Our last mainland blog!

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Nic woke up in our hotel in Santa Barbara and couldn't sleep. He had several things on his mind - the cost of fuel in California, the Jambalaya he'd had for dinner and the cricket world cup, but mostly the fact that our trip and our budget are coming to an end and we were no closer to making any decisions.
Santa Barbara is a very neat and tidy town. Everything is clipped and manicured - even the homeless people look relatively polished. That night we'd had a walk along the pier, played baseball on the beach with CJ's new mini Dodger's bat and ball and enjoyed a delicious dinner in a beachside cafe where they forgot to charge us for the wine. Perfect. But our situation was nagging at us. Unemployed, homeless and undecided.
So, the next morning we had a chat, went to a travel agent and booked our flights. Rather than an extended tour of Northern California and lots of stopovers on the way to Perth, we decided to book a couple of nights in San Francisco, fly to Honolulu for a few nights, then straight to Australia. Being Spring Break, this was not easy or cheap, but we did it.
We left Santa Barbara and headed up Highway 1 with a weight off our minds, but sorry it's all coming to an end.
Past rocky beaches and rolling hills, we got as far as San Simeon, a town consisting of little more than half a dozen seaside motels. We unloaded the car and contemplated the task of turning an SUV full of junk into a neat pile of luggage that an airline would consider checking in. Then we gave up and went to dinner.
The following morning, after checking the UPS website and deciding that sending a box of any excess belongings wasn't an option in our budget, we did our best to thin things out a little and re-loaded the car.
The drive north to San Francisco was absolutely spectacular, but very foggy. I got motion sickness for the first time in my life from the constant winds and hills. It was truly horrible. So with the fog and sickness, I didn't really appreciate the beauty of the drive along Big Sur, and didn't get many photos.
We checked into a truly horrible motel close to San Francisco airport (very smelly, but at least it has a laundry!).
Today we drove into downtown San Francisco to have a look around. What an amazing place. Whose idea was it to build a city on such steep hills? All the locals must have thighs like olympic weightlifters.
We started with a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, then parked near Union Square and caught a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. I always thought they were trolley cars in SF, but they are actually pulled by a cable under the road. Loads of fun up and down the steep hills.
After a lunch of crab and clam chowder in a pleasant square, we climbed the hill up to Ghiardelli Square (famous for an ex-chocolate factory) but it was being refurbished. Oh well - good exercise and no chocolate can't be a bad thing.
We took the cable car back to Chinatown and walked down to Union Square. It was a gorgeous, sunny day that we'll remember because it was our last full day on mainland USA.
Tomorrow we're up at an ungodly hour to drop off the gator (sniff!) and board our flight to Hawaii. Woohoo!!

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Photos

Big Sur
It was further down than it looks!

Golden Gate Bridge
From the North shore.

View from the cable car
Down Hyde Street to the bay below. You can see Alcatraz in the distance.

Comments

[Fiona]

woohoo!!
I got such a lovely rush of joy when i read that you were soon to be in Perth!! I hope you enjoy Honolulu - see you in a week or so!!!

[Claire]

Home soon!
Hi All Have so enjoyed reading all your entries and this last one also brought back memories for us of San Francisco - not least when we stayed in a hotel near a red light district and in my innocence was heard to say 'that's a nice red luminated heart sign, what is it for?' - doh!!! needless to say that was a long time ago, am no longer innocent, or young!!! Have a great time in Honolulu. Speak soon M, C, H+S xx

[Al, Jo (& Spongie)]

Nearly There!!
We shall miss your travel exploits El! Do we get a weekly blog update once you're back in Perth ??? ;0) Enjoy Hawaii and safe journey back home (you're nearly there - after all this time - yay!). x

[Dani & Trevor]

Tuesdays
I knew there was a reason why Tuesdays were good days! Now there's another reason : you're coming home on Tuesday! See you soon.

[John]

See youse soon!!
HI guys. It's been great reading the diary and seeing the photos of you all. Looking forward to catching up. I see a night at The Queens in the near future! Travel safe and enjoy the rest of your time. Cheers!!