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Published: April 21st 2008
San Francisco
View from Alcatraz over to the bay area.We arrived into the city on Monday morning and found our hotel. It was in a bit of a rough neighbourhood (Tenderloin - if you know the city). The hotel itself was pretty rubbish, bit of a dreary looking room. We immediately went out and found a coffee shop on the corner of the next block. We sat outside in the sun and drank coffee. It was great and we immediately loved the place. I noticed all the media hip kids with their Apple notebooks out having coffee and watching each other type away on their computers. Somehow it doesn’t seem sad in San Francisco though.. in fact it seems quite cool? I now want a Macbook with stickers all over it?!
Our first stop in San Francisco was the Fisherman's Wharf, we jumped on one of those wooden cable cars that you see in the movies, neither of us could get a seat so we ended up hanging off the side and we made our way down their going up and down the steep San Francisco streets. The bay area is pretty large with lots of piers and loads and loads
San Francisco
Entrance to Pier 39. A popular tourist stop. Lots of restaurants and shops. of food markets and restaurants. From the bay you
get great views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was (apparently) crab season we went into a small restaurant and I half a crab. First time for me, so I wasn’t too sure what I was meant to be eating. I ate everything that wasn’t shell and came to the conclusion that the taste is quite similar to prawn?!
One day we got a boat over to Alcatraz to wander around the island. There is only one boat that goes to the island so you have to book onto that. Luckily because we are slightly out of season there wasn’t too much of a wait. Apparently in the summer you have to book up weeks in advance. We waited a day then out we went. Alcatraz was operational as a maximum security prison for about 30 years from the 1930’s till 1963 when it was decided that the prison wasn’t safe any more as the weather had been beating it up for such a long time it was falling apart. It sits about a mile off the coast of the bay of San Francisco and it gets very
Alcatraz
View from a cell. Massive as you can see. windy. In 1962 three convicts managed to successfully escape - as you probably all know. The prison held such famous criminals as Al Capone and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly.
Not being able to handle the rubbish accommodation we started off in in San Francisco we found another hotel near by that was cheaper and much nicer inside. It was in an even more dodgy part of town, but to be honest we didn’t really care. It’s no worse than Deptford or Woolwich! (A few drug dealers and prostitutes on the street... so, just like Woolwich and Deptford!)
We checked in and book ourselves on a wine tour of the Napa Valley and Sonoma. The next day we were herded onto a coach with a load of other tourists and made our way up to Napa and Sonoma. We stopped at three vinyards and drank quite a few samples and the odd full glass of wine too. Coming back we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge. I had a headache by this point, but it was a marvellous day.
We continued to spend a few more nights in San Francisco - went out to some bars - even got
San Francisco
Kelly in coffee shop. involved in a pub quiz which we managed to be the worst at. Not surprising as most of it was on American history and current affairs. Did ok on the music section though!? We also checked out China Town, Japan Town and did a bit of shopping. Overall had a great time.
Our last night was a good one. We went to a local bar we’d frequented a few times and the barman was really friendly and bought us about three or four rounds. We hardly spent a penny. We played pool and met a few locals. The night got cut a little short though as Kelly came out of the toilet and wobbled over to me and said she had to leave. She had that look on her face so I knew it was time to go. It was a painful journey home - even though it was only a few blocks, I pretty much had to carry her the whole way.
"Why didn’t you get a cab" I hear you say?
Well, I tried, but none of them would stop for me and a girl who was laying on the side walk mumbling to herself. Funny that? Anyway
Yosemite
Nice and cosy. we eventually got back and Kelly successfully threw up and passed out.
A day before we decided to hire another car, so we booked the cheapest online and when I went to collect it on Sunday I was told they didn’t have any of the cheap cars and would I like a convertible instead for the same price. Of course I said yes - I mean we’d be driving the Pacific Coast Highway to LA in a couple of days. What better way than with the roof down?!
So, we left for Yosemite stopping off in a small town called Modesto about two hours from the park to stay the night. Kelly was incredibly hung over from our last night in San Francisco and barely moved all day. The next day, Kelly still not over the hangover, we arrived into Yosemite around midday. On the route up their were a few road works and at one of them we had to wait about twenty mins. The sun was out and it was getting quite warm. A hippy couple pulled up behind us in there convertible with the roof down - it was all the convincing I needed and
Yosemite
The treacherous path past Vernal Falls. Just around the corner the spray was a lot heavier so the camera had to go away :-( jumped out the car to move our bags and set the car up so I could put the roof down. A few mins later we were topless! The first time I’ve driven a convertible and what better place than in Yosemite.
