Hey everyone from sunny San Francisco! Well, what a whirlwind of the last three days. I met my new trek group in LA and I'm so lucky again to have such a lovely group! This trek is going to be a bit different to the last as it's majority camping with 4 hotel nights out of 13, but I'm ready for the adventure. So anyways we set off from LA to Monterey Bay. We've had to flip the itinerary round as the US Government have inconveniently shut down, which means all the government run attractions are shut, so unfortunately as it stands we will not be going into the Grand Canyon nor Yosemite national park :(! However, we'll still have a chance to helicopter over the canyon so that's a plus.
So the change up meant we was going to Monterey bay first then to San Francisco. We traveled through route 101 which provided us with the most gorgeous views of the California coast. I was sat in the front with my tour leader who by the way is insane... a typical hippy looking man with long blonde hair, gingery beard and cut jeans. So as we were driving by miles of vineyards I asked if we could pop in and have a wine tasting session ;). My request was granted and we tried out gorgeous Californian wine. We carried on the journey and arrived at our campsite in Monterey bay, a stones throw from the beach! We pitched up tents (I know right- me pitching up tents) and then headed down to the beach to catch the sunset! It was such a nice first night with the group, sitting round a campfire with beer and pizza listening to the waves crash behind us and the only light coming from the fire and the stars. The first night camping wasn't too bad I slept well. The next day we headed to San Francisco!!! We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and took a stroll down Haight and Ashbury street, which is famous for being all things hippy! It was eye opening with how many homeless people there is in this city! Yet they don't bother you and all seem happy to be on the streets- bizarre. We then got dropped off on the bridge and walked back over it. The views of the city were stunning and the view of Alcatraz prison was jaw dropping. I couldn't quite believe where I was walking, I had to stop and take it all in. Later that day we went on a catamaran from fisherman's wharf, pier 39 which sailed under the bridge and around Alcatraz. I couldn't believe the sites I was seeing- we got so close to the island! We went under the bridge at sunset which made it look even more beautiful. After the catamaran we went for a group dinner followed by some drinks in a local bar. The streets at nice seem a little dodgy as again there are a lot of homeless within this city, but we were safe in a large group and I have been told many times that they're harmless. The next day (yesterday) we had a free day to explore the city. Myself and a few others took charge and acted as tour leaders for the rest of the group. First stop was Chinatown as it's the largest one in the country. We then split and me and two other girls (Nessa and Kathy) went off heading for Nob Hill which is a posh area of the city. The hills in San Fran are ridiculous; literally vertical roads. We hopped on a cable car and hung out of the side to get the adrenaline pumping and the wind in our hair. They weren't your typical cable cars they were more like trams but still fun. That took us to fisherman's wharf where I had a gorgeous lunch of crab soup in a bowl made of bread. We then trekked up another few miles of steep hills to witness the famous Russian Hill which is the zigzag road (check out pictures/google it) then we headed to, in my opinion, the most iconic place in San Fran- Ms Doubtfire house ;) haha. Again I took the opportunity to have a pic on the steps of another famous house. After that excitement we travelled to the golden gate park but the temperature dropped so we headed home via Arnold Schwarzenegger's house and then glammed up ready for us girls to hit the town... Well Macy's and the Cheesecake Factory. Oh my gosh the cheesecake here is unreal but too filling- we literally had a giggle fit because we were so high off the sugar! All in all we had a great laugh and a really fun day exploring a beautiful city. We had a 9 o'clock start this morning as we are driving to Lake Tahoe for the next two days, where the temperature high is 5 degrees & snow. Camping is not going to be that fun I don't think :/ but I've googled it and the place looks so picturesque.
Sorry for the length of this blog- I've been too busy to update it. Hope you are all well?? And I bet England had better weather than what I'm about to enter!
Lots of love, Katie xxxxxxx