Day 7: Chantelle's brother Chris joined us for a Mission-style burrito brunch. The burrito joint was right on Mission street, with massive $5 burritos. Score.

After lunch we took a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train across the city to Golden Gate Park. I opted to stroll through the giant urban oasis while the girls visited Conservatory of Flowers. At over 1000 acres, Golden Gate is the largest "cultivated" urban park in the US.

While strolling around I witnessed a squirrel attack. This guy is walking along with his buddy, chatting away and eating some corn nuts. A squirrel approaches. Much like the sea squirrels encountered at Devil's Punchbowl, the Golden Gate Park squirrels are fearless. The guy makes an off-handed remark about how you're fine as long as they don't jump on you. Two steps later the squirrel launches itself at the guy with such intense ferocity that you'd think it was a bloodthirsty zombie-rodent. Nope, just wanted some corn nuts. It latched on to the dude's jeans thigh-high but was swiftly swatted away. Wish I could have caught the whole thing on camera. I guess you had to be there to appreciate it.

We walked down to Haight-Ashbury only to discover that the area isn't much more that a standard intersection. Not sure what I was expecting, but downtown Bellingham is seedier at dusk and the area was hippie-free. You can even enjoy some Ben and Jerry's on a warm summer day.

In the evening we went to a show at Cafe Du Nord: The Moondoggies and The Romany Rye. The Moondoggies are a Seattle band that play often in Bellingham, so it was fun to see them in another city.

Day 8: Napa! We stopped for lunch in Napa proper, then drove up into Napa Valley for wine tasting. The number of wineries in the valley is overwhelming and it took a fair amount of research to nail one down. Rachel  determined that Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate was our best bet. And it was incredible. For $25 we toured the grounds, learned the history of the estate, and tasted five wines. They were all delicious; my favorites were Cask Cabernet and Rubicon.

After Napa we continued north to Redding, CA and stayed for the night.

Day 9: Redding has a sundial bridge whose shadow is "exactly accurate on only one day in a year – the summer solstice, June 21" according to Wikipedia. Technicalities aside, the bridge is a major accomplishment in functional art. And one of the largest sundials in the world.

After five and a half hours on I5, we made it to Eugene just in time for dinner. Charlee recommended a great vegetarian pizza place. It was a bit overpriced ($3 per ingredient...come on!) but very good. A short walk later we ended up at Ninkasi brewery for some especially hoppy beer.

Day 10: Portland. The girls had never been to Powell's, the largest independent bookstore in the world, so we rode the MAX downtown to check it out. It's overwhelming. I stayed in the travel section and read about things to do in Portland. 

Deschutes Brewery is located conveniently across the street from Powell's and we made it just in time for happy hour. Mac and cheese + Deschutes beer for $7.50 = bliss. Charlee's friend and Portland local Alyssa met us at the brewery. The four of us went for a waterfront stroll, then visited Portlandia. Apparently Portlandia is more than just a show - it's a giant statue of a woman in the middle of downtown. It does not have a bird on it. 

The next morning we perused the Portland Saturday Market before heading home. Road trip complete!

Day 5: Arrival in San Francisco. My friend/couchsurfing host Chantelle was out of town, so we booked a hotel near Fisherman's Wharf that was twice the price and half the quality of anywhere else we'd stayed. Unfortunately it wasn't ready at check-in time, and after a brief misunderstanding Nathan and I parted ways with the girls for a bit to explore the city. We found ourselves amidst Ghirardelli 's chocolate festival at Fisherman's Wharf. It was overpriced so we passed in favor of a hole-in-the wall Cuban place. We later met up with the group again to explore Lombard, the so-called crookedest street in the world. Crooked indeed, but not exactly worth adding to your bucketlist.

Upon meeting Nathan's brother in SF I insisted that we get some sourdough chowder bowls for dinner. And we did just that. The Boudin bakery did not disappoint, though it was slightly pretentious and cost a dollar more than surrounding chowder bowl joints. Later that evening we explored the Palace of Fine Arts for some night photography. This is the one point in the trip where I wished I had my DSLR instead of the compact. However, Lumix didn't let me down and I snagged a few interesting shots.

Day 6: Another one of my SF goals (I had a mental checklist full) was to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. All 1.7 miles of it. Nathan and I completed the roundtrip trek in a about 45 minutes - not bad considering all the bike and pedestrian traffic. Nathan had to fly home to work the next day so we drove out to the Oakland airport.

Rachel, Charlee, and I returned to SF for yet another tourist trap: a cable car ride. At $6 one way the cable cars are not the most cost effective mode of transportation in the city, but they are certainly the most unique. Originally built in the 19th century, San Francisco's cable car system has survived earthquakes, as well as plans to replace the system with buses and electric streetcars.

We explored Japantown a bit, then headed to Chantelle's to turn in for the night. Since Chantelle's roommate was out of town we scored a big room to ourselves and had plenty of space. And a cat. Funston!

