Road 66

We followed it really close for the major part of our trip. It is one of the oldest and most historical routes of America: Road 66. It goes from Chicago to the west coast of California. It is filled with old dinners and motels.

 

You definitely have to love driving to decide to make this road a destination in itself. It stretches a long way with 3945km. We just did some small sections for fun. We also saw a presentation on it in Baie-Comeau, Qc at the end of this trip which made it more special for us as we saw some of the things discussed in the ''Grands Explorateurs''

Alcatraz

Since we were in San Francisco, we decided to also visit Alcatraz. It is in a lot of movies and everybody heard of it but seeing it in real is almost unreal. Especially in a foggy morning. It gives it a special mystery atmosphere.

The Cells

We did a self guided audio tour of the cell house. The tour brings you back to the past at the moment when the place was a prison. This period was only from 1933 to 1963. It was really interesting and we learned a lot about the history of The Rock. 

San Francisco from Alcatraz

I always thought that the island was further away. When you are there in person you totally understand why some of the inmates tried to swim to shore.

San Francisco

It is everything you expect it to be. Green and innovative. Everybody seems in a very good shape and healthy. There are dog walkers in parks, and everybody else is walking or jogging with their own dogs. There are also solar panels on quite a few houses and on parking meters.

Golden Gate Bridge

There it is, waiting for us, the famous bridge that everybody pictures when you mention
San Francisco. Did you know that there is a team of people working full time to keep its international orange color perfect. This was the original goal of the trip, even if we enjoyed every stops so far, we are really eager to visit this nice ''town''.
  

Us and ''the'' bridge

The Crookedest Street

This is quite special. You have all the tourists driving down, and all the pedestrian tourists in the middle of the street taking pictures.

Palace of Fine Arts

San Francisco

San Francisco

 One good tips for whoever likes to visit a city like we do is to bring a good pair of walking shoes. As you can see, walking around is more walking up and down in San Francisco.

West Coast

Seattle, WA

 This is the first big city of the West Coast, Seattle, Washington. As usual, it's raining. Almost like a storm is coming... After parking at a REI, we went shopping. Seb decided to buy a new raincoat that seemed way better than the old one. Ready to put it to the test, we walked outside and... there is the sun!

Nice view from the Space Needle.

Crescent Lake, Olympic National Park, WA

Hall of Mosses 

Mount St Helens, Wa.

We tried to see Mount St Helens but mountain weather is unpredictable. This is where the road ends in ''winter''. With a 15C temperature at the bottom we had a hard time believing it but I guess we will have to come back to see it.

Crescent City, CA

Crescent City was a nice quiet town on the west coast. Our first town entering California from the north and our first beach.

Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park

The park is amazing with its narrow dirt road going through giant trees. It's almost unreal. It is just about 10 miles long but really worth the detour.

Big Tree

This is one of the biggest tree we saw on the west coast. It is really impressive to think that they were already there when the vikings discovered America.

West Coast Cliffs

Light House

West Coats road

The road was amazing. That's when you are missing the sports car. The view is also impressive with beaches, cliffs and the ocean.