West Coast Vacation-Day Twelve

I was late getting started but in the end it didn't matter. The 1 hit the 101 for a while, four lanes makes for easier driving except traffic is worse, it went inland for a while again then back along the sea. Much lower today thank you. It wasn't any less windy today though, blowing my truck about a bit. Too windy to be on the beach :( I found it somewhat surreal to see cows, farm fields and tractors with the Pacific ocean for a backdrop. Along the farms and towns are between the coastal range and the sea, some places that's a fairly wide area and some are quite narrow. At least today there weren't any places without space between! I finally got to visit a lighthouse (this is kind of silly as I've visited lots of lighthouses on Lake Superior but only one on the Pacific.) The Pigeon Point lighthouse has cottages which are leased to Youth Hosteling USA, I had not seen that before. At the end of a spit of land and perched on a rock high above the sea, it was cold and windy! I had lunch on Pacifica beach, at Taco Bell. I don't usually do Taco Bell but geeze it was ON the beach! Kelsey didn't like this beach any better than the last! Then the 1 takes you into San Franscisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. It really wasn't as bad as I expected and certainly not as bad as LA. There is a lighthouse, Point Bonita in Golden Gate Park which I tried to get to. I managed to get to the path but the light was closed and the long path down (and then back up) made it iffy, considering Kelsey was in the car. AND the bridge over to the light is often closed due to wind (and it was windy) so I didn't go all the way down, but I did get a photo of the Golden Gate bridge. Truthfully, I was so tired at this point that if I hadn't already told my cousin and his wife that I'd be by their place in Washington I think I'd have hit Interstate-80 and headed home! Samantha (the GPS) said the next lighthouse at Point Reyes was 2 hours or more away and I knew there weren't any Motel 6's over there So I'm in Petaluma, CA. If I decide to go over to the 1, I can do it from here but at the moment I'm leaning towards staying on the 101 and heading north. I've had about all the coast highway I can cope with! the 101 hits the coast again at Eurika. Will see how tired I am tomorrow.