Monterey & Carmel by the Sea

We decided to try to and do a few last minute things this morning in San Francisco before leaving town. But all that happened was that we got frustrated with one way streets and the car decided it couldn't cope with the hills and wanted us to stop and wait 10 minutes as the transmission was overheated !!

So, farewell San Francisco - hello next place.

Thought my eyes were playing tricks when I spotted this rainbow on the clouds

We found our way south - though not on the road we wanted to be on because the GPS that came with the rental is a bit anal and drives us nuts. Still, we found our way and by just after lunch had arrived at Monterey. Still crazy wind blowing in off the Pacific, so not too warm. But much more relaxed. We found somewhere for lunch - an ENGLISH PUB no less, playing Euro2016 on the big screen.

Then we found our hotel, did the washing, sorted out our cases and went back into Monterey too have a look at the Farmers Market, have a walk on the beach. That filled our shoes up with sand and wasn't much fun in the wind. Then we found some dinner and decided to go for a drive to Carmel by the Sea. 

The cute town where Clint Eastwood was once Mayor. We watched the sunset as we went and snapped a few photos to share as well. Then back to the hotel for the night.

Pohutukawa everywhere in California - and Eucalyptus in flower too 

Tomorrow is the last day of our roadtrip as we head from Monterey back to Santa Monica.

So, San Francisco...

Today's lyric is from Shania Twain - "That don't impress me much"

It was actually yesterday but I ran out of time to blog because of unforeseen events which shall be detailed later.

We got up early and set out to find breakfast as we had been led to believe the food scene was pretty amazing in San Francisco. But no, pastries, pastries, pastries or other greasy options. Blurgh. So coffee it was.

Then having decided we would do the Hop On Hop Off bus to see the sights, we found a stop and waited for the bus to arrive. We saw a few sights, wandered around Haight Ashbury and did a spot of shopping, then back on another bus for the trip over the Golden Gate Bridge and back to the stop closest to out motel for a little breather. We also had a short walkabout part of Pacific Heights. Our motel (right next door to an IHOP on Lombard St) was ostensibly in the Marina District, but actually was almost on the border of Pacific Heights - but at the bottom of the hill.

By this time, we were felling a bit deflated about San Francisco. Everyone had told us we would love it, but we didn't find it that easy to navigate, or very personable or even any different to many other places. Plus, despite being warned that it is often cold, we were completely unprepared for the freezing cold wind all day and only 14 or 15 degrees. We could have stayed in Wellington or Auckland to experience that. 

We had decided by now that we didn't want to stay another day. We have cities with harbours, and bridges, and earthquake surviving structures, and hills too - there just didn't seem to be anything that grabbed us and said STAY. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the difficulty in finding good food to eat. Who would have thought we would have found such amazing food in Utah - then nothing to compare in such a destination city ?

We caught another HOHO bus back into Downtown and wandered about a bit more trying to find shops and thongs to photograph that we had missed from the bus because inconsiderate vehicles obstructed the scene. Giving up in despair we caught another HOHO to Fishermans Wharf where we had hoped to find some food before doing the night tour. It was extremely cold too, but we decided to sit inside and just jump out to get photos when we could.

So we have photos. Afterward we caught a cab to a diner near the motel where we thought we might get some thing to eat, since nowhere else had had anything enticing on offer.

...oh, and the unforeseen even which stopped me doing this last night ? We got to the diner and then found I had left my phone on the cab ! Thank goodness for iphones !! We were able to track it and find the cab driver - and get it back. But that kind of messed up the rest of the evening.

Going to California

There is another song to get inside your head. (Led Zeppelin in case you didn't know)

This morning we got up, packed the car and had breakfast and were on our way again. Carson City has a few places worth having a better look, so maybe they might make it on the list for another time.

We had decided (or I had) to drive around Lake Tahoe to Truckee and then on to Sacramento. The GPS had different ideas though which caused a bit of a meltdown and ended up on some narrow backroads for a bit. But we were soon back on track. 

It is very lovely - and very popular which made our trip a lot slower than planned, with  a lot of roadworks thrown in for good measure. However, we made it to Sacramento to meet a new cousin and have a chat for a while before we made the last part of our journey to San Francisco.

The last 98km from Sacramento to San Francisco took close to 2 1/2 or 3 hours ! All of those people who had been out of town for the weekend, returning home. The bonus about slow traffic is that it gives you more time to concentrate and understand what the GPS is trying to tell you.

We've made it to the motel, found dinner and have some plans for tomorrow. Hopefully the June Gloom will stay away for us.