The road up the coast (1) was interesting, we rode with friends we met on R66 AnneMarie & Rene each riding a Harley. We seperated at San Luis Obispo where we turned off to Morro Bay and they rode on towards San Francisco. We had only one problem on the road where we got caught up in traffic going to an all day concert in Ventura, cars for Africa and long waits on the freeway!
Morro Bay was lovely, we had a room near the docks and walked the waterfront in the sunset before stopping for a clamchowder dinner overlooking the boats. The guy on the next table was served a hamburger with 12 beef burgers in it and smothered in cheese haha.
After a great sleep we headed up the coast on 101 stopping at a beach to look at a colony of sea elephants cavorting on the sand and in the sea. The road became quite winding and the temp got colder and colder. We had intended to carry on up 1 after Monterey where we had a bite to eat we decided to take route 9 instead. What a great choice, it took us up thru a redwood forest and lovely curvy roads into the hills with great views. We came down onto the freeway into San Francisco getting into the city centre about 4.45pm, negotiated the streets ok and arrived at our hostel, Fort Mason, right on the waterfront just west of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We headed straight out and walked through the seafront to Fishermans Wharf and on up into the Italian quarter for dinner. Our impressions are that SF is a vibrant busy city, lots of people out walking and jogging and even swimming in the sea. It felt very safe and we were out until about midnight with no problems.
Next day we headed into the city at 8am and came home at midnight again, can't waste a minute of the time we have. We bought a day transport pass and rode on all the different types on offer, cable car, train, bus, streetcar, trolleybus, bus. We ate, chinese and japanese and ate dinner at Scoma's on the pier a bit pricey but a real treat, beautiful food.
