North Coast

Summer vacation: We drove from Seattle to San Francisco and then some--hit the ground running and just kept going. 1600 miles of coastal driving, some of it nearly as hair-raising as Amalfi.

Best things: Lunch in Kirkland, spotting a zillion Fried Egg Jellyfish while on the Seattle-to-Bremerton ferry. Climbing The Column in Astoria. Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. Cruising over the Oregon Dunes . A four course breakfast at the Edwin K B&B in Florence, Oregon. The Sea Lion Caves. The beach at Bandon, Oregon. Willy Wonka could live in the Carson House in Eureka. (Cool town. I'll stay there if I ever do this again.) Redwoods surrounding Avenue of the Giants. One crazy and twisty road into Mendocino. Excellent food at The Mendocino Cafe. The fine folks at the Golden Gate Hotel. San Francisco (except for dinner at a place where the waiter seemed have a better idea of my wants than I do and enjoyed repeatedly second guessing me). Watching Daryl Hannah and John Schneider filming. Monterey Bay Aquarium. Cannery Row. Carmel. Addicting wanton chips. Excellent tiramisu. Big Sur. Hearst Castle. (Finally, I'd forgotten what a whacked labyrinth SFO is. Up, tram, down, tunnel, up--huh, where's ticketing?) Call it "traveling," we kept ourselves busy.