We woke up on the second day of our road trip almost as cold as the first having spent the night in a yurt. It was pretty cozy, but come morning, the warm fire that had greeted us had fizzled out. Jenny rebuilt the fire whilst I snuggled under a duvet, amused by seeing my own breath indoors.
Despite the cold, I was a little reluctant to leave the yurt. It was cozy, and I still wasn’t over those stars. Between work calls and warming up we were a little late to leave, so our initial hiking plans were dashed. We darted down the road for some water views and then headed to Ferndale for breakfast.
It yurt so much to say goodbye.
Ferndale
Breakfast at Poppa Joes
Ferndale is pretty much the most delightful small town I have ever been to. Founded in 1852 it has a concentrated volume of remarkably well-preserved Victorian buildings, known as Butterfat Palaces thanks to the wealth in the area at the time of construction being thanks to the Dairy industry.
We had breakfast a a classic spot, Poppa Joes. It’s your standard American greasy spoon (aka my favourite) wherein Poppa Joe himself was in residence, hosting what appeared to be a group of locals for some 10am dice play….
Avenue of the Giants
Let it be known, Kelsi is a treehugger. Visiting the giant redwoods had been a bucket list item for quite sometime, and I can tell you straight up, until you see them in person, nothing can really prepare you for the awe of a 1000 foot tree.
I took a lot more video that photos during this stretch (as well as spending a vast majority of the time being simply awestruck) so that’ll follow at a later date.
Russian River
After checking in to our adorable cottage by the Russian River, we headed to Russian River Brewery for dinner, and well, beer. Famous for their line inducing IPA, Pliny the Elder, the girls thought this would be their chance to convince that IPA’s are great. Pliny the Elder didn’t do, however, Blind Pig was pretty great, for an IPA. The sours on the other hand. Out of this world scrumptious.
Here is day two’s route: