This trip is a waltz down memory lane. It’s full of traditions, revisiting places of joy and remembering what made them special.

Taking an annual Harley trip is a tradition in itself.

Riding with the guys, my posse, is a tradition.

On this journey, revisiting the Pacific Coast Highway, roaring through Big Sur, is a tradition.

Clam chowder on the Monterey pier is a tasty tradition.

This morning, we plan to renew another culinary tradition.

Queenie’s Roadhouse Café is just 18 miles up the road.

Lynn Derrick is the Queen. The last time she made breakfast for us was three years ago. Can’t wait to see what she’s cooking up today.

We stop at Queenie’s, but they aren’t yet open, so we power on toward Mendocino. Our royal tradition will have to wait til next time.

Queenie’s is in Elk, home to Greenwood State Beach, Elk Rock, and the Elk Cove Inn and Spa.

Elk is about halfway from Point Arena, where our morning began, to Mendocino, Northern California’s best known artist colony. The town’s name comes from Cape Mendocino, named by early Spanish navigators in honor of Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. Mendoza means cold mountain.

For two weeks every summer since 1986, the Mendocino Music Festival is held here. Evening concerts feature the Festival orchestra, composed of professional musicians from the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet orchestra, the Symphony of the Redwoods and other Bay Area orchestras. This year’s festival begins July 9. We’re a little early.

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Ten miles north of Mendocino is Fort Bragg. The city was founded, before the Civil War, as a military garrison. It was named for Braxton Bragg, who later became a general in the Confederate Army. A graduate of West Point (class of 1837), Bragg earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. Books have been written about Bragg, calling him the “Most Hated Man of the Confederacy.”

There’s no military presence today in Fort Bragg, California. The much better-known Fort Bragg, is in North Carolina. It’s all about the military. Also named for Braxton Bragg, North Carolina’s Fort Bragg is the largest military installation in the world, with more than 50,000 active-duty personnel.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina, may soon have a new name. A congressional naming commission in late May recommended renaming nine military bases originally named for leaders of the Confederacy, including Fort Bragg. The commission recommends changing Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty. It’s the only one of the ten bases to be named after an abstract idea, not an individual — or group of people. The recommendations must be approved by Congress and the Secretary of Defense.

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Highway One hugs the coast for another 30 miles, then turns inland for several hours. The coastal highway becomes US Highway 101, as it winds through towering groves of redwood trees.

We turn off of Highway 101, and on to California Highway 254, which parallels Highway 101. Highway 254 is called the Avenue of the Giants.

The towering Coast Redwoods on both sides of the road are what give the Avenue of the Giants its name. The redwoods found along the Avenue of the Giants – are Coast Redwoods, also called California Redwoods. Sequoia Sempervirens is the official scientific name for the Coast Redwood. The trees grow in a narrow band near the coast of northern California and southern Oregon.

As the tallest trees in the world, Coast Redwoods can grow to be more than 360 feet tall. The big ones have names, like Hyperion – at 379 feet, the tallest known Coast Redwood. That’s higher than the Statue of Liberty, including the pedestal.

The root structure for Coast Redwoods is unusually shallow; their roots grow only 6 to 12 feet deep. But the roots spread out as much as 50 feet around the tree, forming a broad base to hold it steady in high winds, and to gather lots of moisture.

We experience the beauty of the redwoods for 31 exquisite miles, before exiting the Avenue of the Giants at its northern entrance and returning to Highway 101.

Then, we turn inland for several hours. That’s where the really, really big trees are.

We follow the Eel River, rolling through Fortuna, known as The Friendly City.

At the southern end of Arcata Bay is the port city of Eureka, the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland. Eureka is California’s state motto. It means: “I have found it.” Those words were probably intended to refer to the discovery of gold in California.

The appropriately named Redwood Highway leads us north, crossing the Klamath River and pushing toward tonight’s destination, Crescent City.

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Crescent City, the only incorporated city in Del Norte County, is named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city. Its population of about 6,600 includes inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, a badass place to be. Forty percent of the prison’s 2,700 inmates are serving life sentences and nearly all have histories of violence at other California prisons that resulted in their transfer to Pelican Bay.

A tsunami of bad things can happen there.

Speaking of tsunamis – world’s worst segue! – Crescent City experienced a world-class tsunami in 1964. It started with a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska that sent huge waves surging toward Crescent City. In less than five hours, during the early morning hours of March 28, three smaller waves pushed into storefronts and businesses, causing little damage and a sense of calm in the people trying to clean up.

Then, a huge wave, cresting at nearly 21 feet, slammed into the downtown, killing 11 people, and devastating 29 city blocks. Nearly 300 buildings and homes were destroyed. Today, you can still see high-water marks posted on buildings that survived the tsunami.

Crescent City is still on alert. The city’s website advises residents and visitors – including us – if they feel a sizable earthquake, head north for high ground at 9^th Street. Leave your vehicle (Harley?) and walk especially briskly if you hear tsunami sirens.

Hearing none, we check into our motel, and plan a destruction-free dinner.

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To view today’s route in Google Maps, click here.

My number today: 64 (the age of Lynn Derrrick, the Queen at Queenie’s Roadhouse Café)

What’s your number?