Phil and Jamie's West Coast Road Trip, Day Two

Day Two (383 miles)

I went to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor while Phil had lunch with a friend on the other side of the city.  The LoH is not very big, but it's got some of my most favorite works, including:

Rodin's The Thinker

Makovsky's The Russian Bride's Attire

 

Bougereau's The Broken Pitcher

Attire and Broken Pitcher both hang in the same room of the museum, directly opposite one another.  The former is a huge painting, probably 10' across.  I could just sit in that one room and state at those for hours.  But I'd done that before, back when Kathy and I lived in the Bay Area.  So this visit I wanted to catch some of the things I hadn't yet seen.  I toured the entirety of the museum in about two hours-- probably one tenth the time I could have spent there if I had had more.  I snapped some shots of some of the things that caught my eye:

   

Above is a statue of Columbus as a Boy, by Gulio Monteverdo

 

Paul Mounet, by Lous-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

 

don't know who this is

 

 

 

 

 

 Dorothy Spreckels Munn,  by Dali

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A ceiling in the Rodin sculpture room

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Rodin tableau

 

 

I love this bust of Voltaire, by Jean-Antione Houdon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another impressive bust by Jean-Jeacques Caffieri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool ceiling in the 15th century room.

 

All too soon it was time to get on our way.  It wasn't very far from LoH to the Golden Gate Bridge:

While I was driving Phil snapped one of my favorite shots from the whole trip:

This was taken through the sun roof, going about 40MPH.  I love the composition, contrast, and color.  He's a genius!

Much to Phil's later regret, we decided to follow Route 1 north of San Francisco to hug the coastline.  At about 2:30PM we reached Muir Beach, where we paused for some Scenic Vista photo opportunities. 

We noticed a pair of young (as in our age) women also snapping some pictures.  We swapped cameras and wound up with one of the few shots of Phil and me together from the entire trip.  As they were leaving, one of them said to Phil, "We're headed to Bolinas.  Maybe we'll see you there..."  That sort of thing never happens to me, and definitely never happens to Phil.  Of course, I'm happily married so after a couple of "road trip"-themed scripts ran through my brain the thrill was gone.  The stories all ended with Kathy standing over my mutilated carcass.

Phil, however, is unhappily single.  This called for a great deal of discussion about the relative merits of an unscheduled detour to Bonlinas as we proceeded north a few cars behind the girls.  At last the moment of truth arrived when they turned onto Olama Bolinas Rd.  In what I'm sure is one of those defining moments of a lifetime, we continued on and left behind any chance of encountering them again.

Phil spoiling an otherwise good photo.

One of the mystery girls from the lookout.

 

Instead of partying with a couple of hot British babes, we went to the Point Reyes Lighthouse.  I had fond memories of the Point Reyes National Seashore which turned out to have some wild inaccuracies.  For example, while my recollection of the drive from Route 1 to the lighthouse was that it was a quick half-hour detour, in reality it took us more than an hour each way.  Most of that was spent expecting the lighthouse to be just over the next hill.  Another falsehood in my memory was that the lighthouse was so cool it was worth the trip.  It was cool, but definitely not worth what wound up being a three hour detour.

 

 

I'm sure the lighthouse would have been more interesting if it had been open to the public the day we were there.  This was the closest we could get.

 

Phil's expression here reads something to the effect of, "We came all this way for THIS?"

Maybe not the most successful life saving station...

 

Finally back on the road, we made it to Gualla by 7PM for dinner at the Oceansong restaurant.  Phil ordered the steak.  They were out of steak.  He ordered a Pepsi.  They were out of Pepsi.  At least the bread was warm.

In what was a foolish plan in retrospect, we made for Eureka after dinner.  It was dark.  We were tired.  There were lots and lots and lots of switchbacks.  I was driving and didn't mind so much, but Phil was definitely an unhappy camper for the next few hours.  We finally arrived at the hotel at about 1AM and collapsed.