Anthony Chabot Campsite, San Fransicso 6.11.08

We’re here in Anthony Chabot campground, just outside of Oakland. There are not a lot of campgrounds in San Francisco and the one I was looking so forward to staying was closed due to a red flag warning. So we came to our fall-back campsite, Anthony Chabot. Our campsite is nice – settled in among the beautiful & fragrant eucalyptus trees. We’re quite a ways inland & higher in altitude so it’s nice & warm here…in the upper 80’s. That’s a good thing because the fire danger here is ‘extreme’ so NO FIRES! Bummer….the marshmallows just don’t taste the same cold. Oh well…

The campground is very dry but there are a lot of mosquitos around! We DEET’d up and they have magically left us alone.

Our drive up the coast from Santa Cruz was beautiful – there were high bluffs & a beautiful rocky coast. We stopped at Half Moon Bay as everyone had told us how beautiful it was but when we arrived, it was super windy & COLD!! We hopped out of the jeep, took some photos, & jumped back in!! We also saw a guy running along side of the road with a torch so we stopped to find out his story. Turns out he was running for an organization called World Harmony Run to promote peace throughout the world. www.worldharmonyrun.org. He was a great guy who took all the time we wanted to explain the mission, although I suppose he welcomed the break as well. A group of runners are running through all 50 states and it is expected to take 4 months to complete. A sister torch started in Europe and is expected to take 10 months! He was quite an extraordinary man.

After setting up, we spent the rest of the day figuring out when & where we were going to spend the next 9 days! These days will come & go quickly I’m sure and I want to make it through my extensive list!! Evening came and after dinner we finally finished up our 1st game of Mexican train dominoes & I must admit…Michael won.

Tomorrow we’re planning to do a hike around here (& a geocache hunt) and then figure out this BART system (Bay Area Rapit Transit – public transportation system) so we can get around the downtown area easier. We have been having problems with our propane system so we hope to find a propane place as well.

More to follow!
Rene

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