From the Redwood Forest to the Pacific Ocean

This morning we had a large breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe. It was
about a block from our hotel on North Point. The girls had egg and
cheese croissants with either ham or bacon on them. The croissants
were as big as a salad plate. I had a mushroom and cheese omelet with
sourdough toast on the side. I asked our server/owner if she was
from Thailand (because I thought she might be.). She said she was from
Cambodia and seemed delighted that I had been to her country. She
brought us plate of fresh cantaloupe on the house. It was good. The
cafe's coffee was also delicious. Meredith bought an apple cinnamon
muffin to share and we all decided it was the best muffin we had ever
eaten. It was absolutely delicious. Meredith said, "this place is a
little hidden treasure.".

After checking out of the Marriott we drove to the Golden Gate
Bridge. It was amazing to see! We walked about a 1/8 of the way onto
the bridge. We saw some surfers in the bay and at first Julie and I
thought we saw a shark near them but later realized it was a huge rock
underwater.

Golden Gate Impressions:

Kate - big, view of San Francisco amazing, very, very windy and glad I
had on 5 layers.

Julie - tall, red but it's called golden, and beautiful view. Windy,
windy, windy.

Meredith - it's very busy and beautiful.

Next we drove up Highway 1 to Muir Woods; the Redwood Forest. It was
phenomenal. Absolutely extraordinary to see these beautiful trees.
We did the red line hike which is a mile long. It was easy walking.
We didn't choose any hikes with a hill after climbing streets yesterday.

Our drive was a bit queasy for all the passengers in the car as we
drove the road from Muir to Stinson Beach. The road was nothing but
switchbacks and esses. There were a few green faces by the time we
made it to Stinson Beach. We stopped at the Sand Dollar to have lunch
before we went to walk on the beach. If you had seen our meals, you
would have seen fish & chips, grilled salmon sandwich, grilled salmon
with fries, and calamari. We had a little Sprite to calm some of our
stomaches.
Our waitress happened to be from Poland where Kate had spent a
summer. Small world.

After our late lunch, we went to the beach. It wad cold and windy.
Julie was the only one to sink her toes into the sand and surf. It
was freezing. We walked down the dark sand beach to large rocks that
the waves were crashing against. After the last picture was taken, we
had our first mishap on the trip. Julie's fleece was resting on a
large boulder away from the crashing surf but a large gust of wind
carried her coat into the surf and the tide began to pull it out to
sea. A boulder prevented it initially from being carried out. A man
on the beach saw the coat fly up into the wind and preceded to get our
attention; we were still snapping pictures of one another and were
oblivious to what was going on. The man and Meredith rushed to try
and find the coat in the surf. The problem was that Julie's fleece
was the same color as the surf. The man finally retrieved the
saturated coat with pockets heavily laden with sand and Julie's phone
was still in the pocket. We removed the battery and Sim card and are
hoping by some miracle of God it will dry out and be working by
Saturday night.

We drove to Novato on a little less winding Highway 1 and had a great
dinner at a restaurant called Toast.

We are wind burned and tired but having a great time.