Thursday the 26th of Oct , Friday 27th

 Driving home.

Breakfast and packing first.

Then fog and rain.

Then traffic delays for the Little Liebhardt 's. Dang! They were delayed by construction/ fires for so long that they turned back around. Twice. Passed the hotel . . .again. poor kids. Long drive made longer.

Kaylee said they would have night mares about stopped highway /traffic flaggers. It was a long day with lots of stops, but they made their goal of Elko.

The kind of "be prepared to stop" signs and lines of waiting cars they saw all to often.

OUR drive was shorter and far more pleasant. Mike drove the windiest mountains I've ever seen. Steep. Narrow. Scary. But the first ended in this vista:

Looking North on the coast.

Gorgeous views.

 Sea lions, too! 

Then the coastal road was winding. Steep. Narrow. 

We were heading to Novato to see Randy and Brenda Sorensen. My cousin. Haven't seen them in years. They offered for us to spend the night at their home.

We went via Eureka/Arcata area. Cute cities. Arcata is known for Victorian architecture. We found these beautiful buildings.

The "Pink Lady."

This one is a fraternal Lodge of some kind, and, conveniently located right across the street from the pink one. I kind of wanted to take a tour, but just finding these two was way fun. We didn't stop.

Our drive to Novato took us through "The Avenue of the Giants ." Humboldt Forest. More gorgeous Redwood forests. More trails to explore, a wonderful Visitor's Center to walk thru and get educated. They had a great bunch of exhibits we could have spent far more time in, but we looked a bit, traveled on.

I'm attempting to count rings on this sliced log. Too many after about 300. I gave up. 

Here's a slice at the visitors center:

These forests looked a bit different from our previous drives because when we were deep in those other forests, there was seldom any sunlight because it was overcast. Today's drive through Avenue of the Giants was sunny. But the forest is still quite dark in most areas because it is VERY thick.

We had talked about the strength of redwoods and their root systems. Here's one thing I learned at the VC

We were later than anticipated getting to Randy and Brenda's house. We were shooting for six, but ran into traffic.  They took us to Perry's restaurant and treated us to a lovely dinner at 7.  Their home is so lovely! They are such generous and gracious hosts! We enjoyed our visit with them SO much! Oh, it was so nice. I hated to leave in the morning. It was lovely to make family connections again with those two. Wish we could have seen their kids and grandkids, too 

And so on Friday morning, we drove on. We took a detour through San Francisco and a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. I guess we will be getting a bill for that toll crossing sometime!  

Our top speed thru the city was 25.

Poor Mike had to battle blinding sun rays, unfamiliar streets, lousy navigation by me, uncooperative sun visor that crashed into his sunglasses every time he moved it on the many turn-arounds we had to do. 

But it was SO worth it! I loved driving through that part ( just a tiny little part) to see the gorgeous old row houses, buses running like electric trolleys, lovely parks, bay, skyline, 

bridges...it was just fun. For me

 Cuz I wasn't driving! Mike's such a good sport.

But we drove on. On toward Yosemite National Park. 

So exciting! I've never been there before, either!

And THAT was so worth it, too!! Wed commented on how nice it was on the Coast with no crowds. Yosemite DID have crowds. I can only imagine what peak summer time is like. We came at a good time. Saw what we came to see.

A rear-view mirror of the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Entering Yosemite. The fall leaves were really pretty. We drove into the valley, looped out and exited the park via the high country on the Tioga Pass Road. We were lucky it was still open, as it closes in the winter. 

Bridal Veil falls is in there, El Capitan on the left, Half-Dome way in the back. There was a smokey control fire way in the back.

Merced River.

An example of some car crowds. I guess these folks were either camping, or on the shuttle buses.

We took a lot of wrong turns through the Park valley area

 There was construction, detours. The campgrounds and lodge and hotel areas were really full of cars and people. On the outer edge of the park where we entered, potato chips were 11.99 a bag! I didn't even buy a magnet here because their stock was low, there were only two to choose from ( in that store). I didn't like either one.

And we drove on!

On through eastern California through spectacular mountain passes, alpine lakes and meadows, and into the deserts of Nevada.

Looking down the pass we had to traverse. Yikes.

 You don't really see how steep and long it is. But it WAS. Enough that we had to stop and gawk.

Just rock berms from slide material rather than guard rails. We saw so few guardrails on ANY roads we were one these few days in Northern California's mountains! No matter how winding and steep and narrow they were.

This is looking UP the part we'd come down

 It was long and steep.

Driving Mono Lake. We did miss a turn in this area. Probably while gawking at the lake, Atlas, phone, etc. 

Admiring a lovely desert moonrise near Tonopah NV. 

We were getting tired. It wasn't really late, but we were considering getting a hotel room in Tonopah.  But then, we decided we'd save the $155 and 

Drive on. 

We turned on a good audio book, got more caffeine, and made it home by midnight. Tired of sitting, but home safe and sound. Grateful for a lovely trip, fun time with family, admiring God's beautiful creations.