Santa Rosa and the Northern California Coast

We left Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park for Sacramento, California. We spent the night there and journeyed west on Rte. 12 through Sonoma to Santa Rosa to visit my Aunt BettyAnn and Uncle Dick. We had a great lunch together catching up. The children were so pleased to meet their great Aunt and Uncle.

They provided us with some guidance for our future travel in Oregon from their years of living there.

The Ketcham's in Santa Rosa.

We left Santa Rosa and decided to head to the coast. The Northern California coast is so dauntingly beautiful, steep windy cliffs, big surf, rocks jutting out along the seashore!! We lucked out to get a spot at the Sonoma State beach campground in Bodega Bay and enjoyed the natural setting and fire in our grill.

Sonoma State Beach-Bodega Bay Campground.

Our great campfire.

The Pacific Coast.

Our journey took us further up the coast on Rte. 1 until we had vertigo from the twists and turns in the road. We went inland on a little road from Stewart's Point to Cloverdale where we spent the night in their Citrus Fair campgrounds.

 The next day we drove up more benign Rte. 101 to Fortuna California and the Riverwalk Campground. The drive was spectacular, the latter part of the road shrouded with towering California redwood trees! Fortuna was a great base to visit the Victorian town of Ferndale, the Centerville Beach, and best of all the little town of Loleta and the Loleta Cheese factory. The cheese from the factory is sold to Trader Joe's shops around the country under different names! We tasted almost all 36 types of cheese!

The Centerville Beach, Ferndale, CA.

The local Loleta bank.

First the tour of the Loleta Cheese Factory...

Then the tasting...yum.

Our final stop for the day of gastronomic delight was Eureka, Ca. at Gill's by the Bay for some of the local seafood chowder the locals rave about. We enjoyed it very much, but still think it has nothing over New England chowder!!

Lunch at Gill's by the bay for seafood chowder.