July 21, 1999
Huntington Beach, CA to Palo Alto, CA
We left Huntington Beach early so that we could drive up the coast and through LA before rush hour.  We were fairly successful in that effort.  There was little traffic until we hit the Santa Monica Area.  We took the coastal route through most of the southern beach cities, then headed for highway 101.  We arrived in Palo Alto around 4pm and headed over to Moffit Field to see Robin.  He had a lot more work to do before he could leave, so we changed into bike clothing in the visitor?s center and headed over toward the mountains so that we could ride a loop up Old La Honda and back so that we could go to dinner somewhere in Palo Alto.

July 22,1999
Palo Alto, CA to Rohnert Park, CA

We headed up the road toward Skyline.  We decided to take in the views from the top of the ridge for a while before heading out to Half Moon Bay and back to the coastal route.  We stopped at some of the mountain parks and took a look at the trail maps.  There were a lot of mountain bikers on the trails.  We didn?t see too many, but we saw their cars parked by the trails.  At one stop we saw this road sign.  The back was plastered with bike stickers.  The Views as we came down on state road 92 were spectacular.  We stopped a couple of times just to look.

When we did get to the coast, we were so eager to see water that we pulled over at the first beach.  We went for our first beach walk.

We arrived in San Francisco around lunch time.  After a quick stop at a Russian deli, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We ate our sandwiches and took pictures.  It is difficult to see in the digital version, but in the photo of Amy posed like Vanna White, if you look closely, you can see Alcatraz in the palm of her hand.

We crossed the bridge and headed over to Muir Woods.  It was too dark to get many photos with the little cameras that we had.  I just managed to get this tree hugging shot.

We arrived in Rohnert Park with plenty of time to unpack.  Then we finished up our day at Sue Bennetts new house with her and Alan Bloom.

July 23, 1999
LAB Rally
We were up early to make the start time for the Santa Rosa/Petaluma Bike Factory tour.  It was billed as a fairly flat ride.  Ha.  It was more torturous than any of the others.  It was uphill in both directions with headwinds from hell.  I had not changed out my gearing, so I was SUFFERING in a very big way.  We rode to the Ibis factory first.  They were wonderful!  They brought out various frames and explained a lot of their different work areas.  They opened the bathrooms for all of us, and when the local tamale vendor came by, they invited him in so a lot of cyclists could have a tamale snack.

The next leg of the ride took us through Santa Rosa and down to Petaluma.  The headwinds really hit full force as soon as we had climbed up the first hill.  We slogged our way to the Bruce Gordon Factory.  They must have been very concerned that we might be bringing small children because there wasn?t a door, a piece of equipment, or a frame that didn?t have a large pink sign warning people not to touch clearly affixed to it.  Shop employees were stationed in a couple of different places in the room and were answering questions. Most of us didn?t spend too much time there.  They had not opened their bathrooms to us, and we were having trouble finding a place to fill our water bottles, so we headed down the road.  I was feeling rather unstable most of the way back.  I discovered that my new headset had loosened up, so I headed over to the registration area to find a mechanic as soon as I returned.

That evening there was an ice cream social by the pool so that everyone would have an opportunity to find their friends and meet new ones.  I went back to the room, pulled out every cog I could find, and regeared with a 13-28 for the next day?s ride.
 

The July24
LAB Rally
The rides on Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be of greater difficulty than the ?flat ride? the day before.  They weren?t.  The weather was gorgeous, the hills were moderate, and there was no headwind at all!  We headed toward the coast until we reached Tomales Bakery.  The rider in the photograph of the main street in Tomales is also from Phoenix.  His name is Peter.  Phoenix had a pretty good showing at the rally.  In addition to Peter, Amy and myself, there were 2 other cyclists with whom I ride regularly.  I wasn?t hungry, but the treats looked wonderful, so I bought a tart and stuck it in my camelback to eat later. The bakery worker thought I was nuts, but when I explained that my choice was squashed treat, or no treat at all, she understood and was very accomodating.  I wrapped my tart in a piece of bakery paper, put it carefully in a plastic bag and popped it in the top of my pack.  Then I was off to ride along the river bluffs.  The river runs along the bottom of a very steep bluff.  We rolled along the top looking down at the cattle and green grass below.

