— This is the second part of the story, read the first part here —
In the morning I get a large cappuccino at the Starbucks in the grocery store and drive about 15 minutes to Natural Bridges, some scenic rocks at the coast. I had skipped it a few weeks ago when I was here to go straight to Secret Beach, which is just about a mile north from there. Of course I go there again today as well, because it’s one of my favorite places. It’s 9am on a Sunday morning and so there is almost no one out there. I climb on the rocks and walk at the beach and enjoy being at this beautiful place. After an hour or so more people show up. I see two tough guys going for a quick dive in the ice cold ocean water. My first thought is that I’m not gonna do that, but as usual this is one of those things that you’ll regret more if you don’t do it than if you do it, so later in the morning I hike back to my car, put my swim shorts on and hike back to the beach. I run into the water and even though it’s cold, it’s not as extreme as I expected. Perhaps it helps that the sun has come out now. It feels really good to be in the cold water and I go back into the ocean a few times before I let the sun warm me up again. I stay the whole morning at the beach and continue driving around noon. The goal of today is to get to Fort Bragg in California where I stayed before a few weeks ago. The road goes through the Redwoods and I love being surrounded by the big trees again. I stop for a hike and also at several viewing places along the coast. Highway 101 is definitely one of the most beautiful roads in America.
I arrive at Fort Bragg in time to see the sunset and even though I go to bed a bit late, I wake up quite early before the alarm clock again. Fortunately there is a Starbucks here that opens at 4.30AM, so I walk in around 5AM to get a coffee and do some work. There is something amazing about getting a coffee at that time of the day, long before most other people wake up. I love the early mornings. I stay at the coffee place for a few hours and then continue traveling. Today is a longer drive again of about 5-6 hours to Lake Tahoe where I booked a hotel for the coming days. Halfway the afternoon I arrive at the town of Tahoe Vista to check into my hotel. It’s a nice cabin style place with a view of the lake and it has a little kitchen. So when I’ve unpacked a few things, I drive to the supermarket to get groceries. The supermarket in this little town is quite expensive and I also still need to get gas. I figure it’s cheaper to drive another 45 minutes to Nevada and do my groceries there at Walmart and fill up my car, than to do that here. So, about two hours later I’m back at the hotel, stocked up with groceries for the coming days and my car full of gas again. I happily start cooking an Italian spaghetti. After weeks of mainly eating fastfood it’s a big joy to make and eat a home-cooked meal again. After dinner I go for a short walk at the lakeside to get my steps in and then I get some complementary s’mores that the hotel offers. Some marshmallows that you can roast above the fire pit and put between chocolate cookies, nice end of the day.
And that long story brings us to today. I had planned to sleep in this morning, but a friend back home that didn’t realize the time difference calls me around 5.30am. I don’t pick up, but I do realize that it’s just around sunrise, so I quickly jump into my clothes to watch the sunrise at the lake before I call him back. I stay at the waterside for a while, it’s very beautiful here. When I’m back at the hotel I make myself some fresh tea with lemon and ginger that I got at the grocery store last night and sit down at the table by the window to organize my pictures and write this story. Just a moment ago I saw a bear walking outside, there were more people looking at it. I quickly walked outside to the balcony, but the bear ran away before I could take a picture. It doesn’t matter, I’m excited that I’ve seen a bear three times now on this trip. Lake Tahoe is really a beautiful place and I’m happy that I can stay here for a few days. I’m planning on not doing so much while I’m here, just having a few relaxing vacation days before I go back home next week.
