San Francisco/Oakland

Well - travelling has got in the way of blogging. We drove into Oakland yesterday - a lot of fun on the freeways!!!! checked in to our motel and returned the car to the airport. In the past few days we've driven through Washington State - past hundreds of wind farms. They're a good idea for generating electricity and look stark and graceful against the sky. They're environmentally PC but the downside is they have to build huge high tension wires to carry the electricity across state - not pretty. We drove down the Columbia River gorge - absolutely spectacular - not what I was expecting. Oregon was a surprise as well - first we had to drive across the high desert country (covered in snow). Didn't know that existed. Trees are stunted and they receive 20 inches of rain a year. After we negotiated Wilamette Pass - everything was wet and green - the trees very tall and beautiful fall colours everywhere. The first we'd seen. I'd just said to John that we've probably finished with any wildlife viewing when we saw three deer run across the highway and then passed a whole herd of elk. Elk were the only things we'd expected to see but hadn't up till then. Saw huge ponds of cranberries. We then drove down the coast from Coos Bay to Fort Bragg where we spent the night. What heaven - I got to ditch the boots I'd been wearing for weeks and wear my sneakers. The north coast of California is very rocky and wild, with VERY windy roads. We got to go for a long walk along the cliffs and stayed at a motel overlooking the ocean and the cliffs.

A couple of strange things about where we've been:

. In Idaho (and until very recently, Washington) - if you want to buy 'liquor' - vodka, rum etc. you have to buy it from state run alcohol shops. Hotels and supermarkets can't sell it. And in Idaho they are called state run liquor dispensaries. We had dinner in a local bar/grill and the bar attendant there thought it was hilarious and decadent that we had 'drive-through' alcohol shops.

. In Oregon it is illegal for you to put petrol in the car yourself. There are 'people' to do it for you (usually bundled up in gloves, two beanies and a huge parka). As everywhere else in the US, you pay with your card at the pump before you put the petrol in. Often you have to key in your zipcode into the petrol pump. As we don't have a zipcode, made life just a little difficult.

Yesterday, we wandered around San Francisco after first managing to buy tickets for the BART (local trains) which also wasn't easy. We now have a three day pass to ride on cable cars, street cars, ferries etc. It's Thanksgiving today so most things will be shut..just hope some food places are open.