i hope i can hang in, it is a CRAZY day with many interruptions. but i so much wanrt to finish this for myself, and hopefully you will enjoy too.
i left off in the middle of sonama co. with narry a hotel resort save for a few of the fansy dansy sounding ones in the AAA book and several 'closed for the season" ones.
darkness was approaching quickly and fog can move in fast in that area. i wanted to get off the narrow winding road.
we found a place in a tiny town of Jenner(Annie? know it?). the cottages ranged from $300(gulp) and up. there was a welcoming OPEN sign. the entrance was so charming and OLD. it had been a hotel and saloon in the 1800's. VERY cool wooden beams, a dutch door to the office, real keys hung up on hooks on the wall. super cute.
In my most dramatic woesome weery voice i asked" do you have an inexpensive room for 2 very weery travelers?. I think i tried to look hunched over too. can't remember.
he said he had a cottage right next door that he could open and charge us $150. that was GREAT! we jumped on that....
then we found out what we get for that....
let me start by saying i have NEVER seen turtle's face turn so red then so pale EVER before. she looked better when she was lying on the ground after falling when the paramedics were putting her on a stretcher(when she crumbled her shoulder 2 years ago). honestly. that happened after he told us there was no TV in the room. ha!!! I know i met her on a BB site, I know we love to watch most of the same things together, i know this about her, but i had NO idea that my strong amazing gung-ho bff was going to either stroke out or siezure at the notion she might have to talk to me or read all evening.
what i found funny was when the Inn keeper said "we have a tv in the bar!" I got happy and said "OH! what times are the bar open?" he said "it is closed for the season". I laughed so hard, yes out loud. ...until i saw turtle's face of course. NOT amused. i have known her for 12 years and i had No idea she was into tv that much.I felt so bad for her, but in my efforts to offer to dramatize a one woman/one dog play for her made me realize that shutting up was truly the only way to help her.(or save my life).
we enter the cottage and thereis only one bed! turtle would not sleep with me if there was a bed 6 times the size of a king, NO chance in the queen, if it was that. there was however a day bed on the front porch.
if you recall, i got rthe king bed the whole 6 days in san jose, remember the excuse was zoey needs the room to sleep with me, while turtle slept on a roll away bed cuz the pull out couch was more horrible. well of course it had to be on the porch.
(it was screened in, nice "little" breeze. hahaha i really do like to sleep in cold temps, it really was ok).
the Inn keeper told us we were very lucky to be here on that Monday cuz a tiny 3 or4 star resturant was JUST down the street, ('just' turned out to be 3 miles with no sidewalks). he said the meals were $50 and up but on Mondays the chef would have 4 or 5 specials and sell them for $10. I got so excited i can't tell you.
well we drove there, and remembering the Inn keeper saying parking can be hard, we noticed! even the handicapp spot was taken. there was a cliff on one side and a mountain on the other side besides the 14 parking spots we counted, so no help there.
we went back to the Inn and asked if he had any secret parking ideas. he told me to go down the private driveway and see if i can fit on the street parking parralel(he didn't offer to drive us. hahaha j/k i had not thot of that, or heck yea i might have asked, and further embarrassed turtle). that 'driveway/street road thing was SO steep when i got to where the road seemed to just drop OFF! i could not see what was under the nose of my car! but you know me well enough i think by now that i went ahead anyway. i found a cabin that looked empty, hey i was worked up getting some fancy meal for 10 bucks, i was motivated! as we contiued on this "lane"we saw a sign that said something like if parralel parking leave 6 feet of road. the road was only like 8 or 9 feet wide. how many 2 feet wide cars go to sonoma Co.??? then as i should have assumed, at the end of the road there was NO turn around. i did my 24 point turn and got out. turtle talked me out of parking in that one empty cabin's parking spot. so we cruised Highway 1 up and down for 1/2 hour to hope someone leaves.
nope.i can only take so much gas wasting. i just realized, i'll do something illegal like park in a private driveway, but i don't wanna waste gas. yep, that is pretty much me.
we found the only open resturant for 30 miles and it was indian and it was delightful.
we pigged out so we would fall right to sleep. it worked.
