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This was kind of the last day of the Honeymoon. We’d be catching a flight from Las Vegas to Tampa the following morning, very early. Today we had a little more time in San Francisco then a drive to the Airport to catch a plane to Las Vegas.

If we were hardcore tourists we’d have gotten up early and managed to get in two or three more tourist attractions before saying goodbye to San Francisco. That would be inkeeping with the unplanned nature of the trip though.  I think we both realised that we weren’t going to see enough of the city in the time we had, and we both liked it enough that we’ll probably go back again, so that kind of took away the pressure to cram everything in.

We packed the last of our things got in the car and went driving. I had hoped to visit a Magic shop called Misdirections. We headed in the general direction of it, but I wasn’t really worried whether we found it or not. We drove through Golden Gate Park, past Stow Lake which looked like a nice spot to visit next time we’re in town.

As it happens we managed to find a magic shop and parked just up the street. We decided to get something to eat first and tried one of the Chineese Restaurants nearby. Neither of us were particularly happy with the food. It was too damn salty, I think it’s the soy sauce.

After Lunch we headed to the Magic Shop and spent a little while browsing around. I’ve been to a few magic shops, Not a lot, as Paul Daniels would say, but Misdirections is way out there in front so far. The selection of Books, DVDs, Props and tricks was enormous. I bought a book.

It was time to head for the Airport. We almost got lost just after leaving the Magic shop, but we quickly recovered and found our way back to some familiar landmarks.

We had our route to the airport all planned from here, nothing could go wrong. Well almost nothing.  As we were driving and following a combination of our map, handwritten directions and signs on the road, we suddenly realised we weren’t where we thought we should be. We seemed to have crossed one river too many.

Neither of us remembered seeing any signs that would suggest we were going the wrong way, but sure enough we were slap bang in the middle of the wrong place. That’s never a good place to be on the way to the Airport.  We had plenty of time so we weren’t worried, but it’s a pain to have to double back on yourself, and if you’ve gotten lost once, there’s no guarentee that you’ll get it right second time ’round.

We did a U-Turn and headed back. There was a sign for Berkley just where we did the U-Turn, and I remembered back in 1994 when I first went to the US, a friend in college had asked me to bring back a Berkley sweatshirt. I was nowhere near the West Coast back then. It would have been nice to pick one up on this trip, but it wasn’t to be.

We made it to the Airport in plenty of time. As we emptied the car I checked the mileage. We had covered 999 miles since we picked it up. I felt like driving around to get that one extra mile. 

When we landed back in Vegas it was hot. Much hotter than it had been only a few days previously. If it had been as hot as this when we arrived initially I don’t think we would have been able to wander around outside for very long. The visit to the rim of the Grand Canyon also wouldn’t have been as pleasant.

Before we left San Francisco we searched the web for a reasonable room rate in Vegas. We found a really good deal at the Tropicanna, which is where we had spend hours playing Blackjack a few days previously. Unfortunately dozens of other people also found the same great deals and they were all in the queue ahead of us when we arrived.

It took at least an hour probably more to eventually check in. When we did it was worth the wait. The gentleman at the desk said he liked the Irish, so he would upgrade us. The deal was next time we were in town we had to bring him some Irish Whiskey. The room was great, it was a shame we were checking out the next day. It was bigger than our appartment in Clearwater.

 After admiring the room we headed down to the Buffet, our first taste of the famous all you can eat Las Vegas buffet. It was good food and reasonable value (you can only eat so much), definitely worth trying.

After dinner we played a little more Blackjack. I was up a bit then down a bit, but I wasn’t winning enough for it to be interesting. I played for a while longer, but eventually lost interest (and money) and decided to call it a night. I had a good magic book that I’d bought in San Francisco and that seemed like a much more enjoyable way to spend the rest of the evening. Besides it was getting close midnight.

Sandra stayed on and played some more. I think it was around 2am when I woke up on the couch with the magic book beside me, and I strolled downstairs. She was still playing.

In the morning we would be getting a very early taxi to the airport and flying back to Tampa.