July25
LAB Rally
The rides scheduled for Sunday had a remote start in Healdsburg. We weren't the only group riding in that area.  I saw dozens of other cyclists and even stopped to talk to a few in the Healdsburg Town Square after our ride. The rides followed the route usually used by the wine country century, often in reverse.  It was marked very clearly. Most of the roads were 2 lane state or county roads.  The pavement was pretty smooth in most spots.   It was hilly as we crossed from valley to valley but the ride was beautiful and the weather was delightful.  We passed by quite a few wineries, including Hopkiln, Korbel and others that are lesser known.

The ride traversed the Russian River in several spots.  I have included a photo of my favorite crossing.  I was alone as I came upon it.  As soon as I had taken my photo, a few more friends rode up.  After the bridge, we turned and rode along one of the river bends for a while.  We passed through many small stands of trees that shaded the road from side to side as well as more open field areas with grapevines up to the edge of the pavement.  We passed an occasional dairy farm with cattle at the edge of the fence.  One field had a dairy bull.  Peter & I had stopped by the edge of the field by the bull, but decided that it might be a better idea to get back on the bikes and be on our way when the bull started snorting and pawing at the ground.  (Can you say "Toro?")

  There was a stop in one of the parks with water and a few baked goods, but my favorite stop on the ride was a small country store in Jimtown.  They had an antique car parked outside the small wooden building.  The inside was FILLED with unusual antiques, small toys and gift items.  They had a deli on one side that served  everything from Ham & Brie sandwiches to chocolate pudding, and a candy shelf that was piled high with old fashioned favorites like Necco wafers, Mary Janes, Chick-o-Stix, and Howards Peppermints.  Another shelf had herbal soaps, and candles.
We returned to Healdsburg after the ride and wandered around the  town square for a bit.  We peeked in a couple of little shops, then decided to take advantage of being in Sonoma County by heading back for a little wine tasting.  The Simi winery was one of the more commercial spots.  The grounds were quite lush and impeccably maintained.  The main building had several rooms filled with gift items and wine accessories.  We enjoyed a couple of small samples, and I bought a bottle of wine to take back with me.

Most of the wineries were a few miles down any road, so we went looking for maps so that we could find our way to the few that we most wanted to see.  Maps were everywhere.  We found ours at the gas station..... which was, incidentaly, the most expensive gas we had to purchase on our entire trip!  I digress.... back to the subject.
We went to a few other wineries, among them were Villa Messina, Mazzocco, Chateau Souvrain, Teldeschi, Pezzi King, Dry Creek, Lambert Bridge, Mill Creek and Rabbit Ridge.  I wanted to stop at Hopkiln and Mill Creek, but time was limited, and we wanted to move on, so.... Some of the wineries were small family operations, others were clearly corporate.  My personal award for best grounds and worst tasting room was Korbel.  There were people who were buying up cases of Korbel for New Years.... I guess they were worried that more people will be drinking this New Year, and they will run out of champaigne.  Anyway, Korbel was one ot those places where you had to stop..... so we did.

July26
Rohnert Park, CA to San Francisco, CA
Our last morning in Rohnert Park was spent packing, and picking berries.  We had an early breakfast, then rode down the bike path to a huge berry patch to pick fresh berries for the ride home.  We finished loading, tossed the bikes on the roof, and headed off to SanFrancisco.  Our accomodations in San Francisco were at the hostel at Fort Mason.  Fort Mason is at the west end of fisherman's wharf.  We arrived around noon, locked up our bikes, and took off on foot to see the city.  We wandered up to the top of Lombard Street, and around the hill areas, then through North Beach and into Chinatown.  Climbing to the top of Russian Hill was almost too steep to walk.  We got to the top, and wandered down Lombard.  Lombard is supposed to be "the crookedest street in N. America."  The street was open to one way traffic, and camcorders were hanging out the passenger side of almost every passenger window as cars made the descent.

