Sausalito to Carmel California

Mount Shasta in Northern California. It was a beautiful sunny day for our drive from Salem to Sausalito. Northern California is very pretty, and not very populated. I was surprised.
The remodeled rooms at the Hotel. It was nice to go back to the Hotel after 15 years. Sausalito has not changed much although it is much busier. The hotel is nicely remodeled. This is a terrible picture - but the rooms are nice.
The view of the park across the street from our room.
The Hotel Sausalito. Looks the same from the outside.


We drove all day Sunday to get to Sausalito. It was a long day of driving, we left Salem at 7:30 a.m. and arrived in Sausalito around 6 p.m. It was a surprisingly nice drive along most of the I-5. The freeway through Oregon is green with trees and farms (cows, sheep and llamas) and mountains and very few towns or cities. Roseburg is a lovely little town set on a hillside covered in trees. I got some great pictures from the car of the scenery - Mt. MacLaughlin, Mt. Shasta etc. I can't load them onto the blogger yet as this computer doesn't have the program installed yet so I will add photos later.

The Rest Stops in Oregon are great places to stop. Clean, easy access in and out, picnic tables, bathrooms, grass and trees.

We crossed into California at noon exactly and had lunch at a very nice little rest stop just across the state line.

We stayed at the same hotel in Sausalito that we stay in 15 years ago. They have completely remodeled the inside of it. I will have to get the old photos and compare them to the new ones. The night desk clerk is interested in seeing the old photos as well. It was a lovely old hotel full of antique furniture and stained glass windows, now it is a Mediterranean Inn -- Still called the Sausalito hotel. We had supper at a very nice little family run Thai restuarant. The next morning before we left we had a nice walk around Sausalito. I bought a little Laurel Burch bag from a shop that sells a bunch of her things, bags, books, socks, etc - but no fabric. Laurel Burch is from that area and the woman from the shop knows her and I signed a guest book for Laurel Burch. We had coffee at Starbucks and talked to Andrew for awhile on MSN. Nice to talk to him.

We left for Carmel this morning and promptly took the wrong exit in San Francisco - got a bit sidetracked but managed to get away okay. We did not stay at all in San Francisco as we have been there a few times before.

Drove the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach Golf Course. Took lots of pictures - will post some later.

We are now staying in Carmel at the same hotel we stayed at 15 years ago as well. Normandy Inn -- it hasn't changed at all --neither has Carmel. Off to see the Hearst Castle tomorrow.