The USA Road Trip San Francisco
Day 24 Los Angeles to
San Francisco
A long day’s drive, originally I had planned as part of this
drive to take the scenic route north out of Los Angeles, but in the end I am
glad we didn’t as the drive from L.A, to San Francisco is already a long one and
that’s just going by the freeway and we were all pretty worn out. There isn’t a
lot to mention on this day as it was mainly driving through fairly dull scenery.
It was however the day we had to hand back the car, so the last of the driving
for the holiday. Since picking up the car in Denver we had driven about 5000
kilometres in 24 days.
Day 25 San Francisco
Up and at them and into downtown San Francisco by subway, getting
off at Union Square we made our way down to the Harbour to see if we could get
across to Alcatraz, but alas all the tours had been booked weeks in advance. No
worries, onto plan B which was to make our way around to Fishermans Wharf. Here
we had a look around, watched the seals, had a great lunch of clam chowder in a
sourdough bowl and then booked a hop on, hop off bus tour to see all the sights.
Jumping on the bus we made our way back up town where Helen jumped off for some
retail therapy while the rest of us stayed on until Chinatown. Hopping off we
made our way through Chinatown until we came to Lombard Street the windiest
street in the world. It has nine bends within the space of a block. Of course
we had to climb up the street much to the kids disgust.
Those people that have been to San Francisco will know how
hilly it is and I think we climbed most of them.
From Lombard Street we headed back downhill, then uphill to
Coit Tower. This is memorial to the cities fire-fighters and sits on a hill
overlooking the bay. Being hilly San Francisco has great views from every vantage
point and the hills and the bay combine to make it one of the most scenic cities
in the world I think. Leaving Coit Tower we then headed back to the water’s
edge to pick up a bus to take us back up to the station to meet Helen. One
thing about San Francisco it has to have one of the most confusing ticketing systems
in the world for its public transport and if it wasn’t for the homeless folk
that take it upon themselves to provide assistance to tourists I don’t think
anyone would work it out. I don’t begrudge paying anyone for the help they give
in this case.
By the end of the day I reckon Chelle the kids and I must
have walked 5 or 6 Km’s, the kids did a stirling job keeping up.
Day 26 The Golden
Gate Bridge and Muir Woods
Back into Fishermans Wharf, this time to pick up a bus to
take us across the Golden Gate to Sausalito and Muir Woods. Helen stayed on the
bus while Chelle the kids and I jumped off on the San Francisco side of the
bridge and proceeded to walk across. We had discussed trying to hire bikes and
riding from the Wharf to the bridge and then across it. Once we started however
we were glad we hadn’t as only one pedestrian lane was open and it had to be
shared between riders and pedestrians, making it very congested. This and it
being very windy and cold would have made it difficult for the kids, as it was
Chelle and Ryan weren’t too keen to go anywhere near the railing of the bridge as
it isn’t really very high. I guess this explains why the bridge is still the
number one suicide location in the USA!
Walking across the bridge was one of the must does on my
list and it didn’t disappoint, you get the best views from up there. On the
other side we met up with Helen again and got the bus into Sausalito, we didn’t
get to look around unfortunately as we had to catch another bus to take us to
Muir Woods. Sausalito is an artist’s community and tourist town, so it wouldn’t
have appealed much to the kids anyhow. Muir woods, on the other hand is a
valley full of preserved giant Redwoods nestling on the coast north of the
Golden Gate. The size of these trees is most impressive; they are the tallest
living things on the planet and are thousands of years old. It really does make
you feel insignificant standing next to one.
To get back from Sausalito to San Francisco we took the
ferry which again provides plenty of different views of the bay and the bridge,
with the added bonus of swinging close by Alcatraz. Getting back to the other
side pretty much wrapped up our day except for the fact that all of the subway
stations in the downtown area had been closed down by protesters and were
swarming with Police in riot gear. Luckily for us the protest ended around
18:00 and the stations reopened, so we didn’t suffer to long a delay.
Day 27 Flying from
San Francisco to Vancouver
Nothing too exciting, the only highlight being; flying over
Mount St Helens and seeing the devastation caused by the explosion of the
volcano. There are entire mountain sides that are still bear of trees and there
is a lake that is entirely clogged up by silt.
We arrived in Vancouver mid afternoon and went for a short exploration
downtown and to find dinner and that pretty much concluded the day.
