try it but the wind is crazy. In fact, we went down to glass beach and it was covered with little sand sail jellyfish that had washed ashore. I did not bring my camera at that walk, but I wish I had. More tomorrow!

The Further Adventures of the Coveys - More Food and More Driving

Thanks to everyone who followed our trip. I had such a good response, that I decided to keep posting about our travel and dining adventures. I will continue to post about food I've made at Susan Can Cook. Here, you'll get to see what we eat when we're out and about. We will continue to search out and enjoy Triple-D sites too.

Last weekend, we went to visit Madelyn and hear all about her fabulous European vacation. Here she is with her boy friend, Robb.

We decided to try Bette's Oceanview Diner. This was featured on Triple-D and they featured a puffy pancake souffle. We've been wanting to go here for a while, but it seems like every really good place in Berkeley either has a line out the door or a months long waiting list for reservations. This day, we bit the bullet and decided to shop while we waited an hour or so for our lunch. Here's Mr. Dwayne, waiting anxiously for his bockwurst and potato pancake feast. He was starving, but once we started eating, he admitted it was worth the wait.

I really wanted to try the pancake souffle, but I've also been on a corned beef hash quest for some time. I can't tell you how many times I've ordered the corned beef hash and had it come to my table fresh out of the can. I do like canned corned beef hash, and have made it for myself at home. But, if I look around your dining room and see some people eating a Reuben, and some other people eating hash browns with their eggs, DO NOT bring me corned beef hash from a can. There's just no excuse. Happily, my menu dilemma was resolved by the lovely Madelyn. She is one of my favorite eating partners because we both like to try lots of different things and we don't mind sharing. What you see above is half of the order of corned beef hash with poached eggs and sourdough toast. This hash was meaty and the potatoes inside were fluffy while the outer crust was super crispy. Yum! This hash is highly recommended!

Here is my half the the pancake souffle with yummy apple filling. The only weird thing is that they did not bring maple syrup for this, and it really needed it. It took a while to flag down our server and she brought some for us. They were extremely busy. Robb had Reuben with coleslaw and reported that it was very tasty.


We spent the afternoon looking at Mad's vacation photos, then decided to get some dinner before heading home. Madelyn suggested Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. They usually offer great sweet potato fries, but were out on our visit. Check out their cool sign.

Their other claim to fame is a milk shake flavored with stout and espresso. I was skeptical, but this was delicious!

I'm playing catch-up with this post. This past Thursday evening, we were both hungry and I had an appointment at 7, so we decided to do something we haven't done in a long while - we went to Squeeze Inn. We haven't been able to eat there since they moved from their old location on Fruitridge. We can see that they've really expanded their business and have hired lots of new staff. However, we also saw some of our favorite old faces. Due to light eating earlier in the day, I didn't come out too much over my calorie limit for the day. What you see above is my hamburger with cheese. Believe it or not, this is a lot smaller than the squeeze with cheese.

Here is a peek inside Dwayne's squeeze with cheese. I don't know of many sandwiches where you have to have a strategy to eat it, but the presence of a cheese skirt necessitates this. Dwayne usually folds his skirt in and eats it with the burger. I usually eat about half of it by itself then fold the rest in. You have to do something to get at the burger!

Look Ma! No stains. I was very proud of myself because I'd had a spinach and beet salad for lunch and a squeeze burger for dinner, both with no mishaps. (If you've never had fresh beets with baby spinach, the stems of the spinach act as tiny catapults and can lob bright red globules of beet-stained salad dressing all over you. The little red heart on my shirt is a sticker that I awarded myself for giving a successful training session. We make our fun where we can!)

And now, here is the driving part of this post. My cousin, Genny, invited us on a fun run this weekend. She and her husband, Bob, have belonged to a Miata club and have planned lots of runs similar to this. I have to say that Genny has a great deal of organizational flair. Here I am, ready to enjoy. You can see Larry and Barbara behind us. We took a beautiful route to Indian Grinding Rock park. We each packed a picnic. As we ate, a large gathering of families near by serenaded us with beautiful singing. I think they were singing in Russian, but I'm not sure. There was beautiful harmony.

This structure provided shade for our lunch.


There are many enormous oak trees. A posted sign said that some of these are estimated to be about 400 years old.

See...it's a BIG tree.

Here's the gang walking on the nature path.

Genny, creating a photo-vortex with me.

Some of the fields were covered with fluffy purple flowers.

Here's the name sake of the park. It is a fascinating piece of history. We also had fun watching the lizards run around on top of it.

Here's my driver and some beautiful country side. After seeing a lot of the rest of the US, I appreciate the beauty and variety of California even more.

So much fun! Thanks Genny, Bob, Barbara and Larry!