We awoke to a cold wet morning in Eureka. So after breakfast we donned our wet weather gear and headed south on Highway 101. we passed through the Humboldt Redwoods National Park with more stunning redwood trees lining the highway and then began winding down mile after mile of sweeping corners as we descended down from the forest and started to see more rural land and vineyards.
After a stop for lunch and fuel at Ukiah the traffic was noticeably getting denser the closer we got to San Francisco. The weather had cleared up except for some very strong cross-winds from the sea that were blowing the bike around a bit on the freeway.
We branched off the 101 and started navigating a series of freeway merges and exits until we found ourselves riding across the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge. This was quite 'freaky' to say the least. The bridge is 7.2 km long and is crossed by 250,000 vehicles per day (even more than the Golden Gate Bridge!).
I would have thought that for a Saturday the traffic would not have been as heinous as it was around San Francisco. We were in a couple of traffic jams with cars bumper to bumper and crawling at a snails pace in places. It was a relief to get through to the south side of the bay area.
We had booked into a motel for the night in Sunnyvale. This location was chosen because of it's close proximity to the Shoreline Ampthitheatre at Mountain View where we had tickets to a rock concert in the evening. One of our favourite bands - the 'Dave Matthews Band' was playing. You may not have heard of them, but they are huge in the USA. Even if you do not like an alternative rock genre, you would have to be impressed with the musicianship of these guys. I have posted a video clip (below) to give you an idea of their sound. The show was first class.
The Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor venue under a marquee. There is a section for reserved seating, but the cool thing is the lawn section on the embankment where you can bring your own seats (or hire them like we did) and look down on to the stage. There are also big screens at the venue if your position did not give a clear view. I have attached a photo of the venue (below) to give you an idea of what it looks like.
We took the Harley to the concert and were told by the parking attendant that motorcyclists have their own designated area - right outside the entrance! We got there early - so the bonus of a handy park allowed us to grab a bite to eat in plenty of time before the show and also choose a good place to sit on the lawn section. By the time we got back to the motel after the show it was 1:00am in the morning. We were both quite cold from being outside in the night air at the venue.
The next morning we were in no hurry to check out of the motel, so we walked to a nearby Denny's restaurant for a cooked breakfast. We then packed up the bike and took a leisurely ride down Highway 101 and then branched off and linked up with Highway 1 to the town of Monterey to stop for the night.
Monterey is a fishing port and market that has become quite a trendy resort town. It is famous as the setting for a couple of John Steinbeck's novels (Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday) and author Robert Louis Stevenson lived here for a while. More recently, the town is known for it's annual jazz festival.
We walked around the restaurants and gift shops along Fishermans Wharf and had some lunch. After walking around the downtown plaza browsing in shops we fueled up the bike and checked into our motel for the evening.
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