May 9 - Friday
We woke up to bright sunshine. All the rainy days we have had sure makes us appreciate when the sun comes out.
I decided to try out the shower and agreed with Glen. It was wonderful! The water was really hot and the shower room itself was twice the size of our whole bathroom so there was tons of room. It was built so someone in a wheelchair could use it so it was huge. It was a little cold outside, our thermometer said 39 degrees, and there wasn�t a heater in the shower room but the hot water warmed me up so that it wasn�t a problem.
Glen went out and turned on the Honda so I could blow dry my hair and found a huge snail had crawled up on it. It had a shell on its back that hung down from the weight. 
We thought it was a snail instead of a slug since it had a shell. After my hair was dry, Badger and I went for a quick walk and we found several slugs. They are about six inches long and they are gross green with brown spots. They were on the road looking for dry ground I guess.
We decided to head back over to Crescent City for the day. We took a scenic drive through the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park on a one-lane gravel road. Jedediah Smith was the first explorer to settle in the Crescent City area. Apparently he had a pretty easy time of it here in California but I read that when he and his men ventured up into the Oregon territory all his men but three were attacked and killed.
The State Park east of Crescent City and the Smith River are named after him, as is the Smith River Recreation Area where our campground is located.
The road through the park was a ten-mile drive but it took us over an hour and a half because we drove so slowly. Every twist and turn was more beautiful than the next. We stopped to take a break about half way through and Glen stood beside a tree that made him look really tiny. He sure didn�t look six feet tall.
We finally made it through the forest and by this time we were ready for lunch. We found a neat little diner named Glen�s Caf� and Bakery. It is one of the oldest restaurants in town and was built on 2nd Street in 1947. The tsunami wave destroyed it in 1964 so they moved it up one block to 3rd Street and it has been going strong ever since. It had a very 60�s look with pink leather booths to sit in. We had the specials of the day. Glen had a taco wrap and I had a taco salad. Glen�s taco wrap looked like a taco salad in a green tortilla. Both tasted really great and we think one reason they tasted so good is that they made their own tortillas and taco shells. The people who ran the caf� were very nice and friendly. We have found that to be so everywhere we went in Crescent City.
After lunch we drove over and checked out the harbor area. There were four docking areas with big fishing boats all parked in their slots. We sat in the van and watched the activities for a while. Everyone seemed to have jobs to do and there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the boats. Glen and I decided we had no idea what was going on and didn�t realize how little we knew of the fishing business. It definitely is a world of its own.
We were parked in front of a red and white boat and we were watching the owner go about his business and all of a sudden we saw a sea lion swim up to the surface. We were pretty amazed and watched it for a while. We wondered if it was kind of a pet of the red and white boat owner because it seemed to just stay right in that area. After a while the man looked up and waved and smiled at us. I guess they are used to tourists around here staring at them.
We left the dock area and went to a Thrift Store that we had seen earlier. We love to check out the local thrift stores. They are pretty much all alike all over but you never know what you are going to find. We bought a small brandy snifter for our �agates� that we are collecting and a basket for the little pieces of driftwood. We have to stay organized you know.
Next we drove over to a public pier and the Battery Point Lighthouse. It is a working lighthouse but it is now all automated and does have a lighthouse keeper who lives on the grounds. It was a neat little house all fixed up like a little dollhouse. The walls are over three feet thick and the keeper said that it had withstood over 32 tsunamis including the one in 1964.
I was interested to find out that the 1964 tsunami wasn�t the only tidal wave to hit the area. They have them all the time in Crescent City and actually have Escape Routes with signs leading you to higher ground. Apparently they have a tsunami almost every time there is any kind of earthquake from southern California all the way up to Alaska. If you are out playing in the ocean or walking on the beach, how do you know there has been an earthquake in Alaska? I think I read that the 1964 tsunami hit Crescent City two hours after the earthquake hit Alaska. I guess that is plenty of time to warn people. Very scary!!!
Anyway� back to the lighthouse. It was really neat. You could only access it in low tide as it sits on an island. We just happened to time it right to walk up to it. On the walk over we saw all kinds of weird things.
There was a bulletin board at the entrance and it had pictures of things you might see at low tide and in tide pools. We did see some of what they showed but I can�t for the life of me remember their names. I may have to find a book about Pacific Ocean sea life. (There are tons of stuff that I would love to be researching on the internet!!) 
We saw some weird pipe looking things that look like something from outer space and globs of seaweed looking stuff that had jelly like blobs on the ends. It all looked really foreign and nothing like things that I have seen on the beaches down in South Texas. The coast here is much more rocky and not near as many sandy beaches, at least here in northern California. I am interested in seeing what Oregon is like.
I asked the girl who was helping out at the lighthouse if they had any information about agates in their gift shop and she said no so I asked her what an agate is. She kind of shrugged and said,� I don�t really know� but you are supposed to be able to hold them up to the light and see through them.�
Hmmmm�. I hadn�t heard that before� every time I ask someone new about agates they tell me something different. I really need to find a library!
As you leave the lighthouse and walk back down the trail you have a great view of the public pier and the harbor back in the distance. Glen sat at a picnic table off the trail for quite a while looking for whales and checking out the rocks with the binoculars. The water was very blue and truly beautiful.
It was a bit windy but not too bad.
We drove west a little and found the Pebble Beach Scenic Drive. The road took us along the shore with beaches on the left and gorgeous houses on the right. None of the houses had window treatments on the huge all glass walls that faced the ocean and you could see right inside the rooms. I guess I wouldn�t want to cover up that amazing view either.
We stopped at one of the overlooks and watched a fellow working on a parasail or glider of some kind. We thought he was going to sail up into the air but he never did while we were there. We started hearing what sounded like seals barking so we started looking at a huge rock out in the distance. There were sea lions lying around all over at the bottom of the rock. I didn�t know there were sea lions this close to a populated area but apparently they are very common.
We finally decided to head home but we had to do our errands so we went to Wal-Mart and picked up some things and then went and got gas. We were so happy and surprised to see that they had lowered the gas prices down to $1.87. When we had first driven through Crescent City on Wednesday the lowest price had been $1.99. I just hope they don�t start raising it again this summer.
As we headed back up to the campground the sky became overcast and it started raining again. It looked really wet at our site and we wondered if it had been raining most of the day. We were glad that we had been in the sunny part of the state! We cranked up the Honda and watched an old movie off one of our tapes. Boy, what a great day!
Next Travelog Index
Home