sf8

We took a more direct route 'home', through Barstow for breakfast, then we followed the 99 (parallel to, but not as scary as, the 5) through Bakersfield and passing just by Fresno and on to Modesto and finally arriving at Concord about lunchtime on Monday. We had one stop-over on the way at Kingsburg. The motel was lovely and Swedish. They said it was Swedish, but I have no idea so I will have to believe them. Dinner was at a buffet place, and a fantastic breakfast at 'Molly's Waffles' with someone who may or not have been Molly herself, but either way was as perky and blonde as a perky blonde waffle waitress could be.
Anyway. 1300 miles after we began we arrived back in Concord. After some R&R we took off early the next morning for San Francisco itself. The BART dropped us off in a central location and after breakfast at Jims Steakhouse we rode on our first cable-car.

What a great experience! It was cool even though we were on the inside of the car. We took advice from a guy in the street (only cost a dollar...) to not queue with all the other tourists at the main turntable, but to go a block up, as they don't fill the car at the bottom so that others can get on further up the hill.
The views from the top of the hills were stunning.
We rode to the end of the line and took a wander to Fishermans Wharf.

Suzanne took me to the sea-lions first. A great sight it was too, hundreds of the big old bags of blubber sitting on the platforms, sun-bathing, sleeping, fighting and playing. A lot of them seemed to be jostling for position on the fuller platforms even though there were empty ones...but that's sea-lions for you I suppose. We watched for a while and then went to catch the boat for our trip across the bay to Alcatraz.

Jailbreak...