The Golden Gate

Greetings from the Marin Headlands, outside of Sausalito, CA, four miles north of the Golden Gate bridge. Yes, the journey into California has been successful, so far. On Sunday we flew into Sacramento with no problems and then drove to the Napa Valley, where we saw dozens of wineries (including a couple I had actually heard of before), and then we drove into Santa Ana where I promptly crashed at the hotel. I fell asleep before 8PM, which is unheard of for me, but I did wake up at 2AM Pacific time to catch my flight, so that most likely had something to do with it.

Yesterday we drove west from Santa Ana to catch California highway 1, which runs along the Pacific coast. We stopped at an overlook on the ocean and got to drink in the cold, windy Pacific coast that I remember so well from childhood. We also got to see a bank of fog roll in, so thick that the rocks off the coast were no longer visible. After that we had lunch in some small town along that coast that was packed with Labor Day tourists, and then we drove out to a a campground north of the Muir national monument and hiked down the hill to the Muir visitors center, and then hiked up back to the campground. Luckily, my right foot (with the tendinitis) survived that OK.

Last night we stayed at the Marin Headlands hostel. This is my first experience staying at a hostel, and it kind of feels like college. The room had four bunkbeds for a total of 8 beds, and there were four people staying in the room last night. There are communal bathrooms. But there is wireless internet, so I get to actually make a blog post. That, and my wireless is actually working today. :)

Later this morning we will drive over the Golden Gate bridge into San Fran and then make our way south to Monterey, where we will be having base camp over the next few days. Hopefully the Labor Day crowds will have dissipated and there won't be hordes of people there to deal with.