Grady had a difficult time falling asleep last night so he wasn't up bright and early this morning so I left him and Shawn in the hotel room and took Poppy to meet friends who were in the city for an appointment. I met Emily through blogging about a million years ago (or maybe 9 or 10?) and she quickly became one of my people. She and her husband were kind enough to come to (geographically-challenged) me so we could have a quick visit. It was an excellent way to start the day.

After tea with Emily and Dan, I collected Shawn and Grady and we grabbed breakfast and visited the sea lions at Pier 39. Grady and I could have stayed there all day but Poppy was getting chilled in the wind and we needed to hit the road.

Our not-really-planned plan was to drive up the coast from San Francisco to southern Oregon. We'd drive through the redwoods (trees are my happy place) and gawk at the gorgeous views along the coastal highway. The reality was much less breezy. There's been a lot of heavy rain in the area recently and sections of the 101 were closed due to mudslides and flooding, or were down to one lane alternating traffic because the concrete had, you know, collapsed. It was not a relaxing drive is what I'm saying. Because of the detours and traffic, by the time we hit the beautiful scenic portion of the drive, it was too dark to see anything. We did, however, manage to make it to the redwoods before dark and I got to spend some time loving the trees.

Tomorrow we point ourselves toward home. We debated breaking up the day into two so we wouldn't spend all day driving but we're all desperate to sleep in our own beds so I think we're going to attempt a 900km day tomorrow. Wish us luck!