Started off well. We walked past the Fisherman’s Wharf and along the docks to the ferry building where Ricky had suggested we met for breakfast. There was a heavy mist over the bay obscuring the end of Bay Bridge and the cranes on the other side. I took a few photographs and then we walked through stalls setting up for the day. There was a warm musty smell of baking bread. Breakfast was just what we needed -fruit, yoghurt, nuts, seeds, porridge, poached eggs on spinach etc fresh orange juice and coffee and baked toast, not toasted but baked, which meant you had to wait a bit for it, but it was worth the wait especially as it came with sweet butter and homemade jam. After we had digested all this, we took photographs of each other and bought sour dough bread, tasty cheese and salami for the journey. Wish we could have spent longer with Ricky but so glad he was in SF and not touring. So we set off rather late in high spirits, slightly marred by the immediate discovery we were out of petrol. We asked several people who gave us several different directions, which had us going up the same road about six times looking for a particular turnoff we kept missing, and all the time the car was giving these pathetic warning peeps about no petrol. Got on the road about half past twelve in the end and in less buoyant spirits. We have done the journey to Seattle before but usually on Highway one which I love. This time we went on Highway 5 because we had very little time. We had no idea it would take us nine hours to get to Eugene. We had intended to get to Portland, but there was no chance. The ride, however, was through forests, over mountain passes, alongside wide rivers, passing olive groves and vineyards. The landscape was breathtaking especially around the snow covered Shasta Mountain. We stopped at Shasta Lake to eat the food we had bought so long ago in San Francisco. Hot sun, tree shade, blue birds, deep dark green water, mountains – so so beautiful. We stopped for half an hour and then went on. Five hours later we climbed wearily out of the car. We were stiff as boards, our feet reluctant to go flat after hours on the gas pedals, our throats dry from the air conditioning. There was an empty restaurant in the hotel but it had local wines and the food was OK. We put a film, ‘Limitless’, on but fell asleep after the first fifteen minutes.