The San Francisco Treat

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This morning, we woke up to get an early start on our journey and were glad to discover it was a brisk 55 degrees! (This was much welcomed after yesterday’s extreme heat.) Our first stop of the day was Yosemite National Park… completely gorgeous. Not far past the entrance gate, we came upon a beautiful lake and pulled over to take pictures. With the nearby woods and clear crisp sky reflecting off its surface, it felt like we were standing in the middle of a postcard. We took lots of photos, but couldn’t stay as long as we would have liked…there was much more park to explore. So much, in fact, that we weren’t able to see it all. We drove from one end to the other, but unfortunately didn’t have time to take all the detours that we would have liked. Oh, well…we have to save something for next time!

In Yosemite
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Once through Yosemite, we continued on to San Francisco. We made a quick stop by the Oakland A’s field, where a young couple with an extra pair of tickets invited us to watch the A’s take on none other than the Texas Rangers! While the offer was tempting, we had a full day ahead of us, so we had to decline. We crossed the San Francisco Bay Bridge (a couple of times, actually…if you miss your exit off the bridge, you’re doomed!), and from here we got a good view of Alcatraz off in the distance. We spent some time walking around AT&T Park (where the Giants play). The best part about it was its location, right by the water where dozens of sailboats were docked for the day. It was a pretty cool sight. We also took our picture with a statue of a seal balancing a baseball on its nose, built in the days when the old San Francisco Seals baseball team played here in town. (Note to self: when posing on a dark statue in hot sunlight, said statue may burn skin.) From there we took a quick look at Monster Park where the 49ers play, and then it was off to see the more touristy sights of SF.

Hot seal
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As we wound our way through the hilly streets of this city, we took note of Chinatown (“Sake to me!”), saw our first official San Francisco trolley, and drove the famous Lombard Street, an exceptionally crooked one-way street famous for its almost comically tight turns. With the smell of over-worked brakes looming in the car, we decided to move along from these extreme hills and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly, the bridge was clouded in thick fog today, so we didn’t get to see it in its entirety, but enjoyed the trip just the same. The fog was so heavy, we could see it literally rolling across the highway – very eerie – and while our plan had been to take scenic Highway 1 along the coast, we decided to cut that route short as it was quickly becoming pointless since the beauty of the trip was lost on us in this fog. After stopping in a small town to ask some locals for directions to a bigger highway, we made our way onto 101 towards Eureka (as in, “Eureka, we can finally see stuff!”) and set up camp at Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area.

San Francisco sailboats
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Despite a couple of wrong turns and a bit of impeding fog, we enjoyed our visit to San Francisco. Stay tuned for more adventures from the road!

Still the best of friends,

Ben & Jess