Day 16: 10/01/2010

Fortuna, CA-San Francisco, CA, 264.4 miles

It's my birthday! I'm 23! (23 is where women stop again, right?) Just kidding, I'm 24 :p One year for a quarter of a century! I checked my e-mail before breakfast and there were 42facebook messages! I thought it would all be junk mail, but every single one was a birthday wish. Awww, I felt very loved.

Mathew and I ate the continental breakfast provided at the hotel and then loaded up the car for San Francisco, and our last full day traveling together. For now!

We continued down Highway 101 and then branched off to what remains of the original Redwood Highway, now known as the Avenue of Giants. Right at the beginning we saw a little dog in the road. It had a collar, so I got out to try and see if I could see it, but it finally ran away after dodging me for a few minutes :-( Hope it ended up ok, and didn't go back toward the interstate. The Avenue of Giants is

a really wonderful road, not so much traffic and a slower speed limit. Mathew drove mostly and he'd pull off to let cars pass so we could really enjoy it at our own speed. One of the best birthday experiences ever. And along the way, we didn't do anything touristy. Ish.

One of the first stops was the Eternal Tree House. It's an old stump that was hollowed out and then a door and paned windows were added along with some carved furniture. Other trees have grown up around it. At this point the place is pretty run down, but it was interesting that it was probably originally used by Native Americans for shelter (before it was carved out more by hand).

Somewhere near the beginning of the Avenue of Giants we pulled off at this gorgeous, really huge tree that was in the sunlight! Most of the trees of course provide too much shade, but this one was next to a river, so it was clear for the sun to reach it. Yay!! We also found a tree that had burned at one point and had a big area we could stand inside of. We got some fun photos, and I got a bit sooty because I'm a klutz :p

One of my favorite stops was at Founders Grove, where we walked along a short trail through the trees. We saw the Founders Tree, dedicated to some of the first men to ensure the redwoods were kept safe. We managed to pull in right after a motor coach full of Asian tourists... It felt alot like being back home during the winter :-) (In a good way, our Taiwanese and Japanese are my favorites because they're almost always so enthusiastic!) We waited for them to move past the Founders Tree and then took very fun tree hugger pictures with the tripod. Lol, good times. I really liked this tree because from farther away it looks completely straight, but once you get close to it, the tree twists as it goes up. It's gorgeous.

Next stop, the Shrine Drive-thru Tree. We paid to get into another when I saw these awesometree houses over the fence. As in, houses carved from single trees :-) First, the drive-thru tree. This one was awesome!!! I got out to take pictures while Mathew drove through it, because he rocks. Yay! Then we walked through it, and Mathew pointed out that it was open at the top! This tree wasn't alive, though the sign said it was 3000 years old when struck by lightening. The fire did more of the hollowing out, and it was widened a bit later on by hand. It's gorgeous! You could look up and see other tree branches and leaves and blue sky... perfect.

At the same area, there was the "Walk Thru Stump," the "Drive on Log" and several other little attractions. Very funny :p I love being a tourist sometimes, lol. And of course, the tree houses. They were very fairy tale ish, adorable! We had fun taking pictures inside one of them, but the other had a guy sitting in it... Slightly creepy, lol, but probably just watching to make sure nobody came in the exit without paying. The weird part... He was wearing an Alaska Railroad shirt!! One of the ones from when Mathew and I worked there... Ooooohh...

Then on to Confusion Hill, another place Mathew remembered from when he was there with his family. Outside is a shoe... You guessed it, a tree shoe! It's fabulous. Inside there's bunches of random things based on the idea that the gravity is off at Confusion Hill. I almost managed to look taller than Mathew... Ha...ha...ha. Lol, it was a fun place. I completely missed the point taking pictures in the gravity house, but after Mathew snagged the camera I figured it out :p Pictures up soon.

After that, San Francisco! We stuck to Highway 101 most of the way down, and figured out it would work best to go meet Weronika at her work. Only 20 minutes away... Silly GPS, we're not moving... Lol, the traffic leading up to the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't standing still... Inching forward is a better description. Mathew took a few photos of the city skyscape as we approached. He made me so proud... Lol, a few, to be exact, is 245 pictures. I loved it! The people behind kept giving me looks, probably because I kept grinning at them in the mirror, so Mathew oh-so-subtly took a few photos of them as well. Hilarious :D

I wanted to have Ethiopian food for my birthday dinner, and because Mathew was flying out the next day and that's my favorite food. We parked at the UCSF where Weronika works and met her downstairs, then back to the car to repack... and fit three people into the currently two-seater car. Mathew managed to clear off enough of the seat to put half of it upright so Weronika could sit down, but driving to Berkley any time I made a turn I'd hear something tumble toward her. Along the way Mathew managed to take 95 more pictures, it's very fun watching him play with exposure values.

Dinner was awesome at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant. It's family style there, but Weronika is vegetarian so she got hers served separately. And then we shared anyway :p And Mathew bought us desert! During the day I found a redwood pin, a letter B, and Mathew bought it as my birthday present. Combine that with all the things we saw and the great dinner, and he topped most other presents I've gotten :-)

Then home to Weronika's house! In the add when she found it, it was apparently described as a treehouse, which is pretty apt. It's not in a tree, but the driveway almost feels like you're driving up one! We used the GPS to get us home because Weronika always walks or takes public transportation. But good thing we had her to point out the driveway. The insanely steep curvy narrow driveway. Woah! Sleeping bags set up on the couches, some packing for Mathew, and sleep time!