Mon 22 July
We headed off from our motel and drove around the Northern side of San Pablo Bay to the North of San Francisco. We turned off the freeway into the Marin Headlands which are at the mouth of San Francisco Bay and the Northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were instantly enveloped in a thick, dense fog that is so common in San Francisco. We knew of this but didn't expect it in July - the middle of summer. This fog often seems to hang around the Bridge and the coastline so as we saw, the city itself is bathed in glorious sunshine but a few kms away there is thick fog everywhere!
While we had the car we drove around to see some of the sights in and around San Francisco. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (not seeing much other than the cars in front and entered the city of San Francisco. It didn't take long to understand how hilly this city was. I mean we're from Wellington but this was something else, every street is either up or down and seems like the whole city is sliding into the Bay at the far end. First up in our sights were the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square, a group of Victorian and Edwardian houses built in the late 1800s.
We criss-crossed our way along quite a few blocks, weaving around trams and city fire trucks to our next destination - Lombard St. This has got to be one of the most photographed streets in San Francisco - one block of it is steep with eight hairpin turns with manicured hedges and gardens in between. This little block can often cause traffic jams however we sailed through easily. We drove down it and then parked at the bottom to get some photos from there too, although it was hard to get a photo showing it quite how it is.
 |
| Driving down Lombard St |
After dropping our car off and checking in to our motel we grabbed a bike and headed off, we wanted to explore more on two wheels! Our journey took us to Fisherman's Wharf and along the coastline back towards the Golden Gate Bridge where we again crossed over in the fog and down the hill at the other side to the beautiful village of Sausalito.
Sausalito is just across the Bay from San Francisco, either a short ferry ride or a jaunt across the Golden Gate Bridge (we took the latter). As it is a small village or suburb, it has a lovely holiday feel to it and almost European, you could be somewhere on the Mediterranean not in America!
 |
| View from a quaint art shop we went to |
We were originally planning to take the ferry back across the bay to the city but the queue waiting for the ferry was too long for us, we did wait a while but were starting to roast in the sun and didn't know how long it would be before a ferry would come that we could fit on so we decided to just bike back.
Dinner was down at Fisherman's Wharf at a seafood place where we ate with gloves and bibs due to the messiness of it all!
Tue 23 July
After a leisurely breakfast and a walk along the Embarcadero or Promenade, we caught a boat across for our tour to Alcatraz island. We were both looking forward to this as we'd heard so much about this famous prison-island.
On our return to the city we walked back along the Embarcadero and enjoyed exploring the Ferry Plaza which is a large indoor farmer's market. Even in the above and below photo you can see the huge difference between being on the Bay near the Harbour Entrance and further away in terms of the fog/cloud cover - these photos were taken about 30 minutes apart.
We had breakfast at another cafe Rosanna had spotted online in the Outer Sunset district and then continued down the coast heading South away from San Francisco. This Pacific Highway road is one of the most scenic and spectacular drives in all of America if not the world and you will see why from some of the following photos.
We stopped at the city called Santa Cruz, about 1.5 hours drive from San Francisco to stretch our legs where we walked the length of the Jetty. There were also seals lounging around on wooden pontoons which we watched for a while before the stench got too much!!
Monterey was our final destination today, we arrived around noon and had a nice seafood lunch looking out over the sea. Monterey is famous for their amazing aquarium but we opted not to do this and instead explored the shops and even found a beach to go swimming at!
Thu 25 July
More of the Pacific Coast Highway today, about 400km of it to be exact. Sit back and enjoy the views!
Fri 26 July
Our first stop this morning was at Malibu, we went to a Whole Foods market and then tried (mostly in vain) trying to find some celebrities homes. Many celebrities have houses or holiday houses in and around Malibu - its a lovely beachside town not far from Los Angeles. We found an access path to the beach so had a swim here although the surf was pretty strong.
Tue 23 July
After a leisurely breakfast and a walk along the Embarcadero or Promenade, we caught a boat across for our tour to Alcatraz island. We were both looking forward to this as we'd heard so much about this famous prison-island.
