San Francisco was awesome and a little overwhelming. Like I said in my last post, I was amazed at how big it is. I had visited here with my family when I was 14 and didn't really remember a whole lot about it. I guess that is because when you're 14 you pretty much have everything taken care of and planned out for you (thanks Dad!). But, now that we're all grown up decisions are all us.
So, after our long day of walking on Sunday we woke up at 8:30 to the lovely sounds of sirens and jackhammers right outside our hotel. Oh, the joys of staying in the busiest part of town. (By the way our hotel was the Parc 55 on Cyril Magnin. If you are thinking about going to SF and looking for a good hotel, this place rocks. It's in the middle of everything so you can either walk or hop on the trolley to get anywhere you like. It's fairly cheap for the location, but they charge a ridiculous $44 a night to park you car there!!! We didn't know about that until checkout...ugh.) So, once we were up and about we got our car and headed to Sausalito. I had never heard of the place and fortunately my awesome bride Katie Bible helped us out with a TON of suggestions for our trip, Sausalito being one of them. Just over the Golden Gate Bridge is this tiny little town. Once you arrive you feel like you've pulled into a European Village in the Meditteranian. Breathtakingly beautiful. We walked around the little shops and bought some sunglasses (since that's the one thing I forgot to pack). Walked down by the water and took some pics. It was late morning light, so I don't really feel I was able to capture the true beauty of this place with my camera. You really just have to see it for yourself!
After that we headed back over the bridge and tried to find a good place to photograph it. Found a few good spots.
After that we drove over to the Fisherman's Wharf. Really could have honestly skipped it. Just very touristy and crowded. Reminded me of Myrtle Beach in a few spots (the "dirty myrtle" to you Kelly and Daniel!). Took a few pics, ate lunch and headed over to Haight Ashbury. Of course we had to visit here, it's where the Grateful Dead started up! We arrived right when school was letting out so it was a little congested. But we finally got to the house where they started up...710 Ashbury St. We weren't able to stop so I just snapped this shot while driving by. Of course the house is purple...would you expect anything else?
By this time we were getting a little sleepy so we thought we'd head back to the hotel for a "power nap"...but just then I saw this incredible hillside just up the road. I thought we'd just drive over and see what it was. Turns out it was such an amazing find! It's called "Twin Peaks" and it has the greatest views of the city. It's crazy what you can find when you are not really looking.
Back to the hotel to clean up for dinner. We found a good recommendation for dinner in the guidebook I bought so we thought we'd give it a try. The walk was a crazy mile and a half uphill and by the time we got there, the place didn't really look all that great. So we kept walking to find something else. Poor Ben's knee was almost about to go. But a few blocks away we found this awesome restaurant called "The Stinking Rose". Great food...great cocktails. And after all that food and all those cocktails (I only had 2, but whew!) we cabbed it back to the hotel for night night.
Woke up ready to hit the road and get out of the city. We needed a break and just wanted to get to the coast. But first we stopped by this diner around the corner from the hotel called "Lori's Diner". It was awesome. Check it out if you are ever there!
Before our final exit of SF, we had to stop one more time at the bridge for a few more pics.
Once we finally figured out how to get on to Highway 1 South (GPS not helping at all) we were outta there. From this point on, I could not stop saying "WOW"!!! Once we came around a bend, there it was. The Pacific Ocean. The most incredible thing I've ever seen. For the next 90 miles or so, we stopped about 10 times to just pull over and stare. If you have never taken this drive, you have to do it. You just have to see it. I've been all over Europe, to St. Lucia and the Caribbean...nothing has compared to this. And it's right here...in our own country!!!
We stopped in the adorable town of Carmel by the Sea for a quick lunch. Another little European town full of charm. Had the most awesome Portobello and Mozzarella sandwich ever, so I had to take a pic of it.
We picked up a few groceries because we booked a cabin in Big Sur! After 20 more gorgeous driving minutes we arrived at our cabin. Completely different from the big city we had just come from, but a much needed relaxing break. No phone, no tv, no internet...not a single luxury. But it was perfect and right on the river. Knowing Ben's horrible luck with trees lately, we were a little hesitant to stay amongst the Redwoods (haha), but so far we have not been killed. We got to do some laundry at the campground next door, came back and kicked up our feet, opened a bottle of wine and re-laxed.
Here we are with our self-made (redneck style) cups. We chopped the tops off of some plastic bottles. Cuz that's how we roll.
Today was our 2 year wedding anniversary, March 24th. I am a very lucky girl to have found Ben and I can't imagine life with out him. 2 years in, going strong, and I love him more and more each day. Corny, I know...but this trip has really brought us together more. And we still have a week to go!!!
It's now 7am, I don't know how I've been waking up so early! I will hopefully get to post this when we get to the next town. We don't have any real plans, but I do have tickets to see Chelsea Lately on the 27th in LA! I love love love her so I'm really excited to see that. Ben, not so much. But, sometimes we take one for the team (or group as my friend Stacy used to say).
Until next time!
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