Through San Francisco...

As I write this we are at Avila Beach, staying in a super nice hotel called Avila Lighthouse Suites. This was the only hotel with available rooms as we arrived tonight about 6:30pm. From our patio door off of the bedroom we have a great view of the pool and in the distance the ocean. After we checked in we walked to a restaurant for dinner. On our way we noticed that the hotel had a ping-pong table and small miniature golf range. It also had this really cool chess set that was definitely “super sized”. Take a look at the picture below. It’s a very cool idea.











Earlier today we drove through San Francisco. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and also walked a little across it. I thought it would be much larger and longer than it was. As we arrived in San Francisco we got to experience a typical foggy San Francisco day. As you can see in the pictures the fog was heavy so we weren’t able to see the top of the bridge. From the bridge you can see Alcatraz. It’s hard to believe that people use to live on that little island…perhaps that’s where some should still live.

Pictures below: Us and the Golden Gate Bridge






























We left the Bridge and headed towards the Fisherman’s Wharf. We parked our car and walked to a restaurant for lunch. Had a nice lunch and then returned to our car with 2 minutes to spare on the parking meter. We then drove around the Wharf and then onto other parts of SF. The Wharf was so packed! There were tons of people everywhere. It was a VERY touristy place. There was a Princess Cruise ship at one of the piers getting ready to leave. Driving around the Wharf area and other parts of the city made me realize that I really have absolutely NO desire to return to that city…ever! I really didn’t like it. It seems so crowded, hilly, and even dirty. So I’ll stick with Arizona for right now.

We left San Francisco and headed south. We were going to take HWY 1 down the coast but the HWY only had 2 lanes and they were so narrow with no guardrails along the edge of the southbound side of the road. In many areas one wrong turn and you would find yourself plunging over the edge. Plus besides this the road was so curvy it would have taken us days to go 60 miles. So we ended up changing our plans and heading down HWY 101. It was much quicker even though we were still on the road today for about 11 hours.

Pictures:
1. Hilly streets
2. A San Francisco Trolley




















Tomorrow we will head into Los Angeles. We’ll be taking HWY 1 as we get closer to Santa Barbara so I’m sure it will be beautiful. Hopefully it won’t rain and the fog will lift and the sun will shine brightly. It looks like we may get home sometime on Monday.

More tomorrow…