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We only had one full day in San Franscisco, it really wasn’t long enough. We could have had more time if we
had avoided Long Beach and joined the Highway further north. Of course if we’d done that we’d be wondering if we should have gone to Long Beach, Hollywood etc.

When we left the hotel we drove around San Franciso for a while. Sandra took over driving duties, and she had a theory that she wanted to try out. She was convinced that if you took your foot off the gas in an automatic car while going up hill, the car wouldn’t roll backwards, regardless of how steep the hill was. I had my doubts, but where better than San Francisco to try it out.

As we headed reached the top of one of the many hills, we stopped, and Sandra let go of the gas. To the surprise of half the people in the car, we started rolling backwards. This in itself wouldn’t have been a problem, but in her haste to get moving forward again Sandra floored it, causing the wheels to spin, which of course left the car still moving backwards, until friction did it’s job.

We decided to try and get some photos or video of the famously crooked Lombard street. I took over the driving and Sandra headed on foot to the foot of the hill. I gave her some time to get into position then I drove down the hill. I picked her up and it was on to the next attraction.

Fishermans Wharf was next on our list. From what we’d read, this had plenty to see and do, and the one thing we both wanted to see, Alcatraz, was in that general area. We parked the car, and started wandering. It was what you’d expect from a tourist destination. Any number of shops selling “Alcatraz Inmate” T-Shirts, cablecar models, keyrings and every other trinket you can think of.

We had something to eat and then made our way towards Pier 39. This is a collection of shops selling everything from Magic Tricks to Souveniers, to Clothes, to Puppets. There was even a shop selling souveniers of Ireland. A centerpiece of the area is a fantastic carousel complete with horses and ornate decorations.

As the time approached to catch the ferry to “The Rock” it started getting a little chilly. We bought a pair of almost matching jackets, and headed off looking oh so like the tourists we were.  We hadn’t managed to get tickets for the Night Time sailing to Alcatraz, which I’m told is the way to see it, but there was nothing too shabby about seeing it by day.

The sailing only takes a few minutes. Once you land you have a long walk up a steep hill to get to the main attraction. Before tackling that we watched a short movie about the island and the prison. I hadn’t known that the families of some of the staff on the island had lived there, so there were quite a few children who grew up on the island. I passed up the opportunity to buy a piece of the rock from the gift shop. As part of the restoration of the island they needed a way to dispose of the rubble. They came up with the bright idea of selling it to tourists.

Alcatraz actually has magnificent views of the San Francisco skyline. As one of the former inmates pointed out, it made it even worse to be there. Everything you wanted was visible just across the water. If the wind blew the right way you could hear the parties and music from the mainland. New Years Eve was particularly tough.

We didn’t get to see the yard, it was getting close to closing time so we made our way outside, snapped a few photos, then headed back to the ferry.

 

Our only full day in San Franciso was coming to an end. Tomorrow afternoon we were flying from San Francisco to Las Vegas, staying one night there and flying out EARLY the following day to Tampa. We decided to call the airline and see how much they’d charge us to change our flight tickets, and give us an extra day or two. They wanted too much, it would have cost a couple of hundred dollars each to change the flights, so we decided against it.

Later that night we went driving looking for a laundromat. We found plenty, but they were all closed. The dirty laundry would have to wait.

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 The Boardwalk at Santa Cruz is a proper old fashioned boardwalk with amusements, stalls, shops, roller coasters, and an enormous Locomotive that I’m sure goes somewhere very interesting. Note to the people of Tramore, send someone to Santa Cruz to see what Tramore could look like. I was amazed when we arrived that Sandra said she’d be willing to go on the Sky Ride. This is basically a cable car that travels the length of the boardwalk.

When we eventually got off the sky ride we made one of the worst food decisions of the trip. We bought corn dogs. For those like me who’ve never seen a corn dog, it’s a hot dog sausage, on a stick, and deep fried in some kind of batter. And if that sounds unpleasant trust me, it’s worse than it sounds.

