We’re really on the road, on our own with no plan and no commitments. Well, except for that 9:00 AM reservation at Muir Woods, about 1:15 hours from Yountville. So, alarm for 7:30 and on the road at 8:30 with breakfast at a drive-thru on the way.

But guess what? No drive-thrus on our route without a detour. Breakfast turned into a granola bar in the Muir Woods parking lot and blueberry scones two hours later in the Muir Woods snack bar. So much for stress-free vacationing.

We’d been to Muir Woods forty-odd years ago with my mom and the redwoods were no less awe inspiring than they were back then. Some over 1,000 years old; tall, majestically high and set in a reverence-inspiring lush green glen with a small flowing brook. See the pictures.

Judy and I discussed whether the Giant Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada range are more spectacular than the redwoods. Sequoias may be somewhat bigger around but the redwoods may be taller. Sequoias suffer from winter weather that causes them to lose their tops. “You should have seen how tall General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world, was before it lost its top!” they say. Doesn’t matter; both places are worth the price of admission.

A volunteer guide at Muir Woods pointed us to the Muir Beach Overlook as a place to get great views of the Pacific and maybe spot a few birds. We saw both. Again, see the pictures.

Lunch was calling so we motored a few miles up the highway to a funky little restaurant in Stinson’s Beach. Order at the bar, pick up at the window, seat yourself outside. Many California restaurants have only been open for a few weeks and many, but not all, offer only outside seating. Shrimp tacos for me and, you guessed it, crab melt for her ladyship.

Our path on California 1 took us through Reyes Point National Seashore. Not knowing anything about it, I pumped Reyes Point National Seashore into Google Maps and let it have its way, thinking at the end of the line we’d find a nice park ranger in a green uniform with a park brochure. Google, however, took us to the nearest point in the Seashore, which turned out to be a parking lot for a trailhead. In fact, most of the Reyes Seashore is just that: trails. It’s a huge area with lots of trails. Beautiful countryside.

The drive to the parking lot passed through a huge antenna farm: tall masts scattered across several miles of open hills. I didn’t bother with a good picture, but it turns out it today is the Communication Area Master Station Pacific (CAMSPAC), part of a network of transmitting and receiving sites that handle U.S. Coast Guard communications across the Pacific. It’s also near the site where Guglielmo Marconi established an antenna farm for his global morse code network that provided near-instantaneous communications throughout the world, stating in 1913. I regret not knowing about it to visit the historic museum in the area.

The parking lot had an added attraction: a shady parking spot that served admirably as our napping station. Twenty minutes at two PM does wonders for old folks like us!

Judy, panicking slightly, by lunchtime found a hotel in Jenner, about an hour and half up the road and we made a reservation. Whew,             now she can relax. Turns out it’s on the Russian River. So off we went.

But wait, Old Jon needs one more shot at the Point Reyes Seashore. I pulled into a visitor’s parking lot for a quick look-see. As we expected, it’s closed. In fact, the whole Seashore has been closed due to fire danger and just opened up recently. I met a ranger who pointed out a nice loop trail that shows the effect of the 1906 earthquake. At one point on the trail there is a fence that spread apart by 16 feet in the matter of less than a minute during the quake. Good stuff on a beautiful afternoon hike.

Then it’s Jenner or bust. Part way there the guy at the hotel called. “When will you be arriving?” “About 20 minutes.” “Good, I’ll go down to the hotel in 20 minutes.” The place is advertised as having a restaurant and continental breakfast with rooms overlooking the Russian River. But the restaurant was closed, we got a bag breakfast for the morning and our room, the last available, doesn’t have a view. No big deal since we didn’t get back from dinner until after sunset. We ain’t in Napa Valley anymore!

The fellow sent us up the river to Duncans Mills for dinner. Good grub: ribs for me and rib eye for Judy. Outside seating, which was chilly after the sun went down.

So tomorrow, who knows. We really do have no plan. We think we may drive back south 10 miles or so to Bodega Bay where we saw some great ocean views and interesting rock formations. The setting sun made for poor photo ops this afternoon so back lighting from the rising sun should work well. We’ll see!

As usual, the photos are in random order.