Benjamin and Sherry's West Coast Odyssey Diary: Part 5

So sorry for dragging this on for so long... but I must continue on...

Day 7- (Monday, June 19th) Winery time in Napa Valley!
So we didn't make it through Napa Valley fast enough to go through Sonoma Valley too, but had a great time in Napa Valley.

Ben and I arrived at our first winery of the day- the Robert Mondavi Winery.

We had heard that this was the best tour that one can take in Napa Valley, so we decided to go on the famous tour. Feeling like a fish out of water (we were surrounded by a people with a lot more money than we will ever have), we followed our tour guide through the vineyards and the winery. It was indeed the best winery tour I've ever been on (I've been on two others).

At the end of the tour was the wine tasting. Ben and I sat down at a table with our fellow tourists and tasted three different varietals- cabernet, chardonnay, and sauvingnon blanc. After tasting these very tasty wines, we stumbled into the gift shop, bought a few bottles of wine, and waddled back to the rental car. "Ben, I can't drive." "Sherry! Neither can I!" We chuckled and ate some peanut butter sandwiches to try and sober up. It worked, and we went on to the next winery.

The V. Sattui Winery was far more touristy than the Robert Mondavi Winery. Ben and I entered through the deli and tried some delicious cheese spreads- simply orgasmic.

We squeezed our way up to the bar for our free tasting. We each tried about five wines, and after not tasting one that I really cared for, we made our way quickly out of the winery.

We figured that we could handle just one more, so we stopped at the Beringer Winery. The short, informative tour led us through the hills of Napa Valley, where the Beringer brothers used Chinese laborers to blast into the hills to create a wine cellar. We got to touch the American oak barrels that contained aging wine. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed a chardonney and a cabernet that I wasn't too crazy about. We made a short stop at the gift shop and decided that we had had our fill of wine.

Ben and I made our way to the hotel in Fort Bragg, CA to do some laundry and some swimming!
Day 8- (Tuesday, June 20th) Bigfoot Country!

Benjamin and I had three goals for the day: find Bigfoot, get a good picture of Endor, and drive through a big redwood. Two of the three were accomplished.

We stopped at a Bigfoot gift shop along Hwy 101 that was close to Eureka, CA. We obtained a map with all of the recorded Bigfoot sightings and their locations. The locals told us about a Bigfoot museum located in Willow Creek, CA (about an hour and a half northeast of where we were), so Ben and I decided to go.

On the way, we spotted a big touristy sign for "The Drive-Thru Tree!". After paying the $1.50 per person, I drove through a gigantic Redwood tree while Ben took a picture. Upon getting out and looking at the other trees on display, Ben and I noticed that the tree was held up by three huge wires. These wires were choking off the trees that they were around- it was one of the saddest sights I've ever seen.

We arrived in Willow Creek at the Bigfoot museum, only to find out that it was closed on that particular day of the week. Frustrated, we wandered down the block to an information center. We asked the locals about the museum, and the old lady offered to call the museum owners and eventually got someone to open it up for us. While we waited for the museum owner to come, I questioned the older woman about her belief in Bigfoot. She indicated that her husband (rest his soul) had been in the forest service for 50 years before his death and never saw any evidence of an ape-like creature living in the area. But... she also mentioned that many residents in Willow Creek still believe that there is something out there.....

After giving the owner of the museum our $10 donation (required to have someone come and open the museum), Ben and I entered the Bigfoot exibit. There were numerous casts of Bigfoot's tracks, stories from the newpaper about Bigfoot sightings, and pictures of Bigfoot.

We finally reached Redwood National Park around 3:00pm. Ben and I stopped at the Founder's Tree, which is the tallest Redwood in all of the park.

We made another stop at Fern Canyon, which was along the ocean. Since it was a fee area, we stopped at the booth to pay the nice man $5.00. He warned me that I had to cross three "creeks" to reach Fern Canyon and assured me twice that I would be able to make it across in the Dodge Neon. I hesistantly said, "Okay..." and drove on. We reached what I thought was the first "creek", which was just a tiny stream of water going across the pavement, and I said "That's number one." We crossed two similar tiny streams of water, and I said, "Those weren't bad at all. Why did that guy even warn us?" That's when we reached the first of the real creeks. It looked as if the road were washed out! I screamed, "You've got to be kidding me!" Ben assured me it would be alright, and I slowly took my foot off of the brake. Crash! Into the water we went, as the water went flying across the windshield. Sccraaaaape! This was the sound of the front end of the car hitting the other side of the creek. To reach Fern Canyon, we had to go through two more similar instances. Believe me, I never got used crossing them, even on the way back.

But, Fern Canyon was beautiful, and we were able to get about 10 feet from really huge wild elk while on the path to the ocean beach.

Oh yeah, and here's our picture of Endor (last picture). Can you see the Ewoks running through?

Next on Nobody's Fool: Part 6- Adventures on the coast of Oregon, in Astoria, OR, and Aberdeen, WA.