California Dreamin'

We crossed into California fairly late in the afternoon and continued on to Crescent City, CA.  We had dinner at Denny's.  Anytime I get to have breakfast for dinner, I am a very happy person.  After that we found a hotel and planned out the next few days of our trip.  I was ecstatic to be in California because I had been looking forward to driving down the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur for years.  But we wouldn't get down to Big Sur for a few more days.  First we had to see northern California.  The next morning we spent our time exploring the redwoods in Crescent City and driving through Redwood National Forest.  I've never seen Jurassic Park, but I assume the setting of the film is somewhat like what we saw in the Redwood Forest.  In fact, one point of interest in the area was part of the park where Jurassic Park was filmed so I know that the movie must look like this.  One of the highlights of this part of the trip was the "Tour Thru Tree," which is essentially a giant tree with a hole in it through which you can drive your car.   

Hugging a giant redwood

Me driving through the Tour Thru Tree

After Brianne and I each took turns driving through the tree and taking pictures, we continued our tour of the redwoods.  After several hours, during which time we had continued to drive south through some of the most amazing forests I have ever seen, we exited redwood country and set our sights on the San Francisco/San Jose area.  It was a fairly long drive and, unfortunately, I was asleep for most of it.  I did briefly wake up as we drove through the Napa area, but I didn't see much.  We were heading to San Jose to stay with my best friend's (Nick) roommate from Yale, Harry.  Since San Jose isn't too far from SF, we decided to stay in San Jose (thanks to Harry and his family for their hospitality!) and just drive up to SF when we wanted to go.  We did, however, have to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge (which was more expensive and less exciting than anticipated) and drive through SF to get to San Jose.  We got to Harry's house (which is awesome and beautiful), got settled in and then the three of us headed to dinner.  I had made plans for us to have dinner with Marisa, a friend of mine from my study abroad program at Cambridge.  I hadn't seen her in 2 years and it was great to catch up!  After dinner we headed back to Harry's house and called it a night.