It’s never a good sign when the person preparing your food is making faces like they were deep frying dirty nappies. I should have walked away there and then.  To be fair the Corn Dogs didn’t make me feel sick, and I was able to ride a Roller Coaster shortly after eating one, but that’s about as much as I’m willing to say in their favour.

We didn’t hang aroung for too long at the Boardwalk.  We both wanted to get to San Franciso as soon as possible, so we’d have a chance to see some of it.  Because of how long it was taking us to get there we were only going to have one full day there.

Sandra took over the driving.  We ended up stopping numerous times for photographs.  We were away from the narrow roads, hairpins and cliffs and there were plenty of places to pull in.  I don’t think I’ve ever driven along a stretch of road where I saw so many cars pulled over with people taking photographs.  It’s kind of hard to explain how a road can be a tourist attraction, but it really is.

We saw A LOT of Ford Mustangs and I’m convinced at least some of them were rented specifically for the drive down the Pacific Coast Highway.  If I could do the trip again, I think I’d drive south (so I’m nearer the edge) and I’d use a convertible.

After lots of stops, lots of photos we were almost there, we were within shouting distance of San Francisco, and we hit a problem.

The sign said “Road Closed, Do Not Enter. To San Francisco use HWY 1 South to HWY 92 East to HWY 280 North”.

This meant doubling back on road we’d already covered and taking a much more roundabout route into San Francisco.  It wasn’t an unpleasant drive and we saw a long line of traffic going in the other direction and were glad we weren’t part of it.  But it was annoying.  A few extra or bigger signs warning that the road ahead was closed would have been nice.

When we finally rolled into San Francisco we did what any self respecting tourist would do.  We headed straight for the Golden Gate Bridge.  There was no Toll to cross it, but it would cost $5 to come back.  We later discovered that if we had 3 people in the car it would have been free.  I guess that’s why we have hitch hikers, but we discovered too late and paid up.

We got into the city and got our first glimpse of the famous steep hilly streets of San Francisco.  They really are much more impressive when you see them in person.  We found ourselves almost by accident on Lombard Street, incorrectly known as the twistiest street in San Francisco (or is it the world).  Well apparently it’s neither, the crookedist street in San Francisco (or is it the world) is actually Vermont St.   But Lombard is the famous one, and this being America fame trumps the truth.

Having taken a little drive around, and getting lost briefly, we eventually set about the task of finding a room.  Out came the trusty California Hotels coupons book and we set about our search.  Again there was no room at the first one or two inns.  We wanted both free internet and free parking.   And we found it at a Travelodge.

Across the street from the Motel there was a Thai Restaurant that became our regular spot for Dinner during our stay.  On the first night the owner asked if we’d eaten Thai before. When we said we had, he suggested something from the menu.  I went with his suggestion, Sandra stuck with her Green Curry, which is all she ever eats in Thai Restaurants.

The next night I decided to try something different, but I shouldn’t have.  The meal suggested by the owner was far better than what I picked on my own.  I really struggled with my own selection because it tasted so salty that I almost couldn’t eat it.  The Coconut Ice Cream was the highlight of the meal on both nights.

We noticed a strange thing on our first night.  All the pedestrian crossing lights seemed to have been turned around so pedestrians couldn’t see them.  By the time we would leave San Francisco the problem was rectified. Very Strange.

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The plan was we’d hit the road early, very early, before dawn.  As was becoming a pattern, we didn’t.  In fact we were still packing up and getting ready to leave when the 11:00 checkout time arrived.  I’d like to blame the time difference but 11:00am in California is 2:00pm in Tampa.  We dragged ourselves to the car and headed North.

Within about 15 minutes we realised we’d need to stop for food.  Lunch technically, but breakfast in reality.  As we aproached Santa Barbara I figured it would be as good a place as any to eat.  I saw a sign for the Mission which I recalled hearing about so I figured we might as well get a tourist attraction out of the way early.

