Daily Narrative    Today took us up the second half of coastal Highway One, through the redwoods, and into Oregon.  Oregon holds special signifigance in the scheme of our little trip, as the only firm dates we have had this summer are August 5th and 6th, Theresa's ten year high school reunion in Salem.  The day started in the very pretty coastal community of Bodega Bay.  The next few hours had us winding up the narrow and insanely scenic northern chunk of California coastal highway one.  We stopped midway for a bite to eat in the pastoral (and by all indications ridiculously priced) town of Elk.  The highway turns inland around Rockport and actually becomes much windier for about twenty miles on the stretch to Leggett.  Leggett is the home of the internationally famous "Drive Through Tree", an ancient redwood that an entrepreneur had the wisdom to carve a car sized hole through, thus allowing a fee to levied for each tourist that felt the need.  The bus wouldn't fit.  We placated ourselves up the road with the internationally famous "Tree House", an ancient redwood that an entrpreneur had the wisdom to burn the center out of and furnish.  From there, we drove on to the Avenue of the Giants, a thirty mile stretch of some of the largest remaining redwoods in northern California.  The bus also wouldn't fit through the "drive through tree" in the Avenue of the Giants.  After oggling at the greenery we headed on to Oregon, Theresa's home state and the home of all of Brian's relatives.  Just south of the border, we stopped at perhaps the grand daddy of all fiberglas statuary and the childhood source of Brian's fascination, Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox at the Trees of Mystery.  We pushed accross the border into the night, but freaked out by the number of road kill deer stopped earlier than we intended at Humbug Mountain State Park.

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Daily Pictures

Morning in Bodega Bay	A cleverly hidden coffee shop with a nice view
Scenic, rocky California coastline	...and more
Cows, grazing on the steep	Really, open range cattle on a windy coastal highway with a serious penalty for hitting the ditch?
Theresa says they are cute and must stay	Scenic road shot
Elk, where we had some lunch	Brian is beginning to think they can sense Theresa
A large tree with a curio shop in it's roots	Helpful, we are heading to Canada...
Big tree, little bus	Theresa gazes at...
...this	Brian, lifting the edge of the tree so you can all see underneath it
Big roots, little gal	He just has to climb into everything
Big, bad, fiberglas Paul	The surprisingly anatomically correct Babe
Brian smells a reunion ahead	Pretty Oregon Coastline at night

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