Well, We made it the entire weekend without breaking down or killing each other. Friday evening we packed up the Westy and headed up to Bodega Bay, where we arrived at 1:15am and setup camp overlooking the ocean.

We woke at the crack of dawn, as that particular parking area seems to be where the locals go surfing at daylight. We slowly meandered our way up CA-1 to Ft. Bragg, stopping along the way to nap at a beach for hours.

Saturday night’s stay was in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, just north of where CA-1 and US-101 meet up. We didn’t arrive until after dark, so no pictures.
Sunday night we got really lucky (at Erin’s persistence to Not stay at the KOA!) and found a great spot (#15) at Patrick’s Point S.P. north of Arcata

After a great breakfast of fresh blackberry pancakes, we packed up Monday morning and headed south for work. Stopping in Leggett to drive (attempt) through the redwood tree seemed like a good touristy thing to do. The VW might have made it if the tires were more deflated.

It was a great relaxing weekend all-in-all! And Yup, that is a giant husky head hat 🙂

I’ll work more on this blog post after work, but for now you can see pictures from my weekend trip with Erin, Oscar, Anna and our Westy at:
Picasa.
We drove 756 miles in 3.5 days, and made it as far north as Patrick’s Point S.P., about 20 miles north of Arcata, CA. The VW ran amazingly smooth, and was nearly perfectly setup for camping. We camped at Bodega Bay, Humboldt Redwoods S.P., and Patrick’s Point S.P. Thankfully Erin convinced me to leave the KOA in Eureka that we had made reservations at. What a dump! Fortunately, there was a cancellation at Patrick’s Point, and we got the only open space(#15, if anyone wants to camp in a great spot!). Sunday morning we picked blackberries and had yummy pancakes. Anyone up for this trip next labor day, the more the merrier!

I finally found a really good deal on a VW camper. It needs a little work, but they’re fun to work on! Hopefully it will make the trip to Eureka this weekend without any big problems.

Friday morning I was up at 5 am to ride my moto to Yosemite National Park. I started the 16.5 mile round-trip up Half Dome at 9:30, and was back down to my campsite at Upper Pines by 6pm. It was an amazing hike, with 4800′ of elevation gain in 8.5 miles. For anyone that visits CA, this is a must do! Be ready to ache for several days afterwards though. On the way down, there are several great places to swim in the Merced River.

All my pictures can be seen on my new Picassa page at:
Picassa — Google

Another Photoshop merge attempt (click to get the larger image):

Along Hwy 108 (click image to see larger photo). I had to “create” this image using photoshop from 6 individual pictures. I also added a few effects just to play around. You can see the picture still needs some work where the merges are.

A view East.

Erin and I took a spur of the moment trip this week to a friends cabin at Pinecrest Lake, CA. This is a cabin she has spent almost every summer at since she was 13. We drove over early Thursday morning, and stayed through Sunday night. Our time was spent, very busily, hiking, swimming, eating, sleeping, ……. It was a Very fun weekend!