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| 8/23/04 The drive to San Francisco from LA is long and we took a few days to do it. It is a beautiful drive with a rugged coastline and some pretty hairy turns. It has been foggy which is normal for this time of year, I was glad because I wasn�t able to see how far of a drop it would be if I missed one of the hairpin turns! We visited Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Castle is a perfect word to describe the estate. The man who built the place was William Hearst and he owned newspaper, magazine, and movie companies in the 1920 and �30s. Very rich and very eccentric. I can�t even put into words the beauty that is up on that hill, so I won�t! I�ll let the pictures do the job for me. On Thursday we drove to Monterey and did the 17-mile drive around the peninsula into Carmel, a very nice coastal drive. We then spent a few hours in Santa Cruz where they have a huge wharf with shops, restaurants and sea lions! Yup, I said sea lions. There are viewing areas from above and then there is a staircase that takes you down close to them. There is a fence that separates you because you really don�t want to get too close to them�they can be mean. Under the wharf there are platforms for them to climb up on and sleep, it�s pretty funny to see them try to get up onto the platform when the tide is going out. We also saw a few fight and play with each other. It was amazing and beats Sea World any day (plus it was free!!). Thursday and Friday night we slept at a lighthouse! Pigeon Point Lighthouse was turned into a hostel about 20 years ago. We literally are sleeping in the shadow of a lighthouse right on the cliffs of the Pacific. It�s so awesome to sit by the living room window and watch the light go around in the lantern room, very relaxing and hypnotizing. Friday we drove up the coast to a small town called Half Moon Bay�so cute. We had a wonderful (a big) breakfast at a local diner spot- fresh blueberry pancakes were the highlight, and the owner/cook sang along to big band tunes as they played on the juke box. We spent a few hours on a horse back ride on the cliffs and down to the beach. Don�t worry we had a guide, especially since it has been years since either of us has been on a horse. It has been a dream of mine to go horseback riding on the beach�it was just like I pictured it. We are little sore but it was worth it and we met some nice people and horses. Saturday afternoon was spent in San Jose at the Winchester Mystery House. The heiress of the Winchester Gun fortune built this mansion in the early 1900�s. A fortuneteller had told her that the spirits of the people killed by Winchester guns were going to kill her if she did not continue to build this house. So for over 25 years she had builders working 24/7, until she died. She supposed was told by spirits how to design the house and she felt the need to trick the spirits so there are 160 rooms, doors to nowhere, windows to walls, stairs to ceilings, windows in floors and other weird additions. It was great tour thru the bizarre house and gardens. |
| 8/27/04 Let me warn you that Keith and I saw and did a lot in San Francisco! It was awesome and of course we started off with a trolley tour. Again� these are so perfect because they take you all over the city and this was a fun ride! We had some great luck also, there wasn�t any fog that day and we were able to see the whole Golden Gate Bridge. Even our guide was very impressed with how nice the day was and how it is usually very foggy and you can�t see most of the bridge. That happened to be the way it was for the rest of out time there, VERY foggy. We seem to have perfect timing! We stopped at Fort Point for pictures of the bridge and also found a lighthouse there- bonus! We visited some famous neighborhoods and movie scene areas (Mrs. Doubtfire, Bullet, and The Rock). As you may know there are huge hills in San Fran and the streets can get very steep, our driver took us for a ride down one of the streets and it was like a roller coaster! The tour ends at Pier 39, which is a huge tourist spot for shopping and eating. They also have rafts that sea lions come and hang out on. They can be up to 300 sea lions at a time at certain times of the year. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Caf� there and had an awesome waitress, Shanti. On Monday, we dropped the Jeep off in Oakland Harbor. Very weird driving a car now, the Jeep has been our �home� for so long. We then took a drive thru Napa Valley and took a tour at a vineyard/winery. They made sparkling wine and pinot noir there and they show us the whole process by video and took a tour of the cellars and bottling line. The fields are beautiful, I can imagine what the whole area must smell like in the spring and at harvest time! We then went to visit a lighthouse that we could barely see because of the fog, it was still worth the drive. On Tuesday, we took a tour of Alcatraz which is the famous prison on an island in the bay. We had to take a ferry over which we had booked days before; we were lucky enough to get tipped off by someone that we met that you should make reservations days in advance! The tour is very neat and the prison is kind of creepy because it�s run down and so old. It�s an audio tour and we get to go into the cells and see a lot of the prison. There is also a lighthouse there! A lot of history on that island, movies about it too! We then went to a Japanese Tea Garden in the city park which had beautiful statues of Buddha, temples and ponds thru out the garden along with a cool half moon shaped bridge. Later that night we took a walking tour of Chinatown which was awesome because it took us into parts of town that we wouldn�t have found on our own or dared to go on our own! We went to a fortune cookie-making factory where the women of the family make the cookies by hand! It was neat to see but I�m sure it can get tedious to do all day long. We then went to a teashop to try some traditional Chinese tea. Chinatown has a lot of history and mystique, I find it very intriguing. Our next leg of the trip is keeping us along the coast and into Oregon, Washington and back into Canada. |