On our return to the city we walked back along the Embarcadero and enjoyed exploring the Ferry Plaza which is a large indoor farmer's market. Even in the above and below photo you can see the huge difference between being on the Bay near the Harbour Entrance and further away in terms of the fog/cloud cover - these photos were taken about 30 minutes apart.
We continued back into the centre of town up Market St to Union Square and then through Chinatown.
 |
| Union Square |
San Francisco was an interesting city, very big and smudgey with a sort of dirty charm to it. It's hard to explain but although we found some parts very nice other parts were not so much and quite touristy and fake. We would consider going back, perhaps staying on the outskirts and exploring more.
Wed 24 July
Today was leave-San Francisco day and we were glad we could finally see the Golden Gate Bridge in the sun!! On the off-chance we drove back past that way to see if we could and here it was!!
 |
| Baker Beach - on the back-side of the Golden Gate Bridge |
 |
| Buffalo in Golden Gate Park that we stumbled across |
 |
| Gray Whale Cove State Beach |
Monterey was our final destination today, we arrived around noon and had a nice seafood lunch looking out over the sea. Monterey is famous for their amazing aquarium but we opted not to do this and instead explored the shops and even found a beach to go swimming at!
Thu 25 July
More of the Pacific Coast Highway today, about 400km of it to be exact. Sit back and enjoy the views!
 |
| Bixby Creek Bridge |
 |
| McWay Falls |
 |
| Elephant Seal Vista Point |
 |
| Santa Barbara beach |
Fri 26 July
Our first stop this morning was at Malibu, we went to a Whole Foods market and then tried (mostly in vain) trying to find some celebrities homes. Many celebrities have houses or holiday houses in and around Malibu - its a lovely beachside town not far from Los Angeles. We found an access path to the beach so had a swim here although the surf was pretty strong.
 |
| Malibu Beach |
On arrival into Los Angeles we found a park at a shopping mall in Santa Monica and had a walk around the shops and caught a glimpse of the famous Santa Monica Pier (with thousands of cars parked outside!)
We then started a self-guided drive around the suburbs in the hills which I had pieced together from online information about where celebrities lived. It was definitely an eye-opener seeing the lush, leafy streets and huge mansions behind giant hedges but we didn't see much just expensive cars driving around! We finished this off on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills - this is where all the celebrities shop so the shops are all designer and priced to match! This is one of the most exclusive shopping spots in the world. Chanel bought a store here a year or so ago for $152 million!
Sat 27 July
Saturday started off with a short hike up the hill behind where we were staying in Hollywood. The goal was a viewpoint where we could get a vantage point of the famous Hollywood sign.
 |
| View of Los Angeles |
 |
| Another Whole Foods market!! |
We then had a gander around Hollywood Boulevard and took a walk along the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Warner Bros Studio tour was next up on the agenda for today! An inside view of a working Studios, it was the weekend so there wasn't any shooting going on at the time but it was still interesting seeing all the sets etc. We won't be able to watch Movies quite the same again!!
 |
| The fake Oval Office |
After stopping back at our AirBnB for a rest, we decided we'd go out for dinner at Venice Beach, seemed like a nice place to go for dinner...it was a journey of 35km (just down the road in American terms) however... it took us over an hour and a half!! Los Angeles has some of the worst traffic we've ever experienced, it's not like you can take back streets or side roads either as they are all the same! Admittedly this was a Saturday evening in the middle of summer but even so!
The situation didn't change too much once we'd arrived, took a long time finding a park, then had to walk 15 minutes back to the main restaurant area and then most/all restaurants had long queues or required reservations or were fully booked. We managed to find something although was nothing special.
Sun 28 July
Our last day on holiday :( Our flight wasn't until late evening so we checked out and then had a think about what we wanted to see on our last day. We thought more beach (as could be expected) but first we were going to check out a bit of downtown LA (where the main CBD is).
