Fort Bragg, California

I'm in a Starbucks of all places.  There are a few things that have gotten apparently difficult over the last month.  (A month to the day, mind you.)  Being in a city over a certain size is one of them.  Being in a Starbucks (or in general stopping for fast food).  And grocery shopping.  It is almost impossibly daunting.  Especially in the larger cities.  But we needed some electricity for various charging items - camera battery and emergency cell phone.  Good to have these things at times.  Let's see - where have we been the last few days?  San Francisco, Tahoe, back to San Jose, Napa, and now we are back on the coast heading north on highway 1.  Getting ever closer to the destination and it's getting a little scary from time to time.  Missing the home some, but I suspect it's normal for being away for a month.  San Fran was actually kind of a let down. Maybe on a tour or with some locals we could have found some more promising sights but as it was, we got to see some dirty downtown areas, repetitive architecture, homeless people in a park, the touristy pier, and golden gate.  The weather went cold on us again and kayaking in 40 degrees through the bay sounded expensive and unpleasant.  Tahoe, on the other hand, was breathtaking.  If you ever get the chance to go in the short off season between winter and summer sports, do it.  We had the whole lake pretty much to ourselves but all the businesses were still in session so we were perfectly taken care of.  Spoiled even.  And the hotel we got was across a two lane road from the lake in Tahoe City.  Unfortunately again weather fought against us so camping in Truckee fell through upon the 24 degree forecast.  The hotel thankfully was VERY affordable in off season.  Stellar hike through a waterfall and up to a hidden lake called Lake Eagle.  Maybe 3 miles.  Staying in Napa was problematic, also.  There was a really huge outdoor music festival that had been going on so hotels were overbooked and overpriced, and all the camping was reserved.  Luckily Jeremiah was able to let us couch crash in San Jose for the night and we had a killer night out on the town and then in the backyard by a firepit.  I've gotten into a little social groove lately and meeting cool people has gotten easier.  I don't experience the same anxiety that used to come from being around strangers.  Napa meanwhile turned out to be a priceless experience.  Met a cool worker at the winery we visited: Kevin.  Talked him into swinging by our campsite for a bottle and some food by the fire and ended up treated to an after hours extravaganza: a basement tour of the winery and star gazing on the roof.  Our experience with Napa was probably a little inflated because of this but still would say check it out.  It's fun and out of the ordinary if nothing else, and is a heck of a way to spend a Sunday if you ask me.  Not that I exactly have to keep track lately.  Last night we camped just a bit outside of Fort Bragg.  It's finally starting to cap out on temperatures and looks like 45 should be the low for the next little bit.  No idea where we're going next: either Mount Shasta or Redwood.  Dakota was in Shasta but hasn't gotten back to us so we might bypass.  I'm torn lately between getting anxious to try to settle into Portland but don't want to miss anything on the way.  In other news I also had to get a new tent.  If you are into the outdoors at all get an REI membership for sure...I got a full refund on the tent and was able to apply it to the new one no questions asked.  That's about it for now, here's the pretty stuff...