Day One in California

We came down the coast road in southern Oregon this morning and crossed over the border into California around noon. There was a check point at the border with at least three lanes with uniformed officials to make sure we weren't bringing in organic produce -apples were okay that we bought at a grocery store but if they had come from somewhere else they would have to be destroyed.

The Redwood Highway along the coast is beautiful but mainly two lanes so it is quite slow. The redwood trees are huge and again the foliage is right out to the sides of the road. The branches of the trees and the trunks are covered with moss and in some places it is hanging moss. We kept coming through either fog or clouds so I guess it is very humid. We did see a palm tree yesterday in Oregon and then we saw a few more today. There are some small bushes close to the ground that look like the top of palms.

We stopped at a field that was full of elk. They seemed used to people and stared at us as hard as we were staring at them. Earlier in the day we saw a few tiny grey deer feeding beside the road. These are really the only live animals we have seen for three weeks. We did see lots of inanimate bears in a town that was having an art festival of decorated bears.

We have checked into a hotel and are just about to go out for dinner.