From there we headed over to Colombus Street in North Beach.  North Beach was full of little cafes and bakeries.  We stopped for to buy a few almond cookies and biscotti to munch on our walk.  We wandered past all the boutiques and artsy shops down toward Washington Square.  We continued down Columbus until we got to Chinatown, then we wandered our way down Grant through all the shops and restraunts.  We wandered all the way down to St Mary's Square, then headed back up Grant. We moved off the main drag to find a little place for a late lunch.  The restraunts we had seen on Grant were filled with tourist families.  The restraunt we found seemed to cater to a more local crowd.  People eating were reading local or Chinese newspapers and  a lot of people seemed to be picking up carryout food.  We wandered back toward Fisherman's Wharf.  We decided to go back to the hostel to check in before wandering over to the wharf.
The hostel was great.  We had comfortable beds in rooms that had 6 or 7 guests each.  There was plenty of underbed space in which to lock gear, they had a huge kitchen for general use, and they also had a coffee house on the main floor from which they served free continental breakfast in the morning.  We claimed our space, and headed back out to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirridelli Square.
We explored Fort Mason, the Municipal Pier, and the Maritime Park behind the hostel, then headed over toward the wharf.  I had to stop for seafood.  It was the best shrimp on Sourdough bread sandwich I have ever had.  Amy didn't want the seafood, so she just opted for a loaf of sourdough bread!  We looked around until we were almost (but not quite) too tired to walk back..... then we made a final stop at Ghirridelli Square before calling it a night.
July27
San Francisco, CA to Santa Cruz, CA
The next morning we woke up and loaded our car.  We decided to drive through some of the more interesting neighborhoods and see some of the other local attractions by driving along the 49 mile drive.  Our drive took us past Marina Green, by the Palace of Fine Arts, through the Presidio, to Fort Point, past Baker Beach, and to China Beach.  We saw a raccoon and a cat sitting together at China beach.  We went through Lincoln Park, and then to Cliff House.  We walked out through the ruins at cliff house.  The photo of amy at the cliff house is looking at the ruins of the Sutro Baths.  The baths and the cliff house were destroyed several times either by fire, or by earthquake.
The Cliff House was a luxurious hotel perched on the rock directly in front of Amy in the photo.  It was half supported by the rock and had pylons supporting the half that hung out over the ocean.  The baths were built during the time that the third cliff house was still standing.  The baths were indoor pools that were filled by the ocean tides.  The water was pumped through heating tanks and into 3 or 4 separate swimming tanks.  You can see the remains of the wall that held the most water.After our stop at cliff house, we headed down the coast for Santa Cruz.
We drove down the coastal highway and through a town called Paloma.  I wanted to take a photo of the street sign (for Paloma, of course) but there was the usual discrepancy between wanted to and did.  We decided to survive on the gas that we had left in the car until we could find ANYTHING cheaper than $1.63.  We stopped for fresh fruit in Half Moon Bay, then stopped to play in tidepools wherever we could.  There aren't exactly tidepools back home, so we tried to fit in as many as we could.  We found little crabs and mussels.  Amy kept poking at some white stuf and was trying to deternine whether it was animal or vegetable.

I was more interested in things that crawl.  I found a lot of little tiny baby mussels.  There were tons of them!  They were all about the size of baby peas. We did find a few that were an inch or two long.  There were also a lot of little tiny crabs and barnacles.  There were single shelled crawly things that were grayish green ans spiney.  I haven't found them in any of my books yet.

