Leaving Flora Lake I headed straight to Port Orford. The lifeboat station is a must-see. I’ve included the road up there in the video at the bottom of this article. As you can see in the pictures the view around there was amazing.
Uli warned me there were some forest fires and the road might be closed. Luckily I could continue along the coast and do a small detour from the 101 to see the Redwood Forest. You can actually drive to this amazing forest with ancient trees. It’s amazing. I got the camera working, but unfortunately the SD card wasn’t formatted properly. So definitely coming back here once. Actually want to drive through those trees as well. Just because you can!!
Eureka, I didn’t expect it to be as in the series, certainly didn’t expect it to be so large. I got a couple of recommendations to go to, but had a long ride to San Francisco the next day. Grabbed a steak at A A Bar & Grill. An absolute American experience With a bit of Amsterdam to it. Like Loetje you get your salad up front waiting on the steak. A good steak with fried sweet potatoes to go with it. Will try to use more of those cooking at home. It’s good!
The ride to San Francisco was rather long, but really nice. The 101 bent of from the coast and continued more inland. I was actually planning coming in from the coast, but this would take a bit more time and I didn’t want to get caught in traffic. You feel the wind come up getting nearer and with the fog increasing you keep wondering if the Bridge is going to be around the next turn. The wait is definitely worth it. Even if August is the foggiest time of the year and you only see part of the bridge and none of the surrounding. It’s overwhelming.
Met with Matt in the evening, a former teammate of mine in the Netherlands. He moved backed to Portland three years ago and is living in SF now. Had pizza at Tony’s famous pizza place “Capo’s”. Tony’s second restaurant. Tony won the world Pizza prize so often he is not allowed to participate anymore and has become the juror instead. Now I know why. Can’t miss this when you’re over here! Got a tour around the Italian district afterwards and had a beer at La Trappe. A Belgian beer cafe with the name of the only Dutch trappist beer. I told the waiter I’d probably know most of the Belgian beers, being half Belgian. Seeing the menu I’d to come back on that. A proper Belgian beer with many beers on the draft and more on the bottle. Not only Belgian, but also Swiss, French, Italian, Japanese and American. Good first night in San Francisco.
I’m running half a marathon across the bridge tomorrow morning. Hope the view will be a bit better. It’s weird knowing the streets from GTA. Makes me feel at home. I’ll tell you more on Golden Gate run and my visit to the Aggies tomorrow. Loving it around here!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBwWNxqtT_k&w=560&h=315]