San Francisco and some LA

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We found a campsite about an hour north of San Francisco so that A: it would be cheaper, and B: we were closer to wine country and junk. The campsite was a KOA that doubled as a farm with a petting zoo, but also had a great pool and hot tub. When we arrived in the afternoon, we didn’t want to schlep all the way into the city, so we all took some time to clean out the car. We took every single item out of the car so that we could go get the inside cleaned, but also so that we could go through everything that we’d accumulated over the course of the trip. We quickly became the rednecks of the campsite, because every item that we removed from the car was relocated to the picnic table and the surrounding areas of our tent. Just, crap everywhere. But it made driving in the city much more pleasant without having a roof bag and clear visibility out the back window.

In the morning, we ate some breakfast and headed south. What a great experience it was to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge in the sunshine. I’d heard that the bridge was frequently covered in fog, so it was awesome to see it so clearly. Actually, we couldn’t totally enjoy the drive over because we were scrounging through the car looking for loose change for the $6 toll.

Once in the city, we drove around for a bit looking at enormous houses on very hilly streets. Then we found a parking garage near Chinatown and walked around a while. Chinatown was pretty awesome. While Rob found some BBQ, Abigail and I discovered this teensy amazing bakery, where each treat inside was only 90 cents each. Also, no one spoke English at all. I got some cream cake rolls and a delicious, gigantic bun made of pineapple and coconut. Outstanding.

After Chinatown, we continued our walk down to the pier. I really wanted to go to Alcatraz, but by the time we arrived, the next available tour was like 4 days away. So… we just walked around the pier instead. Actually, right at the entrance to the Alcatraz boat was this little outdoor museum all about Alcatraz. So we got a smidge of the experience. We also went inside a chocolate factory and ate some free samples. Then, we saw some seals and some cruise ships, but we found out the hard way that San Francisco is pretty cold. Our campsite seemed like it was over 100 degrees so we all wore summer clothing. Mistake. We were freezing, so we thought that walking up to the Coit Tower would be a good way to warm up.

The hike up to the tower was both fun and kind of sucked. It was somewhere between 415-420 steps to get to the base of the tower, so our legs were a little jiggly when we reached the top. However, the walk up was really cool. There are all these houses and gardens along the stairway, making for a very cutesy walk. It was really beautiful in the fall, and it made me wonder how pretty the flowers must all be in the spring time. We decided to forgo the ride up to the top of the tower, because the day had become quite foggy, so we thought it was a waste to see fog from a different angle.

After the walk back down the hundreds of steps, we decided to find the car and go searching for some historical sites: the Full House house and the Mrs. Doubtfire house. Turns out, they are on the same street. Bad news bears: the Mrs. Doubtfire house is under construction so we didn’t get to see it up close. The Full House house, however, is next to a really cool neighborhood and teeny park. We thought about having a picnic in the park, like on the opening credits in the early seasons of Full House, but again, it was just cold out.

So we got some good pics on Steiner Street, and headed east. One of my old camp counselors lives in Oakland, so we drove across the Bay Bridge (in rush hour traffic- we forget that people actually work jobs) to meet up. Sad news bears: he broke his foot and was on crutches, so we couldn’t do too much. We picked him up at home, and met his new wife and sister-in-law, and then headed to a local bar for some drinks. The great part is that I haven’t seen this dude since I was in middle school, so it was quite a big step to be drinking dranks together. Weird for like a second, but mostly fun and general silliness.

After round one, we headed back to his house for another round, and then drove back to the campsite to chill with the donkeys. That’s right, we had donkeys sleeping approximately 20 feet from us. Not only did they smell, but they hee-hawed all night and morning.

Day 2 in San Francisco was actually spent in Sonoma. We had a booklet of like 8380 different wineries and vineyards in the area, so we randomly picked one off of a list and headed over. Downtown Sonoma is so cute, with a little courtyard area in the middle and little wine and cheese shops all around. Rob and I sampled some delicious cheeses, and then we left to visit some wine caves.

The vineyard we chose had a $10 tour that included 2-3 glasses of wine, plus an hour long tour and explanation of how the wine is made. I think they assume that people on the tour have at least a base knowledge of the wine industry, so I was pretty clueless. Aaron, our tour guide, told some pretty lame jokes, but the samples were nice and I feel that I learned maybe a thing or two. Cheese may have been the only missing aspect of our tour.

