Our trip to the Coast

I am writng this today because I had to write the challenge blog yesterday. Friday morning, I got off work at 8, came home, showered, packed and we were out the door by 10:00. That was pretty good. I told John I would sleep in the car, so I wouldnt be so tired later on.  I tried, i really did. We didnt go the usual route to the coast. We decided to take a more scenic route, even though it takes a little bit longer. Who cares, we were on a mini vacation.  We went Highway 12 through Rio Vista, into the Fairfield area, and through back door into Petaluma.

As John was driving, I decided I couldnt sleep, so I sat up and got out my camera. The windmills you see on my Album are all shot while driving. In fact I think about the first 20 or thirty pics are while driving. Pretty good huh. I love the windmill shots. Those are all over the Valley area. they generate quite a bit of energy just by using the wind. when you look at them turning, it doesnt look like they are moving very fast, but in fact, I just learned they are traveling quite fast. Ithink it was 75 mph. The design of the windmills had to be changed because birds would fly into them and get killed. The new design is more bird freindly.

I also have a few shots of our California Happy cows and a heard of happy sheep. We say they are happy, because they dont have to stand out in the cold, Like in Wisconson, or any other place that makes Cheese. Has anyone ever seen the California happy cow commercials. They are cute.

there is a pic of Jelly Belly factory that we passed. the schools out here like to take field trips to the factory, and when they do, John asks the bus drivers to bring him back some belly flops. Taht is what rejected bellies are called. They are about half the price but taste the same. John works for the school district as a mechanic, he has connections.

We went straight to our Hotel and checked in. We were so surprised to find the warm weather had followed us all the way to the coast. It is normally quite a bit colder there, sweater or even coat weather, even in the summer. But this weekend was perfect. Our room was on the second floor and we could look out and see the whole town of Occidental. It only has one block. One main road that leads in and out. It is surrounded by large redwoods and pine trees. Redwoods only grow in California that I know of. We also have Eucalyptus trees, they only grow in Australia and here in California. The redwoods are so beautiful and tall and Majestic. they smell so good and when you are surrounded by them, you feel small, and you are. I took a  few pics of the view from our room. We ate dinner at an Itialian place called Negri's.  I grew up eating there with my family. There is another place across the street called the  Union Hotel, that is where Johns family grew up eating. It isnt a hotel at all any more. They raised their prices, so we ate at Negris. The food is so good there, much better than at The Union. We had breakfast the next day and left for the coast.

the north coast is much different than the south coast of California. There are more jagged rocks and dangerous waters. Surfers still venture out there though, as you can see in the pics. I got some pics of seals in the ocean, a littel grey spotted one, you can just bairly see him in one of the pics, the one with the white water around the rocks. There are sharks in our water also. I wouldnt go out surfing in this water. John has gone Abelone=ing before, and it scare the heck out of me. Some scary stuff lives in those waters. I loved seeing the pacific ocean again and smelling the salty air. It makes me feel free.

This is getting rather long, so I will finish it tomarrow. I will pick up at the Sea lions in the harbor. I will also lable all the pics again. I did it yesterday, but it didnt save for some reason.