San Francisco and Home

A relaxing few days in San Francisco brings our trip to an end.

We stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf and after dropping our bags we were out for a walk to stretch our legs after our flight from Florida. A walk along the waterfront, people watching and checking out the area filled in the afternoon. Later an early dinner, (we were up at 5am and had a 3 hour time change) and an early night ended our day.

The Marriot Courtyard serves a nice breakfast but bad coffee so before collecting our car we head up to Starbucks for some decent coffee. Then we are off for a drive north, the weather is overcast and forecast to get worse as the day progresses. We drove along the waterfront heading to the Golden Gate Bridge, missing the first view point but stopping at the second one over the bridge. It was only a couple of years ago we were here so we just had a quick stop today. It’s still a pretty impressive bridge. Philip has found a couple of stores he wants to visit today, so they mark our destinations. After stopping to check them out and with the weather deteriorating we find a route that will take us inland and then back south over the Bay Bridge.

We find ourselves driving through an area that was burnt out in 2017, where many homes (1700) and properties were destroyed. Now a few have been rebuilt but many people are living in Rv’s/motorhomes parked on their properties. It is quite a picturesque area and would have been even more so before the fire. We then head back to the city via the Napa Valley. This is a major wine growing region and although the vines are bare at the moment it makes for some lovely views. Then it’s back over the Bay Bridge. At one stage we were in 14 lanes of traffic. Most lanes we have ever driven in. Then back to our accommodation. After a quick refresher in our room we walk down to the waterfront to find some dinner. Just a bowl of chowder for each of us. Then a wander along the Embarcadero before heading back.

Next day we are off again driving south this time, heading down to Santa Cruz and then out to the Pacific Coast. Aaahh the Pacific Ocean, makes me feel as though I’m almost home. There are some great cliff views along the way as we travel up Highway 1. We stop at several for a walk along the wind blown cliffs as we head north back to the city. Once back we head out on foot again, enjoying the pleasant evening. We watch the cable car head up Leavenworth Street but decide not to wait in the long line to take a ride. We continue around the waterfront watching swimmers in the cool waters and kids playing on the “beach”. Continuing round we come to Fort Mason, sitting on the bluff overlooking the bay and discover a small food market with quite a few food stalls selling quite a variety of foods and drinks.

(P “It’s a Modern World we Live In”

In our usual way were wandering around towards evening with no particular destination in mind. As we walked around hills above the Bay, we spotted a crowd of people, tents and food vans. Of course we thought this was worth a look. It was labeled an “Off the Grid” and “Eco Friendly” Dinner Food Market. There were crowds of people and some very nice food stalls with lots of options. BUT they were advertising environmentally friendly and being “off Grid”! Sure it was off grid and didn’t connect to mains power but there were :-

– No Batteries

– No solar Panels to charge the Batteries that didn’t exist

– No wind generators in this windy foreshore environment

– No Solar lights

There was:-

– A diesel Generator to supply electricity (instead of plugging into the mains electricity close by)

– approximately 20 Food Vans, almost all of ageing character and fitted with V8 Petrol guzzling engines (to drive to the location)

– Most food vans had small petrol generators to supply their own “Eco” electricity (as main generator obviously wasn’t big enough)

– All food and drink was served on throw away plates, plastic cups etc of which most went in trash bin not the recycle bins.

– By the look of the vehicles in the parking lot not many of them ran on “fresh air” either!

I am not being hypocritical as I enjoy my food, V8 vehicles and am proud of my motto – “ If it doesn’t have an engine in it I shouldn’t be using it”. But how gullible are people if they think they are helping “Save the World” by participating in this type of event? The power of advertising strikes again! This and a few other locations host these events, all managed by one entrepreneurial company!)

Our last day in San Fran and we are off for a walk before breakfast. Straight up Leavenworth street from our hotel, heading to Lombard Street. The famous steep Zig Zag Street in this neighbourhood. Arriving at the bottom of the zig zags we hit the steps and climb the almost 300 steps to the top for some great views out over the harbour and down the street. Once at the top it’s all downhill back to the hotel. We watch several of the cable cars ascending and descending this steep hill.

Back at the hotel we complete our packing and load everything into our car. Now to fill the day in until 6pm this evening when we need to be at the airport. Philip says “lets head east today and see what we can find”, said with a smirk on his face. Hmmmm, I smell a rat.

(P. It appears that Judith suffers from a “faulty” sense of smell (smelling a rat) as opposed to my excellent “Taste” in the choice of our last day of activities! I suggested we drive SE today toward the town of Pleasanton as its name sounded like an interesting place for lunch. Amazing as it seems we just happened to drive past a Classic and Custom Car show! In we went to a show of approx 3000 cars (not many old pickups which I enjoy). We wandered around, had my USA favourite carnival food – a brined and smoked turkey drumstick, managed to purchase a couple of parts for my old Ford, from my opinion an enjoyable morning. (Maybe a little Dr Google research did assist in our direction of travel today?

For the last couple of hours before our flight we found the Coyote Point Recreation Reserve where we wandered amongst a mini forest of Gum trees. (the aroma of the eucalyptus trees smelt so good being away from them for a few weeks) we walked the waters edge watching planes approach the airport, many family picnics and kite surfers in the bay. A 15 minute drive to the airport and we are homeward bound.

April 1st.

We have made it, we are back home. The sun is shining and the garden beckons. Tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, sweet corn and more wait to be harvested. It’s great to have wonderful memories but it’s also great to be back home. We look forward to catching up with family and friends over the next few weeks and sharing our memories from our trip.

So for now it’s good bye from us as we close off this trip blog after an awesome adventure.