Road trip 2011 – part 4

Day 9-11 (11/14-11/17) – Stayed the night in Los Angeles, CA then drove the coastal highway up to San Francisco. Along the way, we were able to meet up with a good friend from college, Dave C., in Monterey. I can’t believe that I forgot to get pictures when we were with him!

We also stopped for a few minutes to get our feet in the Pacific Ocean. Clear instructions were given to “not get soaked”!

Guess who didn’t listen and got soaked? HA – he got knocked over by a wave. Savannah was wet enough to need to change clothes, too.

San Francisco is a beautiful city. We enjoyed Lombard Street, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, COIT Tower, Chinatown and many other hilly streets :)

Look for John up the hill a little on Lombard Street. This is Coit Tower on the right – it was a beautiful day.

We walked to Chinatown and enjoyed the culture their. We ate lunch at a family restaurant, then walked through the streets and found a little park where there were tables of people set up all over. We wondered what gambling card game they were playing. Does anyone know?

 

John and kids near the Coit tower. Mail deliverers in San Francisco are fit and trim!

Street trolley car – we didn’t ride on this time. Alcatraz from the parkway.

The second day, we walked almost 8 miles. We parked along Marina Blvd and walked along the water to the Golden Gate Bridge and went as far as they would allow on the pedestrian walkway. They have the walkway blocked off near the middle of the bridge, so that was the furthest we could go. For fun, to join other tourists, we dropped a nickel onto the bridge. We told the kids that when they return with their kids, they should look for our nickel.

Next we went to Fisherman’s Wharf and specifically to Pier 39 to see the sea lions. The kids enjoyed their fussing and bellowing at each other. Although there were many empty piers, they all seemed to need to be together on just a few.

On the way back to the car, the kids each got a stuffed sea lion to remember the fun time we had here.

COFFEE!! This is the car that we rented waiting in line at the nice little coffee shop. I can be a bit like the sea lions when I haven’t had my coffee soon enough!

The Golden Gate Bridge is reportedly “the most photographed bridge in the world”. John definitely did his part to keep that tradition going. We have at least 75 pictures that include the bridge in some way. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Leaving San Francisco, we saw a beautiful double rainbow right next to the highway. I can’t say that I have ever seen one that “close” before. Sure seemed like the pot of gold should be there somewhere. We took a little detour off of the main road to enjoy the drive-thru redwood tree. We missed seeing the majority of redwood trees because it had gotten too dark by the time we went through that area, but you could see glimpses in the headlights and they are magnificent, I’m sure.

Day 12 (11/18) - Overnight in Medford, OR and then on to Cannon Beach to visit my sister, Debbie.