Leaving California behind, Boston-bound!

 

Downtown Mountain View, CA

Goofing around at the library in downtown Mountain View.

This reminds me of…

While at the Embarcadero in San Francisco today, we sat on a bench near a street performer playing folksy music.

Me: This area reminds me of [Disney’s] California Adventure park.

Mark: Don’t you mean the other way around?

Me: …oh yeah…

For those who are unfamiliar with California Adventure theme park, there is a large section of the park that replicates famous buildings and landmarks from San Francisco. (Hence the irony that the real thing would remind me of the replica.)

A Day at Big Basin

First we hiked the Redwood Trail Loop (approx. 1 mile), which was quite nice, lots of trees on display. That was a pretty short hike, so we decided to move along and hike the Sequoia Trail (approx. 1.7 miles one-way), which would’ve ended with a nice view of the Sempervirens Falls.

It was actually a disappointing hike. I guess I expected a nice walk through the woods, completely cut off from civilization, totally immersed in nature! The trail was actually bordering a paved driveway with lots of cars passing by. A bit distracting, and makes you tempted to walk alongside a nicely paved, flat road than a gnarly dirt path.

But, the payoff would be the nice waterfall at the end, right? Wrong! Turns out the waterfall was merely a stream, and mostly dried out. It was quite a letdown, but at least we got some decent exercise out of the whole deal.

On the way to Pescadero (small town next to the ocean), we drove along more winding forest roads, and saw beautiful vistas of the Bay Area, from San Francisco all the way down to San Jose.

Pescadero itself was very small, a bit of a tourist trap, and we ate at a small tavern (the only restaurant in town, actually). The food wasn’t very impressive.

All in all, a good day for a nature walk!

 

Driving Through Big Basin

Peaceful drive through the Redwood forests. Longest stretch of narrow winding road I’ve ever driven on, lasted for approx 30 miles. We never actually got to drive through a redwood tree though, I think that’s in Sequoia Nat’l Park.