California dreaming

Of the 3 states that line the west coast of America California is the biggest. It was once part of Mexico, much like other parts of the US, until the Spanish American war. Which is why there are soo many place names that are Spanish. Los Angeles, 'The Angels', Santa Rosa, 'Saint Rose'. Typically the names are mainly catholic but they sound good either way.
California is not just a hot beach and cool city state. It's a diverse as they come, deserts, snowy mountains and blue lakes share the state with the long beaches and rolling hills. It's also home to an incredibly precarious position of the San Andreas fault which is where two tectonic plates meet and can cause devastating earthquakes.
It's on that coast we roll back up toward San Francisco with Si in toe. We stop at similar places along the way, Santa Barbera for a pier walk, further up to the Seal Colony and through Carmel(although the rain is pouring this time round). We pass some rugged coastline along the sea hugging road for miles and miles.
After a couple of days we arrive by night back amongst the hills of San Francisco.
The streets look as good as ever as we drive behind an old style tram.
We eat curry, classic, before heading to the beatnik bar of Vesuvio for drinks amongst the American 60's posters and stained glass windows. A guy has lost his umbrella, it cost him $130! A drunk girl falls about the bar banging into people before moving behind the bar to start her shift. Two guys argue over Jimi Hendrix. Colourful life rumbles on outside the neon strip joints and bars. I love it.
A tramp asks, 'Do you have any change for a guy to get drunk? I promise I won't spend it on food or accommodation.'
But alas one night is all we have in this great city. The rental car has to be back in Seattle in two days, we have some driving to do.
Si stays on for a few days before leaving for home. The last few days had been good and strange in a way. We drop Si off at a hostel, say our goodbyes and head across the Golden Gate Bridge heading north. The bridge is undeniably beautiful and certainly lives upto the hype. through a tunnel and into the fog of Marin County. Lovely foresty goodness.
We drive into and through the Redwood National park surrounded by humongous trees as wide as the car. An intense driving bonanza continues the next day as we drive from northern California through Oregon state and most of Washington to just outside Seattle at Seatac. After hours of driving and 3000 miles of the last 2 weeks under our belts we begin to wonder how we're going to explain the mileage to the rental company.
Our limit was Oregon and Washington states so to do the kind of mileage we have we should have seen loads of both states. We hadn't seen a jot. We were planning on making stuff up about the places we'd been in Oregon to explain more than doubling the car's mileage. I'm pondering this as we approach our motel for the night. At the lights we feel a bump and jolt forward. I didn't know what had happened. I nearly just drove off thinking it was the car but it soon dawned on me that we'd been hit by the car from behind. Oh great. Any damage to the car and we have to pay the first $400! This would blow our budget through the roof. After all this driving and the night before we have to return the car some tool drives into the back of us at traffic lights where everyone had been stationary for minutes. We get out and surprise surprise the guy has no insurance. Brilliant. The damage is minimal, luckily only a couple of scratches. But even so, if the rental people spot it we're in for a big payout. We take numbers and the guy says he'll pay for the damage if necessary, unlikely I thought.
Added to the high mileage the new scratches were an extra worry. Do we face up to it and confess all that went on? Do we call the police reporting the guy without insurance thus also admitting all that went on? Nah. We turn up next day playing it cool. The rental guy got in the car to note the mileage. He wrote the trip mileage down thinking it was the overall mileage and didn't even look at the rest of the car. We were home and dry! We almost ran away, a great start to the day. Hopefully the next couple of days in Seattle run as smoothly!