Route 1 & San Francisco

As promised, I'll update the last couple of days for you. Yesterday we drove along the coast on Route 1, a super exciting, super scary drive! I loved it...Rick didn't! I think he's happy to put the hills and cliffs behind him for a while. I'm just happy I got to drive part of it, something that was high on my wish list! It was so scary, but so much fun at the same time. The views on that road are absolutely incredible! The coastline out here is so different from what we have on the Cape...huge cliffs, massive rocks, pounding surf. Just beautiful! We had lunch on a beach that had huge, crashing waves that were fabulous to watch. We both got our toes wet, just at the very edge of the foam that drifted up the beach. After lunch we saw a sign that said this beach was one of the most dangerous in CA, and there was a diagram of where the "danger" zone was...exactly where we were! Oops!


After lunch we continued on Route 1 for a while, then headed inland. We had planned to drive into Napa to see the vineyards, but Sonoma was closer to where we were and we opted to see that instead. It seems that everywhere you look there are vineyards with the most amazingly beautiful buildings and fields of vines that go on forever. So beautiful! We decided we could only visit one tasting room, and we chose Chateau St Jean. The property was just stunning. I would have been happy to just walk around the courtyard with its gorgeous plants and walkways, but the shop and tasting room awaited. It was a lot of fun, and we left with a couple of bottles, of course.


We continued on to our destination for the night...San Francisco! We arrived at our hotel, only to discover that it was in a terrible neighborhood and was not one of our best choices. Unfortunately, it gave us a bad start, and I was sad that our stay began on such a down note. But, we made the best of it and tried to enjoy the evening. We took a ride on the Cable Cars, and they're such fun! It's fascinating to whiz up and down the hills...a little scary at first, but we quickly got into the fun of it. We had a great dinner at an Irish Pub...pure comfort food! Then back to the hotel for one of our least restful nights of the trip. But we got up early, checked out, put it behind us and went on with our day. We found a parking garage not far from Fisherman's Wharf, stowed the car for the day, and went for a nice breakfast at a diner around the corner. We had good coffee, good food & good service, and felt refreshed and renewed! We strolled around Cannery Row, Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 for a while, then went to buy our Alcatraz tickets. It was still very early, there weren't many people about and most of the shops were just starting to open up. I love watching an area like that come to life! It's always interesting to watch the hustle and bustle. After buying our tickets we walked back to the garage, picked up the laptop, and went to a coffee shop to take care of some details. Once we did our thing, we walked back to Pier 39 to look around the shops.



The funniest part of the day was watching the hundreds of seals that have taken over a section of the marina. They made such a racket! We watched them for a while, and it was hysterical. They really are funny animals...smelly, but funny! We got lunch from one of the many carts that are everywhere...chowder for me and a loaded hot dog for Rick.

By then it was time to board our ferry for Alcatraz. We were so glad we did the tour...it was one of the highlights of our day. What an imposing, bleak place, yet it was so interesting. I can't imagine what it must have been like for an inmate to arrive there knowing they wouldn't be leaving for a long time, if ever. We did the audio tour with headphones, and I highly recommend it. What a difference it made! Listening to the narration with all the accompanying prison sounds made it seem like you were there when the prison was still in use. Amazing! After we returned on the ferry we picked up the car, drove over the Bay Bridge, and on to Modesto for the night.

All in all we had a nice time in San Francisco, and today made up for our bad start last night. In the end, while I was sad my experience wasn't what I had hoped, San Francisco is a great city. I hope to return again, but for now, onward! We're heading east...Vegas bound! Tomorrow will be a long travel day, and we'll spend most of it in the car. We plan to spend two nights in Vegas so we'll have time to enjoy it.