April 22 - United States: Santa Rosa, CA

We said good-bye to Matt and Sha, and Jon and I packed up our stuff and got on-line before we left.  Around 11:00 or so, we hit the road and headed out of San Francisco.  But we had to do a few touristy things before leaving the area.

Golden Gate Bridge

Since our exit route took us over the Golden Gate bridge, we decided to park and walk across it part-way.  Today was nice and sunny, and although there was a slight haze over the city, the views were really nice.  The Golden Gate Bridge was built in 1937, and boasts thousands and thousands of cables to support the bridge.

Jon and The View From the Golden Gate Bridge

It was a nice walk up until the part where Jon made me look down a crack in the bridge roadway.  A straight shot down to the water below.  My stomach rolled in revolt and my hands and feet immediately started sweating.  It's so strange the reactions that the body has to heights.  Or maybe it's the psyche.  Either way, I'm glad he didn't point out the little view until the end of our walk.  He does these things just to torture me and to entertain himself.  What a sick boy he is.

In Front of the Golden Gate Bridge

I took digital video of us driving across the bridge, just because it seemed like the fun thing to do.

Muir Woods

Our next stop was Marin County, to see Muir Woods.  We really are thankful to finally have some good weather.  Because the previous cold and cloudy days would have made the walk through the woods miserable.  But today was lovely and we leisurely strolled among the massive redwoods.  

The Canopy of Redwoods

After Muir Woods, we hit the road and headed up to Napa - Jon's mecca.

Napa Valley

We know Napa just as well as San Fran.  And while Jon would love to buy all the wine he can here, we're really limited by space restrictions in the car.  But we don't plan to hit the wineries until tomorrow.  For today, we spent the afternoon at the Napa Valley Outlets, where I took full advantage of a $9.99 sale at Ann Taylor.  You just gotta love the outlets.

The Search for Sugarloaf State Park

We drove around forEVER looking for Sugarload State Park, which we thought was close to Napa but it turns out is a good 45 minutes away.  We wanted to get there before dark so we could set up the tent and have dinner, but by 6:30 we were starving and very annoyed at how far away the park was.  So we stopped for dinner at a local Mexican place and had yummy burritos.  

Then we hit the road again and - after 15 more minutes - finally made our way into Sugarloaf.  Here, we got a serious shock.  NO SHOWERS.  Now, we've done the no-showering thing before so no big deal.  But we'd anticipated - indeed, counted on - a shower before bed tonight.  Suddenly, we lost our motivation to camp at all.  So we located a Travel Lodge in nearby Santa Rosa for a good price, and caved to the seduction of a bed and a bath.  We're such camping lightweights!