We had a delicious meats and cheeses platter at Manhattan Beach for lunch then explored this little suburb and it's beach and wharf.
I then wanted to try and find a viewing place near the runway at LAX to see all the planes but we couldn't find one so ended up going to a nearby subdivision where Rosanna could get her nails done. I just waited in the tranquility of this little park.
After dropping our car off (very efficient process) we jumped on the shuttle to the airport. The driver adamantly said he knew which terminal Air NZ left from however I was sure I knew from our documentation however we took his advice and got out. Turns out he was wrong so we had to trudge our bags along the pavement next to the terminal for 10 minutes to reach the correct one and check-in. Nothing much has changed from what I remember at Los Angeles airport (I was last here in 1996!). I always hear horror stories from other travelers too - the airport seems to small, dimly lit and old for the amount of people who go through here! And Air NZ still leaves from what seems like a shed tacked on to the end of the main terminal with everyone waiting in holding pens. Anyway we didn't have too long to wait and we were boarding our flight back home!
We really enjoyed our time away, we only had 2 weeks really and some places did feel a little rushed, we would've loved to have spent more time around the June Lakes area for instance however we were also pleased to have seen another 4 states of the US on this trip. It definitely makes sense doing America by car - the roads are very setup - large and everywhere although not all that well maintained. There are some places however we would not be in a rush to get back to if at all (mainly the cities). Although they were very interesting to see and understand more about they were not highlights.
We completed a mind-blowing 3979km in those 2 weeks and 62 hours 31 minutes spent in the car (as per the odometer) and some days cover many kilometers however they did not seem long as they were spent in front of new, ever-changing scenery and each mile passed was another explored! As you can see below we only covered a small portion of the USA, so BRING ON THE NEXT TRIP!!!
The situation didn't change too much once we'd arrived, took a long time finding a park, then had to walk 15 minutes back to the main restaurant area and then most/all restaurants had long queues or required reservations or were fully booked. We managed to find something although was nothing special.
 |
| The Canals of Venice |
 |
| Hollywood Boulevard |
Our last day on holiday :( Our flight wasn't until late evening so we checked out and then had a think about what we wanted to see on our last day. We thought more beach (as could be expected) but first we were going to check out a bit of downtown LA (where the main CBD is).
We had a delicious meats and cheeses platter at Manhattan Beach for lunch then explored this little suburb and it's beach and wharf.
I then wanted to try and find a viewing place near the runway at LAX to see all the planes but we couldn't find one so ended up going to a nearby subdivision where Rosanna could get her nails done. I just waited in the tranquility of this little park.
After dropping our car off (very efficient process) we jumped on the shuttle to the airport. The driver adamantly said he knew which terminal Air NZ left from however I was sure I knew from our documentation however we took his advice and got out. Turns out he was wrong so we had to trudge our bags along the pavement next to the terminal for 10 minutes to reach the correct one and check-in. Nothing much has changed from what I remember at Los Angeles airport (I was last here in 1996!). I always hear horror stories from other travelers too - the airport seems to small, dimly lit and old for the amount of people who go through here! And Air NZ still leaves from what seems like a shed tacked on to the end of the main terminal with everyone waiting in holding pens. Anyway we didn't have too long to wait and we were boarding our flight back home!
We really enjoyed our time away, we only had 2 weeks really and some places did feel a little rushed, we would've loved to have spent more time around the June Lakes area for instance however we were also pleased to have seen another 4 states of the US on this trip. It definitely makes sense doing America by car - the roads are very setup - large and everywhere although not all that well maintained. There are some places however we would not be in a rush to get back to if at all (mainly the cities). Although they were very interesting to see and understand more about they were not highlights.
We completed a mind-blowing 3979km in those 2 weeks and 62 hours 31 minutes spent in the car (as per the odometer) and some days cover many kilometers however they did not seem long as they were spent in front of new, ever-changing scenery and each mile passed was another explored! As you can see below we only covered a small portion of the USA, so BRING ON THE NEXT TRIP!!!
Comments
Post a Comment