We're currently staying with Louise, a friend of Ariel's, in Berkeley, CA. She's a pretty fantastic host, feeding us and providing laundry and advice for what to see the rest of the trip. After navigating the insane pedestrian and rental bike traffic of the Golden Gate Bridge, finding our way through downtown San Francisco, and getting our fully loaded bicycles onto the BART train yesterday, we spent a down day slowly wandering around Berkeley, exploring bookshops, eating everything in sight and buying a ton of bulk food and produce at the Berkeley Bowl. It was a good down day. Tomorrow morning we leave and continue down the coast to Half Moon Bay and then to Santa Cruz to stay with a friend we met along the way.
HUGE salad in my stomach.
HUGE salad and sandwich in Berkeley.
Our first view of San Francisco.
Redwoods near Sausalito they couldn't bear to part with.
Eucalyptus buttons.
Biking along this was exciting.
Our sketchy hammock setup in the tree filled campground. The rain fly turned out to be unnecessary because it was the first campground were we didn't wake up shrouded in mist.
View for lunch.
Eating lunch on a cliff.
What we found at the top of the really steep hill.
We climbed up this, it might not look it, but it was steep. And this was only halfway up...
The coast
Mac n Cheese with farmer's market broccoli.
Flowers that attracted multiple humming birds.
Solar house on Judy's farm. Our second Warm Shower's experience. We pitched our tent next to a windmill between the volunteer fire department, the emus, and the sheep.
View from the top of our tallest climb yet. Unfortunately there were some trees in the way.
One Log House.
Biking over the Eel River after Benbow State Recreation Area.
Biking through Avenue of the Giants. We skipped biking through the drive through tree because it cost $3.00 that we'd rather spend on a campsite.
Produce stand in the middle of Avenue of the Giants. Blackberry Popsicles were delicious.
Goats across the driveway from Sharon's garden.
A kind lady named Sharon stopped her car as we were eating lunch on the side of a road and offered us her yard to camp in. She'd had a good experience with cyclists staying with her before and felt she should offer. We cut our day short and took her up on it and were very glad we did. She and her family were incredibly hospitable and shared the goods of the garden. We pitched our tent right in the middle and woke up among snap peas and beautiful flowers.
Cooking dinner in the garden.
Smelling Sharon's flowers.