San Francisco

Leaving LA this morning was a little sad since I'd had so much fun with my family (and also because I had to wake up before 6:00am).  Yuck.  It was really nice though to begin Part Deux of my cross country adventure.  I knew that I wanted to stop in San Francisco because I had never visited before.  If you look up the driving directions on Google, the fastest, most direct route is on Interstate 5 which goes straight up the middle part of the state, so obviously that's not the way I picked.  I dragged my Google cursor over to the coast and it recalculated the route.  Only an extra hour and a half; that's doable.  So I head out onto the PCH.

Ocean to the left and hillside to right I'm cruising along, past Santa Barbara and then... wait a minute, the Garmin is steering me away from the beach! :(  Suddenly I realize that I made a major miscalculation.  I thought that I had planned the trip up the PCH (Route 1), but apparently I had been looking at Route 101.  The PCH is too tiny and impractical to really show up on Google maps.  No wonder it looked like the trip would only be a little bit longer.  In reality it would add on an extra 3.5 hours to the day, but I had already decided that's what I wanted to do, so there was no turning back.  I am SO glad that I didn't wuss out because the pay offs for taking the long way were totally worth it.

At one point the road was so close to the ocean that giant waves were actually crashing and breaking on the highway.  I had to roll up my window to prevent the water from coming in.  A little later down the road there was a sign for a seal watching lookout point.  I wonder if there would be anything to see?  Well it doesn't hurt to stop, right?

I was grinning like a little kid.  I've never seen anything so cool!!!  Apparently it full blown birthing season.  All the little pups on the beach are less than a week old.  Some are only 30 minutes old.  A parks guide told me that if I stuck around for a little while I could probably see a birth.  I didn't exactly have time to spare today, but it was hard to walk away from such a spectacular scene.

I had a little bit of lunch in Monterey, but I was anxious to keep moving so I didn't really explore the town.  I had been pretty lucky in my trip so far about avoiding traffic, but I guess my luck ran out today.  Getting into San Francisco took awhile, but at least I got the chance to snap a few pics from the car.

My hotel (Parc 55) is in the main downtown area, which is fantastic for sightseeing, but guess how much the parking costs at the hotel.  $15?  Nope.  $25?  Nope  $35?  Nope.  $45?  Nope.  Even though I am a legitimate hotel guest I still have to pay $48 (plus tax) for parking!!  Oh, well.  After I checked in, I set off into the city and I really am right in the heart of things so I guess it's worth it.  I heard that San Francisco was a great walking city and it really is.  The sidewalks are enormous there are street performers and lots of people bustling about.  I'm normally not too impressed by shopping districts, but when you're talking about giant 4 floor buildings with huge glass display windows full of Prada, Oscar de la Renta, Chanel, it's pretty impressive.

View from my hotel room

I just took a little city tour tonight, surprisingly there weren't that many interesting restaurants that I could see.  Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right place, but I took the hotel clerks recommendation and went to First Crush for dinner.  I had pan roasted wild king salmon with russet potato gnocchi, edamame, green garlic, maine lobster, and sauce a l’americaine.  It sounds better than it actually was, especially for $30.  The warm chocolate chip bread pudding with heath bar gelato for dessert made up for it though.  It's been a loooong day and it's time for some much needed beauty rest, but I will be doing some more sightseeing tomorrow morning before I hit the road.