Monday September 6, 2010

Day 82 - Aug 31, 2010 (Tues) San Francisco Part 1
> Left St Helena bright and early to get as much time in at the new destination as possible (was sad to say goodbye, but we were ready after our month long break from the road). Found a note on our car from our neighbours – Alex and her son Roman wishing us safe travelling and wanting to stay in touch so they can send us a Christmas card!
> Had lunch with Martha at the Ferry Building (lovely to catch-up of course and hear all her news... and share all ours too!) And on our way we had a random and surprising encounter with Ash and Nell (Tim and Ash met through Macquarie). Small world!
> Spent the afternoon doing a bus tour and ticking off sites such as the Painted Ladies (also known as the Six Sisters), Golden Gate Bridge (incredible how the fog creeps through it, and then disappears moments later), and Japanese Tea Garden (it was a little steep at $7ea for entry, but we got some great photos so was probably worth it)!
> Walked up some very steep hills (San Franciscans must be very fit!) and arrived at Lombard St, the “crookedest” street is what its known as. It was actually really lovely, and we tend to believe it was built for tourism purposes (surely a street like that couldn’t exist for any other reason).
> Had dinner in Chinatown – very tasty Chinese greens, seafood fried rice and roast duck! (sadly, we were actually inspired to have duck after seeing one in the Japanese Tea Gardens – ha!)
> Checked-in to our Oakland motel and had an early night – we were exhausted from a day full of activities! (Duke even got a prime street park right at the motel entrance)!

Day 83 - Sept 1, 2010 (Wed) - San Francisco Part 2
> Woke bright and early as we had booked ourselves on the first Alcatraz Tour of the day… and we were so pleased when it was a warm and sunny day (85F/27C, which is unbelievable for SF – lucky us)!
> Joined the masses on Alcatraz (the boat cruise out there was really lovely), and did the audio tour through the cell block. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, and managed to spend a few hours wandering the halls and reading every bit of information the National Park Service was kind enough to provide for us.
> Hopped back onto the bus for day 2 on our ticket. It was just lovely to be sitting out in the sun, cruising the streets of San Fran! We escaped for a late lunch on Chestnut Street (a lovely Main St near The Marina area), wandered to Ghiradelli Square, then hopped into The Duke and headed down US1 to our next destination… Santa Cruz.

Day 84 - Sept 2, 2010 (Thurs)
> Santa Cruz: Went to the popular Boardwalk area (quite similar to Coney Island in NYC). We were walking along the Boardwalk and thought we heard seals… so we went to investigate and sure enough there were dozens of seals lounging and playing underneath the pier! We stayed there for a while to watch them – and they were so close, we could have touched them!
> Soaked in the sun for a couple hours, grabbed some lunch and hit the road for Monterey (only an hour away)
> Dinner at the Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf, followed by a walk along a local seaside trail (it really cools down at night, so fortunately we got back to the car soon after sundown!)

Day 85 - Sept 3, 2010 (Fri)
> Day 2 in Monterey. Did the 17-mile drive (privately owned by Pebble Beach Company) – mainly we saw lots of Cypress Trees (including the Lone Cypress – the image of which is owned by Pebble Beach and copyrighted!), then did more US1 driving down to Big Sur for lunch. Monterey to Big Sur on US1 is much more picturesque than Santa Cruz to Monterey, which was much more like a freeway/motorway. We were constantly stopping to take photos, despite how foggy and overcast it was!
> On our way back to Monterey, we took a very windy and narrow road down to Pebble Beach. It was spectacular – we walked the entire length of it (probably only 1.5miles or so), and the warm sand in our toes was very welcome against the cold wind coming off the water. There were a number of people there with dogs, books, lunch, Frisbees, buckets for fishing etc. We stopped for an hour or so and did some reading, then got on our way. It was a fabulous detour!
> We had dinner at Denny’s that night (a chain American diner). It was as good as could be expected. At least we can say we’ve done it now.

Day 86 - Sept 4, 2010 (Sat)
> Left Monterey, and went to Carmel to visit the Mission there. The Mission had a very interesting history, and has been very well restored, has gorgeous gardens, and the primary school that is situated on the Mission’s grounds is gorgeous.
> Back on Highway 1, we continued to encounter beautiful views, although very foggy which added to the drama of it all! All the “pitstops” were few and far between, which meant that everywhere that was a lunch/toilet stop was very busy, and overpriced… but I guess that is what you have to deal with when driving so close to the coast.
> Our hotel in San Simeon was along a motel strip – the “town” consisted of about a dozen different motels, with 2 mini-marts and a video store, and that was all! Accommodating tourists is a hard job!

Day 87 - Sept 5, 2010 (Sun)
> Tour of Hearst Castle (built by media mogul William Hearst) which was much more interesting that we originally hoped… and incredibly popular too. His “castle” (which we learned was actually his ranch) was opulent and ostentatious , but it turns out he just loved European artifacts and went overboard with it all (nearing bankruptcy in the great depression… but who didn’t, right?)!!
> More US1 driving to get to Buellton, CA. We arrived too early to check-in, so we diverted to do a wine tour. By chance, the winery we chose (LaFond) on the Santa Rosa Road was only $5ea for a tasting (including the take-home glass), and we met the husband of our lovely host (Kathy and Mike), and Mike happened to invent the rubber-flooring used in playgrounds and also lives on the ranch next to “Jim and Suzie Cameron” (i.e., James Cameron, movie director, Titanic and Avatar!) …. Small world! ;)

Day 88 - Sept 6, 2010 (Mon)
> Driving from Buellton to Barstow. Barstow is nothing spectacular, and was only chosen as a half way stop between the California coast and Las Vegas!
> We found it really intriguing how the weather changes so dramatically the further we get from the coast – we’re in California desert now, and it looks like Ranch County USA (i.e., we imagine cowboys roaming around tending their herds, and whatever else they do). The temperature where we were on the coast was about 60F/15C, and here in Barstow it is 105F/40C – Crazy!

Days 89-92 , Sept 7-10 2010
Looking into the future in this post! We’ll be in Vegas, and are mostly planned, so can talk about what’s on the cards for our days in Sin City!
> On our way into Vegas, we’re going to stop in at The Gun Store to try our hand at shooting a hand gun/rifle/machine gun! The laws on shooting ranges are very lax here, and The Gun Store offers a “Ladies Special” on Tuesdays, so it seems perfect! (Oh my goodness.)
> We’ve booked a South Rim Tour of Las Vegas (flying in/over the Grand Canyon, doing a bus tour along the rim for some photo opps, then flying back to Vegas)… am sure more will come on this!
> Have booked a Rat Pack dinner and show for Thurs night! Enough said... but should be fun!
> Planning on doing a club night (provided the lines aren’t too unruly! Its just been the Labor Day Weekend here, so hopefully that means the crowds are slightly smaller.)
> Plenty of pool and magazine action to be had too, of course (we’re staying at the Bellagio, and are very excited about it!)