Sunday, February 22, 2015

Drive Through Tree

Time: Feb 15, 2015 – Feb 16, 2015

Place: Drive Through Tree Park (Leggett) and CA-1 Drive

Company: Wife and Daughter

Highlights:

Day 1: Considering that this was a Valentine long weekend and we had IND Vs Pak World Cup cricket match on Saturday night going all the way till 4 am, we had not planned any trip. However, on Sunday morning at about 10 am, decided on the fly to go on a long drive. Drive Through Tree seemed interesting as well as CA-1 north of SFO (which we hadn't done yet). http://www.drivethrutree.com/ gave all required info and we booked hotel near the destination. Left house at about 3 pm. It was a nice drive on 101N. Took us about 4 hrs to reach the hotel. The hotel itself was very nice, with just 1 neatly made room, no TV, no fridge, no microwave. Wifi was available though. Paavani enjoyed jumping on the bed, as usual!

Day 2: Woke up at 8, just to be early to beat the traffic around the drive through tree. It was close by, and was surprised to see that it was drive through tree park and not just drive through tree, although the tree itself was the highlight of the park. Since it was still early (about 9 am), there weren't too many people and we took many snaps with many poses. The gift shop too was very enchanting. Then, we headed back to hotel, quick breakfast, checked out and headed towards CA-1S. 

Extreme winding road made Tontu sick within the first 10 miles. But once done with that, she was fine for the rest of the journey. But wifey got sick later on, and stayed sick till we reached home. Unlike CA-1 south of SFO which has many specific viewpoints, north of SFO - especially when driving south from Leggett - doesn't have too many vista points. It is still a good drive though, with great views, cliffs, misty scenes, etc. but the road has many curves. And driving a winding road for over 5 hrs makes it quite a drag, and you get tired of it all especially with a 4 year old in the car who wants to know "Are we there yet?"! So, took an exit from CA-1 at about 5 pm. 

Unfortunately, got stuck with traffic, and what should have been a 2 hour drive home took 4 more hours. In all, it was almost a 11 hour drive day, and was very exhausting. And to think, if CA-1 was avoided, the whole drive back home could have been made in 4 hrs! In all, 444 miles were driven in about 30 hrs, out of which 15 hrs were spent only in driving! It was a drive through vacation mostly!