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If you know the way we operate it shouldn't be too surprising that we bypassed a planned stay in Newport and decided to come home to the ultimate bed and breakfast. Strike it up to being tired of driving and sleeping in five different beds; we just couldn't take anymore. Joy got her quilt store fix with around seven I think. The Oregon Coast is beautiful, even in the rain of course, and everyone else thought so too starting above Florence. When 4pm rolled around and there were no more spaces in the highway turnouts and long lines at streetlights in Newport, home was sounding nice. Highlight of the trip for me was the wedding followed closely by the Redwoods. When I gather my thoughts and reflect on it, I can see a day where we'll make the Redwoods a focus of a future trip.

a trail of trees and beaches

We left Eureka after going through a couple quilt stores, brunched in Arcata (home of a college town - Humboldt State), a tiny place called Trinidad had lots of fishermen sitting in boats crabbing or something in a beautiful bay, turned off the paved path to Orick to find a mile-long hiking trail through massive redwoods, between Crescent City and Brookings great coastal views awaited us (much of the coast was so fogged in with thick drizzle we were lucky to see anything), ending up in Gold Beach, a run down little town with some charm if you look for it. Joy's snoring away and I'm going to try to ignore the traffic that buzzes by on the main drag just below our window. More coastal towns tomorrow and a few quilt stores to come.

eureka

We spent the day traveling from Healdsburg to Eureka. With only 200 miles to travel we took it slow with stop-offs at antique stores, journeys through little towns of various populations, hesitating if something caught our eyes. Little pockets of Redwoods splashed up here and there. The bigger areas of Redwoods are north of Eureka a few miles. Eureka looked like a town we could have spent some quality time running around in. This morning we will hit a few stores here. We plan to spend more time lost in the forest today and maybe even take some pictures with only 140 miles to go to our next destination: Gold Beach.

success

Bob and Dawn made it official last night in front of generations of family and friends. A low-key affair full of humor and tears in a beautiful outdoor setting, the parents gave advice and good-tidings and secrets to a successful, long marriage, each set of parents working on 50 years themselves. Great stuff and great to see Bob happy and where he needed to be in his life. We're back on the road this morning to see tall trees and quilt stores.

more fun

A better hotel room and a gift bag greeted us in Healdsburg after a smoky journey over the Siskiyous and a winding road that never seem to end until we ran into Calistoga. We pulled in around 4pm and laid low until the wedding-eve dinner at 6pm. Met Bob and Dawn and Rod and Kate and relatives of Bob and relatives of Dawn, had a wonderful meal and wine and chit-chat. Forgot the camera back at the room so will have to settle for some photos on their big day tomorrow at 6pm after Rod, Kate, Joy and I get back from some wineries.

starting out hot

We're sitting in a crummy little, but at least air-conditioned motel room in Ashland, after arriving here around 4pm. Well, Joy's not sitting. The sickly aroma of bleach is filtering throughout the room from the bathroom where she's clorox-clean-upping the shower and bath floor. We almost ditched the place to look for better digs but figured the clorox would do wonders and allow us to handle it. Never do online reservations for any motels with the word "Knight" in the name. This was the Knight's Inn. I was going to take some pictures outside and post them but it's too hot and miserable out - at least 100 degrees - so here's one inside our little palace. The drive was uneventful. Joy loved the drive and thought it was a beautiful day. On to Bob and Dawn's place tomorrow and their wedding on Saturday.