As we arrived into Yosemite we checked in and saw our tent for the next few nights. Imagine M.A.S.H and you get a pretty good idea what the tents were like. The sun was out and it was quite warm. We didn’t think there’d be a problem at night. How wrong we were. There was still piles of snow around in the camp site. Eventually we went to bed after sitting in the games room for most of the night keeping warm. It was freezing in our tent, and I really mean it was freezing in our tent! We had about four covers and were both wearing hoodies, beanies, two pairs of socks, two t-shirts and it was still cold. The first night was a long one.
The next day we headed out to do some walking. There are loads of waterfalls at the moment in Yosemite - they usually dry up around mid to late summer
Yosemite
Near the bottom of Vernal Falls. so it was a good time to see them as all the snow is starting to melt. We decided on walking to Nevada falls. A five mile hike with views of Vernal falls on the way up. About a quarter of the way up there was a barrier stopping people passing on further due to falling rocks. A few people were hanging around deciding to take a longer but open trail to the top of the falls. After chatting with a few of them they were saying that people were ignoring the signs and carrying on anyway. So we decided to carry on too. The walk was fine. No falling rocks. We went past loads of people who all told us it was a great climb. The trail went up right past the Vernal falls and the spray from the falls created this mist that we were hiking through. Funnily enough the trail was call The Mist Trail and consisted of hundreds of steep, uneven steps carved into the side of the waterfall. The drops to the side were pretty dramatic but as we eventually reached the top and it was worth it.
Yosemite is known for it's black
Santa Cruz
People surf. bears but during our stay we saw hide nor hair of any bears even though they are meant to be everywhere. We had to put everything, even our toothpaste in a bear proof locker outside the tent. We did see a couple of wiley coyotes strolling past and Burt the raccoon shopping in the local grocery store one day though?
So, from Yosemite we headed back west to join up with the Pacific Coast Highway and to make our way down towards LA in time for our flight to Hawaii. But before we could go any further we had to stop to eat (again!) and where better than the 'Camerons Pub’ at Half Moon Bay - A British styled pub! Not a lot British about it if you ask me but never the less we couldn’t just drive past. The place had a few red buses parked outside and a red telephone box. Quite authentic?! Anyway, the Pacific Coast Highway pretty much follows the coast line all the way down with some really fantastic views. Each day we saw people either surfing, kite surfing or wind surfing.
Our first stop down was Santa Cruz. A cool little surfing town
Big Sur
Our fire. Fires are never boring! where there were loads of skate parks and dudes on their long skate boards riding around town. Steve got his hair cut by some girl who was definitely either drunk or on some serious medication!! It didn't come out well :-(
The next day we got back on the road, did we mention already that we had a convertible!? We drove through Monteray and Carmel, where we stopped for a couple of hours on the beach and then continued down to Big Sur. We randomly pulled into a camp site and discovered that they had little wooden cabins for rent in the woods, so for the prospect of being able to have a camp fire we signed on the dotted line. An hour or so later we had picked up some supplies from the grocery and Steve had created fire. We cracked open the bottle of wine we had been lugging round since Napa and spent the evening sitting round the camp fire drinking red wine our of plastic tumblers and because the weather was a lot warmer down there we managed to stay outside, warm, till about midnight.
The romance of it all lessens a bit when you
wake up to realise your hair and clothes all stink of smoke and you are in a camp site with only basic washing facilities!
From there we stopped off at Pfeiffer state beach, we wandered around a bit and sunbathed watching the surfers. In the distance you could see whales breaching, a couple of fishermen pointed them out to us, I asked them what kind of whales they were likely to be - they said blue whales! I doubt that very much seeing as David Attenborough has had a hard time finding them, it was unlikely that we would spot a blue whales first time out!!! I think they were humpback whales as after reading a bit about the area. They are apparently migrating this time of year. We also saw a baby seal stuck in the rocks - it’s mother was just a little way out in the sea and the waves were too strong for it to get back out. Don’t worry though, someone went to tell the ranger, so hopefully it was OK in the end.
A few miles down we saw loads of cars stopped at the side of the road, at first it
Pacific Coast Highway
Cool to drive when the sun goes down. just looked like a really rocky beach, but it turned out to be a load of fat elephant seals sunbathing. There were hundreds of them and they stank!
We continued on through Santa Barbara and Malibu - not as glamorous as I had imagined. Very crowded and we’d already driven past much nicer beaches, but it was getting late and we had to return the car the next morning so we had to get closer to LA. We ended up in a motel just next to the airport, in Inglewood - South Central LA. It was proper Gangsta-ville, just up from Compton, some of the people coming in and out of the motel were actually wearing gold dollar sign necklaces, I was expecting Snoop Dog to walk in any minute.
Anyway after a grim stay we boarded the shuttle bus to the airport.
Next stop Hawaii....
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RichT@AR
non-member comment
Really enjoyed reading about your antics - some great photos!! I often wondered where all the number 88 buses went to, now I know - 'Camerons Pub’ at Half Moon Bay. Take Care R