Chasing Winter - Days 1 & 2 (California Coast/ San Francisco)

Day 1 – The California Coast

The epic vacation has begun! Cheryl dubbed our trip “Chasing Winter” since we both love the cold weather and have been disappointed with the summer weather we have been having since Christmas! So, we are driving up the west coast from San Diego to Seattle, then Cheryl will fly home and my mom and I will fly to Iceland. I have been planning this trip for months and it is finally here! I am so excited!

Mom and I met Cheryl at the rental car place and picked up our SUV. I am profoundly grateful that my dad won our argument over Christmas where he insisted that we rent a car and I insisted that my faithful 1999 Chevy Prism was up to the task. In hindsight that was probably just my pride talking because my poor little car, while continuing strong, is really falling apart. It makes tons of noises, has no working air conditioning, the window is broken, and the passenger door won’t open. In addition to all of that, it is a tiny little thing that would barely hold our luggage and us. We ended up with an SUV and it is way more comfortable that it would have been had my pride won out. Good thing my dad is even more stubborn than I am. Thank you, dad!

We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, which overlooks cliffs and the Pacific Ocean below. It was a gorgeous drive! Here I am at Mugu Point.

We stopped at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo where my parents honeymooned 40 years ago this week! It was actually a really cool hotel although quite dated. I think it had the original sign that looked completely ghetto. Still… very cool in kind of a retro way. We drove by Hearst castle, but didn’t have time to stop so I saw just enough to whet the appetite. I will have to take a weekend trip up there and to Solvang one of these days.

Here is my mom at the Inn. 

We had lunch at Pea Soup Andersen’s. It awoke a childhood memory of being taken there to eat pea soup after a day in Solvang with my aunts. I remember hating it then. What kid wants pea soup for lunch? I ordered it anyway since my moto on this trip is, “when in Rome”. It was ok, but I wouldn’t order it again, I mean, when is pea soup ever epic?

We were going to do dinner in Chinatown tonight but our drive ended up taking us about 3 hours longer than I expected it to so we nixed those plans and ended up calling it a night by the time we got in. We are staying at our first AirBnB and it is right downtown. We had to go meet a guy to pick up the key, then drive to the apartment to drop off our stuff then drive to a parking garage to park the car. All while driving a rental car through busy San Francisco. It was a bit stressful and I will say, true character comes out. Fortunately, the car is parked and from here on out we walk until we leave San Francisco.

Day 2 – San Francisco

Ok, San Francisco was awesome! It was sunny and gorgeous, which, even though we are really anxious for some winter weather, was nice since we were out walking for hours on end. We spent most of the day doing a tour of the city. The tour ended up being really cool. Sure, it feels a little touristy but whatever, it was worth it. We ended up being the only ones on the tour so it was just Cheryl, my mom and I along with our new friend, Sean, a 30 year-old hipster. Seriously, this is the way to go. The four of us went all over the city. We covered tons of ground and we went through all the various neighborhoods.  In addition to getting to see the sights, we got to hear lots of history of the city and learn little random facts – like the fact that the Safeway store in the Marina District was actually a famous place to meet singles. Apparently, every Wednesday night, single people would come to Safeway to find a date. It was voted the number one place to meet singles at some point. Seriously, Google it, it’s so weird!

Since it was a walking tour we got to go into little alleyways and interesting nooks and crannies of the city. Here we are in an underground tunnel. It was just underneath an art store. Who knew?

After our day tour wrapped up we came home for a couple of hours to get a second wind. Then we went out on the town! We walked from our apartment to Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Warf (which we didn’t see earlier in the day) and then ate some delicious Chinese food in Chinatown, thanks to a great recommendation from our hipster buddy, Sean. We enjoyed the feel of the city at night, especially Chinatown, and eventually made our way home. I am so completely exhausted now… we walked around all day long; we clocked in about 14 miles today. My feet are killing me! I will be looking forward to spending the day tomorrow on the road. Napa Valley and Redwood Forrest, here we come!