Well, blogs are stupid and its not letting me upload anymore pictures right now, so I guess this is it.
Where were we? Ah, yes. We woke up in Napa Valley and were ready to hit the tastings! I called my bro to find out the choicest locations and to my dismay he actually prefers the Sinoma Valley (which we drove through the night before in a furry to get out of San Fran). He also told me about the Rutherford Vineyards. "Rutherford" is my mother's maiden name so I was hoping for a discount with my 'hey cousin' jokes. But, those jokes were not well received by the snobby Napa Valley people. We had our wine tasting at the Rutherford Ranch and I got to send my mom some Savignon Blanc...only to find out she already had a bottle, unopened, from my brother! You better open your present from ME mom!
Anyways, then we drove to Shasta county to spend the night. We passed several mailboxes lined with hand-made cardboard signs that read, "Thank you, Firefighters". We actually put up our borrowed tent and stayed the night at a campsite on the ever-so-smoky, Whiskeytown Lake. Even though the air wasn't clear, we figured it would be ok for one night. It looks like it would have been a really pretty area. We missed seeing Mt. Shasta since we left when we woke up the next morning. Our next stop was the Redwood Forest in Eureka, CA. Let me tell you, they were unbelievable. My new favorite tree, the Redwood. Though I am partial to the Magnolia and the Willow, Redwood are just amazing. SO tall and big and old. Did you know that most of the earth was covered with Redwoods before the ice age? I saw a tree lying on its side that had been well preserved and the sign said that it was 3,000 years old! Thats before Jesus!
That night we drove to Medford and camped again at the nearby KOA. Just to be clear, KOA is not a real campsite. Its sort of like someones back yard that they cram a lot of people in and charge a price cheaper than hostels. You are practically on top of your neighbors. That was such a cold night! The next day we packed up and headed for Crater Lake. (see muscle photo above). Crater Lake was AMAZING. Its a volcano that imploded upon itself and eventually filled up with rain and snow. It is almost 2,000 ft. deep. Doesnt that sound creepy? It's the second deepest lake in the whole world and a must-see on the West coast. It's the most beautiful blue! We got a couple of out-of-shape-affirming hikes there and some great views. After Crater Lake, onto Eugene, Oregon.
We found a hostel on the internet that was called something like, "International Hostel in Eugene". I am a member of "Youth Hostels International" so I figured my discount would work at this place. When we rolled up to it we found that is was some really cool old house from the 1800's, owned by a hippie named Brody that wanted to have a chat before he gave us a room. It was great though, because we ended up getting our own room with a double and twin bed for $55. Less than $20/person is hard to beat without sleeping in a tent so we were grateful.
With our bellies full of Quiznos and our bodies worn from hiking, we slept like babies.
To be cont.