BTW, we do NOT bring up ANYTHING to Turtle about not having a tv. not unless you wanna see a natural red head go off.
we decided we would get up before the crack of dawn and get going, but late that night when i took Zoey out i walked up this hilly road and found an old delapidated school house with the bell on top and everything. i couldn't wait to see it in the light. we got pics. SO cool, the wildflowers growing between the rotten wooden steps up to the classic old one room school house was postcard pretty. there was a date on it of 1800's-something. I am not sure if i hope someone restores it or not. it was so cute.
we got on the road and again saw all these very expensive gated homes, even fancy all white cows! yes even the cows looked privaliged. i liked that. in fact there were so privalidged that they owned the road! we had to stop on hy 1 a few times for them to pass. FUN!!! we got a tad lost again and i think before we got our barrings, we might have ended up on some rich peoples' survailance cameras. hahaha!
the towns we went thru were so quaint, so charming each with a bit different flare. this one town had a light, well maybe not a light, but a flashing caution and a place for a pedestrian to push to cross. I was hoping when i saw a man near the crosswalk that he would have pushed the crosswalk button just so i could stop to look around.
as i got closer, this man was not near the cross walk lite, he stood back, like maybe waiting for a bus.(a bus? really/ they might have such a form of transportation like a bus, nay, that had to be where one waited for a limo.)
this man really caught my eye. i noticed next he had a white with red stripe cane. ok he is blind, no biggie, then i looked closer and he had a book open and was reading it!
I fell out!! I mean I laughed so hard i eventually HAD to pull over for safety. I KNOW there are all kinds of site imparments but this just tickled me to no end. i STILL chuckle when i remember him standing on the road wearing sunglasses with cane and book in hand.
yesof course maynerd said "Oh those wacky californians". i hope i am not alone in finding this hilarious.
by 3 or 4 pm we had made it to Eureka, got a great hotel room comp upgrade and laundry facilities. it had an indoor out door pool. it was the same pool, just 1/2 had a cover!
Turtle(sometimes known as turtlerella(cinderella)did laundry while i lounged and looked at what sites we wanted to do in this old timber town in the thick of the redwoods.(also a famously monied due to being an exsessive pot growing town, tho i hear not as much since the 90's.(when one can grow in any climate these days i guess). i loved hearing stories of resturant owners that told of how the cash paid for the meals and drinks smelled like pot every autumn. thats crazy! the town has GREAT murails. fun iron work art tours and the largest amount of restored victorians i have seen(not that other places don't have more, just me).
I found in the hotel book that there was a private guide that would take a minimum of 2 poeple around for a 2 or a 4 hour tour. i called the front desk and they said he is legit. when i sopke to him, he sounded old, smart and enthusiastic and the price was great for the 2 hour tour. he had No problem with the idea of zoey so we were all set for the next day.
that evening we wenbt down to the waterfront, had a great dinner and guess what/ watched TV! oh i have to stop that. she is too dear to me to tease her, but when i finally find one weak thing about someone i have known for 12 years i like to celebrate it. you can tease me about anything, i am endlessly flawed, many of them amuse me. i always said all i had to do was find a man that could laugh at my faults rather than be annoyed by them, and by golly it is working! maynerd just adores me.
opps,digress... next morning proffessor paul as I call him pulls up in an old van. i'm thinking it was probly the 1st mini van ever built. he had his captian's hat on, was quite distigguished looking and a LOT older than i would have imagined. no lack of energy and his mind was amazing. he still teaches history at the 4 year college there(thats why i called him proffessor paul.)
we had the best time and got almost a 3 hour tour he seemed to really like us and when he found out that one of my favorite things is to explore and learn about architecture esp. houses we were off and running. he'd teach me stuff and then quizz me. it was so fun. we saw HUGE redwoods right IN the town park and we learned stuff on that too. while we were in the park, luckily the speed limit was 5 mph cuz the windshield fogged up. he stopped in the road, pulled out his windex and nasty rag and wiped the inside down windshield. I was in the back seat but i think i saw turtle's shoulders twitch trying not to laugh.
he is someone i hope i remember forever. that was the best!!! I know the difference amoung victorian, queen anne, craftmans, arts and crafts and eastlake styles of houses and how in eureka many builders mealded up to 3 styles.
that night we HAD to get home...that is why no visit to annie's.
we left eureka in the afternoon and i drove and drove until i could not drive and turtle's back hurt. it almost killed me to be so close to home and have to stop, but that was best. next day we were home by noon.
that is one of my top favorite trips. maynerd;'s and my impromtu honeymoon still ranks top. we had to postpone our honeymoon after the wedding cuz i was diagnosised with breats ca 2 weeks before the wedding and i could not wait to get it OUT!(well get married and then get it out !!ps allis fine with me now)I just wanted to have hair for my honeymoon and that took 8 or 9 months. geesh i am getting into the next story.but i can stop anytime, yes i can.
