USA Road Trip - Days 22 and 23

We spent two sightseeing packed days in San Francisco enjoying the foggy city.  On day 22 we left our campground, which was 45 minutes north of San Fran, headed back out to highway 1 and made our way onto the Golden Gate Bridge.  Foggy as always, the view of the bridge wasn’t the best but it was still an amazing sight.

I made a new friend at one of the scenic pull outs!  His name was Tipper!

First Golden Gate sighting

We checked in to our lovely Hotel Frank right near Union Square, spent a few minutes admiring our lovely king size bed and clean ensuite bathroom before heading to Chinatown for a much needed yum cha hit (or dim sum as they call it).  After ingesting enough yum cha for a regular sized Australian couple (only five dishes compared to the table of two next to us who had a total of 15 dishes between them, and were actually cut off due to the restaurant making last call, needless to say, they were rather corpulent Americans).

Luckily our next destination was downhill as we headed to Pier 39 to see some more sea lions.  You would think by this point we would have had enough of sea lions and other aquatic mammals, but no.  They are still cute as ever.

We then attempted to get on a tour to Alcatraz only to be told that as it is peak season we would have needed to book at least a month in advance.  Who plans that far in advance?  Anyway, we had to make do with seeing it from the shore.

We headed down the road to Fisherman’s Wharf and stopped at Boudins Bakery with the intention of trying one of their famous chowders in a sourdough bowl but unfortunately we were still full of dumplings (and I was a little extra full after eating a custard tart on the way).  We settled for photos of the bread and the hoards of people ogling the creative dough designs.

From Fisherman's Wharf we followed the signs to Ghiradelli Square for a much needed hot chocolate.  Here we also learnt of Off the Grid, a food truck street market of sorts where some of San Fran's best food trucks come together with the sole purpose of adding to the obesity problem.  The food was incredibly delicious and a lot of it was locally sourced and seasonal.  Food truck perfection!

The next day we breakfasted at Lori's diner for a good old fashioned American (read crap) diner breakfast.  It was full of all the flare one would hope to see in an American diner, sadly in just lacked the flavour.

We then fulfilled a life long fantasy of seeing the Full House house.  The Painted Ladies were very quaint but we couldn't help but feel bad for the people who actually lived in the houses.

Our last tourist stop was Lombard Street which lays claim to the windiest street.  I thought it was pretty pointless really and the photos don't really show how windy it is but I have included them anyway.

That evening we started to head towards Los Angeles.  We had an overnight in Monterey, a cute little beachside town on the west coast.  On the way we stopped to check out a cute lighthouse and its friendly resident sea lions.

USA Road Trip - Days 17 to 21

Day 17 was another one of our all day driving days.  Leaving the beautiful Montana landscape behind, we entered Idaho, which was as exciting as Iowa (so not exciting at all) and then over into Washington.  The eastern side of Washington state was nothing like what Twilight portrayed.  It was hot, dry and sunny and looked a lot like Idaho/Iowa.  About an hour out from Seattle the scenery completely changed and we were in beautiful mountainous forests covered in mist and looking much more Twilight-esque.

Yay.  Idaho.

Our first whirly whirly!

There was just hours of this.  HOURS.

Finally, something nice to look at.

The next day we wandered around Seattle, stopping to check out Pike Place Market, the Space Needle and the first Starbucks store in America.  As it is summer here (although you wouldn’t know it in Seattle with its wind and rain etc) everything was stupidly busy.  The market was overcrowded making food purchasing and eating a little awkward.  The line to Starbucks was down the road, why I will never know.  It all tastes the same people!!  Starbucks is the McDonalds of the coffee world.  The line to the Space Needle was also a little ridiculous so we wandered around the base of it laughing at the fools who spent their hard earned money to go up and look at grey clouds.

The Space Needle

The Space Needle and the Experience Music Project

Inside the market 

Pike Place Market

That evening we headed to Portland and were lucky enough to catch up with the Byers again!  This was also the night we met Stella, possibly the largest cat I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

STELLA!!!!!!!!!

So day 19 was spent in Portland, although from the lack of photos you wouldn’t know it.  I think the reason for the lack of photographic evidence is that no digital image could really capture the amazing feel of the place.  Sure we have pictures of the food trucks (which are numerous and incredibly delicious) but the best part of Portland was just wandering around, stopping  in to a few cafes for a delicious coffee and general people watching.  Sure it’s a hipsters paradise, but that aside, Portland is definitely one of my favourite cities in the States.

Loving my delicious grilled cheese!

Amazing southern fried chicken and biscuits.  Sadly, full of hipsters.

That night we were lucky enough to stay at Kevin’s sister’s tree house a few hours south of Portland.  The treehouse has solar lights, a solar shower, a pit toilet and it wonderfully isolated.  Marc and I had an awesome night sitting around the fire, toasting marshmallows, keeping an eye out for deer and enjoying the peace and quiet.  It was also possibly one of the best nights sleep we have both had in a long while.

Day 20 was another day on the road but luckily we were driving through beautiful redwood forests and along the incredibly scenic Highway 101 (101 is the northern coastal route before it turns into the famous highway 1 and is like the Great Ocean Road on steroids).  We spent that night in Arcata, California with one of Cate and Kevin’s friends, Paul, who kindly showed us around his beautiful town and put us up for the night.

The Pacific Ocean

Redwoods

The only good reason for a traffic jam.

Best animal crossing ever.

Day 21 saw us leaving Arcata and making our way San Francisco.  It was a bit of a continuation of the previous day, more beautiful redwood forests and coastal driving.  We did do one thing different on day 21, which was driving through a giant redwood.  That’s right, you can drive through one of the trees!  They are that big!!  You wouldn’t have wanted a car much bigger than ours as we barely scraped through. 

That's our car coming out of a tree!