Day 1: Nathan, Rachel, Charlee, and I hit the open road in my trusty Subaru as four college grads (three unemployed and one soon to be) on the last big adventure of summer 2011. We took HWY 101 down the coast towards our final destination: San Francisco. The first day started out rather uneventful with lots of bridge-crossing and me hogging the wheel the entire day. Once arriving in Astoria, we took the car (hereinafter lovingly referred to as Sub; pronounced "soob") up a steep, winding road to the Astoria Column. We climbed up 164 spiral stairs for the best view of the city and were not disappointed. Dozens of photos later we hit the road again and encountered the first major buzzkill in our trip.

Sub locked up on the sharp downhill corner as we drove down from the Column. My brakes and steering went out, all the check engine lights known to man illuminated, and the engine died as we coasted down to a stop sign and intersection. I was able to stop at the sign but Sub was clearly having a bad day and failed to start. So we pushed her across the road. Now I'm the first to admit that I don't know jack about cars. I know consumer electronics. Not mechanics. We popped the hood and Rachel pointed out a gaping hole in the engine compartment...obviously something was missing, we just didn't know what. We discovered a black plastic piece resting somewhere below in the hot mess of my engine area and determined that it should probably be attached to the gaping hole.

Thankfully Charlee has AAA so we got a free tow down to the nearest auto shop. Just in time too - the place was closing in 15 minutes. The guys were super nice even though they couldn't provide a good explanation of what the part's purpose in life. Apparently it diverts airflow and acts as a muffler of sorts. Basically a money-maker for Subaru that's completely unnecessary, but the car won't run without it. So the guy held it on while I started Sub and sure enough she fired right up. Then died immediately when he removed it.

Nothing a little duct tape can't fix! They used superglue and duct tape to secure the thing, and I've been checking it daily ever since. So far so good. I called my dad that evening and he referred to the part as a snorkel. Photo included for your enjoyment.

After Astoria we grabbed dinner at the San Dune Pub in Manzanita and found our campsite at Rockaway beach. We kicked some guys out of our reserved site and had just enough time to set up tents before dark. The space was perfect: spacious with tree cover, an open area, and a short walk from the roaring Pacific ocean. At this point I needed a beer. One of the benefits of being a homebrewer is that there's no shortage of beer in my kitchen and we had a couple coolers full. Day 1: success.

Day 2: No trip down the coast is complete without a stop at the Tillamook cheese factory. Some of our group had never been, so we stopped in for free samples and a brief tour. Rachel found a postcard for a place called Devil's Punchbowl (or Devil's Bathwater as I kept calling it). It looked pretty epic so we stopped by. As it turns out, the most exciting thing about Devil's Punchbowl is not the massive collapsed sea cave - though it was pretty cool. The true stars of the show were some friendly sea squirrels. Daring little creatures they were, running around on cliffs hundreds of feet above the ocean. Nathan and I took too many pictures while Rachel cooed over how cute they were and Charlee ran from them. After all, they probably had rabies or something...

Since all four of us love beer, one of the ulterior motives of this trip is to visit our favorite west coast brewpubs. We stopped and Pelican and Rogue on day 2. Pelican's location is unbeatable - right on the beach in Pacific City. The beer, however, leaves something to be desired. Rogue's public house in Newport was quite good. The bartender hooked us up with plenty of free samples and we walked away with our hands full of 22oz bottles. Then it was off to Bandon for camping 2.0.

We stayed in a yurt. A glorious, heated yurt with bunk beds and bathrooms next door. It was totally awesome and we made foil packs (aka pocket stew) for dinner. Tasty!

Day 3: In the morning we drove out to a nearby lighthouse. It was particularly cold and windy at the beach, so of course Nathan and I couldn't resist running out on a jetty despite the warning signs. At the end of the ocean-battered jetty, we waited for a huge wave to hit and got absolutely soaked. Good thing I brought a waterproof camera. Nathan's phone suffered a little but seems to have made a full recovery.

We crossed into California and stayed at the fine Scottfield Executive Hotel in Eureka. Don't be fooled by the name, it was cheap. The sauna didn't work but otherwise it was all good. We checked out the Lost Coast Brewery and enjoyed their beer. In my opinion it was some of the best beer on the whole trip. I had raspberry brown and apricot wheat. Love me some fruit beers.

Day 4: Nathan and I found a Greek food festival in Eureka while the girls went antiquing. We tried Ouzo for the first time...a Greek liquor that tastes a lot like black liquorice. It's quite good. We bid Eureka farewell and drove further down 101 through redwood forests, taking a minor detour to drive through a tree (for a nominal fee). Tourist trap, yes, but it was a unique experience.

We stayed in Ukiah that evening with Sasha, a friend of Rachel's. Sasha and her roommate were hosting a party that night, which turned out to be a gathering of about 10 Americorps girls. Awesome. Being the only guys, Nathan and I felt like we were in Italy again. Sasha and Emma were great hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.