Sunsets, cows and ocean views

July 15, 2007--Having gone to bed at 5:30am, I woke up to someone cleaning out the hotel room at around 10:15. I looked at him through barely opened eyes-- he asked me: "Are you checking out today?" "Yeah...." "Um, you know checkout is at 10?" Obviously at this point I was nowhere near ready to be getting out of bed!! Somehow I did, packed my stuff up and checked out of my hostel (one thing I love about hostels, I have never had one give me crap about checking out late!!). I headed back west again, back toward Sonora to another place Matteo had told me about-- having grown up in the hills of the Yosemite area he told me to check out El Jardin in Sonora... and I was glad I did!! I had an awesome meal with plenty of leftovers and about 30 glasses of water. Coming out of Sonoma, an old mining town, I found this little county fair with the most amazing name:


From there I headed back west again to the coast. Along the way I went through hours of farmlands and orchards, so thus had to stop at at least one farmer stand along the way:


After the farmlands I went through Stockton, CA, then through Napa and Sonoma Counties to see the vinyards.
I had heard Napa is apparently very touristy these days, with a Crate and Barrel and such, but Sonoma is still much more true to its origins: an old spanish mission, complete with a chapel in the center of the square, surrounded by General Vallejo's quarters and the army barracks to the north. I also happened to stop at the Sunflower Cafe to the northwest of the square, possibly the most raved-about coffee house in the states, along with having great food and being set in General Vajello's brother's home, with the best-preserved spanish garden in the town.


As the sun was getting close to the horizon, I finally made it to the coast after Sonoma. I stopped at the first view, happy to see the ocean again. It was a beautiful view, plus when I looked down there were odd shapes in the water... a ton of seals playing in the bay!!

































As I headed north along the PCH, I came through a part that is apparently open to range animals... meaning as I came around a bend at 35 mph I was likely to find a cow standing in the middle of the road, as I did several times. I love the shot of the cow next to the cow crossing sign with the car maneuvering around it--


















I headed north as far as I could until it got too dark--around 9:30. As I went, the clouds rolled in, but the sun eventually snuck in underneath, creating an amazing glow across the farmlands as well as the waves.














































Finally I got up to Fort Bragg as dark fell, where I spent the night in a hotel for the internet connection and the wireless service (T-Mobile SUCKS by the way.... I am mostly out of service everywhere except the larger dots on the map) to actually do some pre-planning for the next few days.