Post-vineyard, we headed to the grocery store for dinner ingredients. We were all craving wine and steak, which is easy to find at most local supermarkets. We grilled out some steaks and potatoes, roasted some vegetables and corn, and sipped on some wine out of Solo cups. Class all the way. Actually, it was one of the best homemade meals we’ve had thus far. Plus, the leftovers were amazeballs in omelets the next morning.

Day 3 in SanFran took us back into the city. We heard about a free Bluegrass festival happening in Golden Gate Park, so we packed up the cooler and drove in. On the way into the city, however, we stopped at the Muir Woods to see some ginormous redwoods. Holy bananas, these suckers were huge. Funny story, I watched one of those Planet of the Apes movies recently and there are some scenes filmed just where we were. If only I could have also swung to the top of the tree to see a great view of the bridge in the fog. No such luck,

Anyhoo, we explored the forest and sang “This Land is My Land” like 100 times before driving to the park. We had quite a parking debacle outside the park, where there were all these signs that cars would be towed but there were like 76 cars parked. We were curious how every car would be towed, but we really didn’t want to chance it. We discussed the probability of getting towed with several other tourists, and then decided to move. We found a parking space four blocks and millions of hills away, which made it really fun to schlep our blanket and cooler down on the way to the festival. On our walk down, out of nowhere, BOOM! The cooler and everything inside of it fell out of Abigail’s hand and ice and lunch meat and beers went everywhere. We’re lucky they didn’t roll all the way down to the park. Though it probably would have improved the walk a bit.

The concert was pretty cool. We just people watched- the festival produced quite a mixed crowd of humans with also tons of pot smoking happening everywhere. We just sat on a blanket eating kettle corn while was listened to Vince Gill and Elvis Costello. Oh, Abigail bought me a cupcake that was outstanding. Here’s what it was: beer cupcake base, butter cream frosting, and bacon to top it off. YES!

OK so we were freezing at the concert after a while, so I hiked back to the car to scoop up the other 2, and by the next morning we were off. SanFran was cool, but it was time to head further down the coast. In an effort to get out of the car for a bit, I bought a ticket on the Starlight something or other- a train that actually starts in Seattle and goes all the way into LA (but I got on in SanFran). So the others dropped me and began their drive down the Pacific whilst I trained it.

The train ride was actually really awesome. I was put in a handicap car, with only a couple other people but tons of room. When the views weren’t great, I caught up on my shows, but I mostly just looked out the window at the ocean. Also there was wine in tiny bottles.

So when I arrived in LA, I stayed the night with a friend from my Birthright trip. I wasn’t too excited to actually see LA, and I got in super late, so we just chilled, ate some fish tacos for breakfast, and then the gang came to pick me up. We did a very short tour of the city- including but not limited to: “shopping” on Rodeo Drive, looking at enormous houses in Beverly Hills, driving to the Hollywood sign, and people watching at Venice Beach. It felt awesome driving through Beverly Hills in our beat up Rodeo. We really fit in with the other 10 year old cars with almost 200,000 miles on them. Oh wait, those don’t exist there. Rob was pretty much in heaven looking at the super ridiculous expensive cars driving everywhere.

Venice Beach was pretty outstanding- we got there at dusk, which made it a tiny bit scary but still great for looking at different crowds of humans. We ate at a taco stand where I ordered a shrimp burrito with spinach and feta cheese. It was so so so good, and it took me two tries to finish it. At some point on the walk back to the car, Rob had to use the bathroom, at which point he began walking toward the sketchy toilets, then turned around and whispered to us, “don’t leave me.” I guess he was scared. And rightly so, as the stall next to him appeared to be on fire, and immediately upon exiting the toilet, he was solicited by some man trying to get his number for music deals or something. I didn’t get the whole story. The best part of Venice Beach, however, was the man we saw riding a bike, wearing nothing but a thong. Ick.

Once safely back in the car, we drove a couple more hours down the coast into San Diego. Whoop!

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Photos

Muir Woods
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters... this land was made for you and me