California Coast Vacation 99 page 2
Nancy & Ruben's
California Coast Vacation '99



Part - 2 -
San Francisco & North to Fort Bragg

California Coast Vacation | Page 1 - Yosemite | Page 2 - S.F. & Fort Bragg | Page 3 - Fort Bragg & Mendocino | Page 4 - Berkeley to Santa Cruz | Page 5 - Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur | Page 6 - Cayucus, Morro Bay, Port San Louis, Pismo Beach | Pre-Photos | After-Photos | With Frames | Escape Frames

Wednesday morning, Sept 8
We woke up to a warm sunny California day in Oakdale, halfway between Yosemite and San Francisco. It had been close to 100 degrees here the day before, they said, and if felt really good to be in this dry desert atmosphere in the morning. I picked up a bunch of brochures from the Comfort Inn lobby, but most of them were for events up north around Sacramento or Lake Tahoe. For a quick look at some of these Northern California Attractions, Click Here.


San Francisco Harbor

We got breakfast and headed west, getting into San Francisco before noon. We tried to stop in Chinatown for lunch, but there was absolutely no place to park, and it was really crazy driving on those one way streets, so we gave up on funky Chinatown and decided to go to Fisherman's Warf. After driving around in circles on one way streets for half an hour, bouncing over trolly tracks and trying to figure out why one way streets suddenly were one way the opposite way, we found our way to the Warf. This was nice, finally, with lots of tourists and boats and cute shops with cute souveniers of San Francisco houses on hills and a wide assortment of trolly cars.

We walked around and got some fresh fish and clam chowder in a bread bun, all of which was delicIous. There was a carefree atmosphere in the air, and the fog was lifting slowly, which made things look brighter. We took the tour of the submarine, which was quite amazing. There were so many rooms in that thing, with every square inch of space being used. Back on the warf street the local musicians were on every other corner, and the birds were looking for free crumbs and handouts everywhere.

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Nancy & Ruben on the San Francisco Boat Ride

The sun was completly free and shining brightly on the harbor, and we couldn't resist the tours of the bay. We passed on the huge double decker boats filled with a 100 people, but we found a smaller boat which did the same tour for only $10. This old time friendly sailor had an old wooden fishing boat which only could take 6 passengers at a time, so we jumped on, and in a minute 3 more people jumped on and we were off. This is the way to take the boat tour, the best part of the city so far.

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Sailing under the bridge with our trusty sea captain

We cruised around this little vessel taking pictures of the magnificent views from the bay. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was amazing, and around Alcatrazz, which was also amazing. I'd say, don't go to San Francisco without taking the bay boat tour, and take the smallest boat you can find. It's a gas. They also had an Alcatrazz tour, but we didn't have time, so as soon as we landed, we grabbed some more fish and hopped on the freeway to beat the rush hour traffic out of town.

The ride over the Golden Gate Bridge was also amazing, and the City sure is beautiful from the water and bridge. Previous visits to San Francisco had always been foggy, so it was good to "see" it this time. We headed up through Santa Rosa and on up north, stopping only to pick up a tape recorder at a Staples we saw. We stopped near Ukiah to call our friend's dad who lived in Potter Valley, but he wasn't in, so we headed down highway 20 through the thick redwood forest to our cabin on the warf in Fort Bragg.


Driving Through Giant Redwoods to Fort Bragg

We though we'd make it before sundown, but the 33 miles through the forest took an hour. and it was dark when we wound our way down by the riverside to the Anchor Lodge on the warf.



Our hotel/warf/restaurant/bar, the Anchor Lodge

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View from our hotel room at the Anchor Lodge

The Anchor Lodge, which is on a warf in a little fishing village at the mouth of the Noyo River. It's at 32260 North Harbor Drive, Fort Bragg, CA 95437, Phone # 707-964-4283. It's $80 per night for a riverfront room. They also have $40 rooms in the back without a view.

Noyo River at Fort Bragg at sunset


The restaurant upstairs was booming with happy people, and we picked up our key from the bar and went down the warf's edge where our room looked out over the entrance to the ocean. It would have been a beautiful view for the sunset, but it was foggy anyway, so we unpacked, turned up the heater, and went upstairs for dinner. The food was expensive, so we split a seafood platter for $20 and got an extra soup and salad. Turned out to be a good choice. The food was excellent. The bread was the best ever, the blue cheese dressing on the crisp salad was excellante, and when the seafood arrived it was amazing. The shrimp were huge and the best ever, and the scallops were by far the best I'd ever tasted.

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Early Californian Noyo Indians

Back in our room we settled in for some much needed rest.
Noyo River Indians

California Coast Vacation | Page 1 - Yosemite | Page 2 - S.F. & Fort Bragg | Page 3 - Fort Bragg & Mendocino | Page 4 - Berkeley to Santa Cruz | Page 5 - Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur | Page 6 - Cayucus, Morro Bay, Port San Louis, Pismo Beach | Pre-Photos | After-Photos | With Frames | Escape Frames