The Mission at Santa Barbara was founded on December 4th, 1786 by the Spanish Franciscans.  I didn’t learn this by going there,  I just looked it up right now in Google.  I could tell you all sorts of other things about the place, but this link will probably do a better job.  Suffice to say the Mission felt a little bit like Knock, but less crowded, smaller and with less tacky gifts in the gift shops.

After a quick visit to the Mission we headed into Santa Barbara to find something to eat.  This turned out to be a more difficult task than we expected.  It seems every street in Santa Barbara is one way, and parking, at least on this particular morning was not easy to find.  We did get to see a very very drunk woman stagger accross the street, and she couldn’t have looked more out of place.  Apart from the One Way streets and difficulty parking Santa Barbara is most definitely a nice place.

We eventully managed to ditch the car and headed for a nice meal, sitting outside.  The very drunk woman had managed to find a bench accross the street.  She was probably there 5 minutes when the police picked her up, and the niceness of the street was returned to normal.  We wandered around a few of the shops and then hit the road.

Somewhere further up the road I saw a sign for Los Alamos.  This isn’t the Los Alamos where Richard Feynman worked on the Manhattan project (”The Bomb”), but it is Los Alamos and in my confusion I decided I should see the place.

I’m happy we did.  It was one of the more interesting stops along the way.  Los Alamos looks like time has stopped, but it’s not clear when.  On the way into town there were a number of cars from the 1950’s parked outside a store.  The main street was deserted and had saloons that genuinely looked like there could be cowboys inside.  We had found the Ghost town that we wanted earlier in the trip.

 

We didn’t buy anything.  Despite the amount of stuff that they had, nothing grabbed either of us enough that we’d want to bring it with us for the rest of the trip.

In San Luis Obispo there is an alley where teenagers have been sticking bubblegum since the 1960’s.  Noone knows why.  It sounded too good to miss.  When we got to town we drove around a bit trying to find the place but couldn’t.  We needed gas so when I filled up I asked the owner of the gas station if the alley was nearby and both he and the other lady in the shop made a face and said “Oh! Piss Alley”.  Apparently the people of San Luis Obispo leave more than bubblegum on the walls.  They told me where it was, but said it was a horrible place.

We drove on a little bit less inclined to find it.  I get the feeling that the image I have in my mind of Bubblegum alley is a lot nicer than the real thing, so I’ll stick to that.  Sandra took over the driving and we headed for the part of the journey I was looking forward to most.  The Cliffs and Hairpins of the Pacific Coast Highway.

 We spent a few hours driving along pleasant coast line, over rolling hills.  Then we began to climb and suddenly instead of beaches to our left there were cliffs.  When we hit the first hairpin Sandra decided she had had enough of the driving.  Unfortunetely you can’t just pull in and swap drivers, so I sat back relaxed and watched her knuckles get whiter and whiter.  Then the sight she had been waiting for, parked cars.  We pulled in, snapped a few pictures then I took over the driving.

So began a tortuous couple of hours of backseat driving from Sandra.  I need to point out here that Sandra is not a good passenger.  She’ll tell you it’s because I’m not a good driver, but given the choice of driving or not she seems to prefer the passenger seat.  She has a nasty habit of telling me to be careful of things that aren’t there.  One thing you don’t want to hear after you’ve started pulling into a junction is, “Watch out for the truck!”  Those of you who’ve seen “Keeping up Appearances” will be familiar with how this sort of thing occurs.  It doesn’t help that my name is Richard.

We continued climbing and heading roughly North.  It was getting clear that we were unlikely to make it to San Francisco that night.  We could have made it, but it would have meant arriving very late.  We decided to get something to eat, and aim for Santa Cruz.  That would give us a short run into San Francisco in the morning.

It was getting dark as we left, and we made our way to Santa Cruz.  We turned to our trusty Hotel coupons book to see what Santa Crus had to offer.  The Comfort Inn came up trumps and we checked in for the night.  After we checked in we went for a drive to see a little of the town and decide whether to hang around in the morning, or head straight to San Francisco.  We decided it would be worth our while visiting the Boardwalk.

The plan was that we’d get up early, very early, before dawn …