We went past the lighthouse at Montara.  It was closed.  They had a sign posted which said that they give tours on a first come- first served basis, once a day at 1pm, and it was closer to 2pm.  The gate was closed and locked.  We couldn't even get a good look at the place.  The next lighthouse down the coast was at Pigeon Point.  They have a hostel too, but it was closed off from the public.  We walked around the lighthouse and read their pamphlet and signs.  The rest of the ride to Santa Cruz was right along the coast.  We turned off the highway and headed down the street that was closest to the beach until we reached the boardwalk.  We circled around the neighborhood until we found th hostel where we had planned to spend the night.  It wasn't open yet, so we headed back to the boardwalk to entertain ourselves.
The boardwalk was pretty crowded.  We saw signs that indicated that they had a special thing going that night.  Rides would be $.50 each after 5pm, and corn dogs, cotton candy and soda would also be $.50.  It sounded intriguing, but a little worrisome too.  With prices like that, we expected the whole town to bring every kid with them and head down to the boardwalk.  We figured that we would be on the boardwalk later so we headed out to the wharf a block away.  The signs on the wharf said no crabbing.  I just HAD to have a photo of that!  I'm blocking the part that said "fishing or."  There were places where people could fish further down the pier.  A couple of boys that we stopped to talk to had small fish that they were tossing back.  One guy had a duck in his car!  I've heard of leaving the dog in the car, but the duck?????
When we returned to the hostel, people were gathering on the porch waiting to check in.  We already had reservations, so we knew that we had beds, but a lot of others did not have their beds reserved.
We checked in and found our beds.  The people in this hostel were much friendlier than in San Francisco.  The people in San Francisco were nice enough, but the people in Santa Cruz were especially nice.  The travellers were anxious to hang out in the public rooms and chat.  The staff were more personable and interested in sharing, and even the cat was warmer toward visitors.  We met two women from Austraila, three German girls who had been living in Chicago for a year, and a woman from Northern Ireland.  There were 2 english guys in the next room, and later a young couple from Italy showed up.  They were all a lot of fun to talk to.  The Italian woman spoke the least English, but her husband was fluent in English so everyone talked through him.
We asked the staff where the locals hang out.  They directed us away from the bordwalk and the wharf and toward the main street in town.  The neighborhood was filled with gorgeous victorian homes.  I had to take a photo of my two favorites.  I loved the turrets on the yellow house, and the blue one had a remarkable paint job. We amused ourselves walking through there before stopping at the health food grocery to pick up some veggies and pita for dinner.  We returned to the hostel and had dinner with some of the other guests before heading off to our cottage for the night.

July28
Santa Cruz, CA to San Simeon, CA
   The next day we headed off for Monterrey.   We made our first stop at the aquarium.  It was wonderful.  The first floor had displays of sharks, tuna, octopus, squid, crabs, shrimp, and just about every kind of fish you could possibly imagine.  We looked at every display, then went outside to the deck overlooking the bay.  An aquarium worker was tracking a diver who was swimming with an otter out beyond the seaweed.  She allowed us to use her binoculars to watch an otter that was feeding nearby.  There were kayakers from a local rental place that were out in the water with guides learning about the wildlife that was swimming in front of them.  It was beautiful.  We watched the ocean out there for a while, then went back in to the building to explore the jellyfish exhibit.  For the record, jellyfish are downright strange!
We drove down the coast and stopped at a lot of overlooks along the way through Big Sur.  We finally stopped and stayed in the hotel strip next to San Simeon.

 July29
San Simeon, CA to Orange, CA
  We started our day with a pilgrimage to mountainbiking mail order mecca, The Cambria Bike shop.  This shop is GREAT!   They have a tiny show room surrounded by 3 separate buildings and an extra room of shipping department.  I was very impressed with their knowledge of their inventory and the two people that I talked to were just plain nice.  I bought a new seatpost and a stockpile of CO2 cartridges and was thrilled with the prices.  We had to take this photo outside the front door.
We continued down the coast to Solvang.  If you haven't ridden the Solvang Century, you probably don't know much about Solvang.  It is a tiny Danish settlement just 8 miles off I-101 East of Buelton.  We walked up and down a couple of streets and bought some baked goods, then headed back to Pea Soup Anderson's in Buelton for a lunch of their famous Pea Soup before getting back on the road.  Our next stop wasVentura, where we stopped to visit a friend before heading toward Orange.
The drive through LA during rush hour was an adventure in itself.  We reached Santa Monica around 5pm and spent the next hour and a half navigating the LA freeways toward Orange.
We arrived in Orange and headed over to Brian and Tera's house.  They were waiting, and we had a nice evening chatting, eating Italian food, and looking at photos of their last european adventure.
July30
Orange, CA to Phoenix
We did a tour of local discount bicycle shops today.  We started at the Supergo.  We didn't find much there.  The real bargains were to be found at Performance.  After buying out the bargain box, we settled in to a restraunt booth for a final refueling before turning the car toward Phoenix.

The last 2 days of photos are on a roll of film that has not yet been developed.  I will finish my write up of the photo-less days when I add the photos.

People have stopped here since 8/3/99