Sunday, August 22, 2010

Redwood Coast

Instead of taking the big interstate highway from California to Oregon, I went down the coast on the famous highway 101. This is where all the big coastal redwoods are, as well as cold beaches you don't want to swim in.

First, a few more golden hill near San Francisco. Fog can be seen covering the trees in the distance.


The beaches aren't very sunny, but they have some nice rocks around them.






This is actually the redwood forest. Driving down highway 101 had so many stops for beaches and trees. I could've easily spent a week actually seeing everything.

Using myself as reference to see how big these trees are.
The are kinda tall too.
The normal trees look so tiny.


The trail went under the roots of a turned over tree.

This area with a small waterfall was covered in moss. So green.

This was one of the smaller trees. You can count the rings if you want,
Back to the beaches, this is an overlook of Crescent city. I spent a night here. Everyone looked like a fisherman.
Some more rocks.



Tuesday, August 17, 2010

San Francisco

Apparently it doesn't matter if it is August, San Francisco will still make you put on a sweatshirt. It felt weird for things to be that cold at this time of the year. Maybe its because all these windmills are keeping things cool. Also, I liked the look of all the golden hills on my drive in.


Getting to the golden date bridge required getting off the highway and driving through downtown traffic. At least I found some cool looking things on the buildings.

Pictures of some bridge.
These pictures were taken from the other side of the bridge.

This path was supposed to lead to a lighthouse with a nice lookout of the ocean and the bay. It was in a little park on the other side of the bridge.


But it ended with a big black door because most of the path was closed. I guess people going to the lighthouse was causing ships to crash. I snuck my camera though a hole in the door and saw this.



The city itself had some cool looking things. I walked from the commuter train station, through downtown, to the wharf.


Chinatown was rather busy. I found a sign with several lines of Chinese characters, and then just said "John's photo". That may have been a translation error.

Many shops had crazy looking weapons. At first this looked cool, until you see that every shop has the same crazy weapons.

Only 1 shop had these jeweled animals though.

Downtown was full of 5 and 6 way intersections. This made traffic fun.
In fisherman's wharf, ships drove through the streets. It was also absurdly crowded.
But had some nice looking boats.

And a view of Alcatraz. I didn't take a tour there.
Lots of fog that day over the bridge.


San Francisco and the surrounding area seemed fun, but a bit crazy. I kinda want to live here, but it would be a big lifestyle change. No car, only public transportation. I'm still undecided about this city.