San Francisco, Monterey and back to LA
Having arrived at the hostel in San Fran it's was time yet again for washing, deep joy! The good news is it's sooooo cheap, so no excuse for having a rucksack full of dirty clothes! Having had a decent nights sleep, it's off to meet mum and dad at their hotel, we made our way to Pier 39. Fishermans Wharf is lovely, an array of shops, restaurants and water. A really lovely place. We get to Pier 39 which is a pretty lively place, full of entertainers, souvenir shops, places to eat and drink and not forgetting the famous sea lions that provided much amusement. They were all sunbathing on large wooden floaty things, one was chocker block, no space remaining, not that this stopped them clambering over each other to find the best sunbed, reminiscent of the usual practices when certain people try to reserve sun beds at hotels...... Meanwhile the was much space available on another wooden floaty thing, so you figure that one out. There was one particular sealion who I think was the doorman, he wasn't letting any other sea lion up, cue full on fisty cuffs, in the meantime on another wooden floaty thing there were 2 getting it on cue the questions from kids......what are they doing?.......
From here we set off in search of the cable car, after convincing dad that it wasn't coffee time just yet. It would be fair to say (mum and dad won't disagree with me, and this is preapproved text) that they like to have a little sit down with a coffee, so when I suggested we get a take away coffee the look on dads face was classic. By their own admission their holidays are made up of a series of coffee stops incorporating a holiday. We boarded the cable car, this was going to be fun, I was hanging off the side. We made our way to Union Square, the roads are very very steep and the houses are lovely. I like San Francisco a lot , if I was to live in the US this is where I would want to be. The shops in Union Square are fab, we will be coming back here Converse shopping, mum had noted that my current pair that I left the uk with were filthy and could have done with going in the bin a long time ago. As it is they have made their way back to the UK as I couldn't justify throwing my 'round the world' converse away, we have been through a lot together. We had lunch in a diner just off the main drag and then found my hostel for when I'm back in a few weeks with my skates. After this, rather sunburnt (the first time in 7 months) we made our way back to Fishermans Wharf for dinner.
Today we have an early start and are heading off to Alcatraz - the rock. I made my way to mum and dads for 7:45am, then it was off to find the boat. We cruise out to the rock, not quite as Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery did. It's a lot closer to the San Fran Bay than i thought it would be. We headed off to the audio tour of the cells. This was excellent, commentary from both former prison guards and prisoners. The cells were tiny. We made our way to the lighthouse, which was in one of the final fight scenes of the rock, it was a lot smaller than on screen. Having escaped the rock successfully and the horrendously smelling seagulls there we got back to the hotel. We then got a taxi, this was a real treat, I haven't had a taxi in months, purely because the budget doesn't allow for such fancy ways of travelling. We were on our way to the Golden Gate Bridge so we could walk back over it. It's huge, orange and the top of it in the clouds! We walked the 2 miles of the bridge back, by the time we got to the other end we were totally windswept. I will be attempting to skate this when I'm back which will be interesting, I will let you know how I get on in later editions.
We then went on a walk of the steep streets, along the way we saw Mrs Doubtfire's house, outside were lots of flowers and lovely tributes to Robin Williams. We made our way back from the streets of San Francisco. Mum and dad were beginning to feel the walk a tiny bit (well actually quite a bit) to be honest I was knackered too, those hills are not very forgiving, but obviously I didn't let on at the time. So having done my help the aged stint and got them back to their hotel, I walked back to the hostel for a shower. I then walked back to them again and we went out to Aloitos, a really lovely fish restaurant. To sooth dad's aches and pains from the walk, he ordered a double JD which was more like a quadruple and mum and I had a fair amount of wine. We had a lovely dinner, and all a bit tipsy left for the way home. Having now done my age concern bit as well, the parentals have been safely delivered back to the hotel.
Today is shopping day! Yay! We boarded the 'non hanging off the side' tram. On the tram we were joined by a gold statue and then
we were off to Westfield. It was then that mum spotted a bloke going after handbags which made you feel quite uneasy and unbeknown to me this wasn't going to be the first time today. We arrive at Westfield, I'm in heaven, well I would be if I wasn't a backpacker and could afford stuff outside of the 'backpacker essentials and beer category' lol. It was at this point that I saw an amazing pair of trainers, there would have been a time when I could justify the purchase (just about) but not anymore, these were definitely out of the question, having had a word with myself about how I didn't need those trainers I quickly left the shop - my willpower with this kind of thing is pretty rubbish. So we left for the converse shop, nice and cheap in the US which is very good news and some new sunglasses, my £2.50 'raybans' from Laos had finally given up the ghost. We got back on the 'hanging off the side' cable car (which is much more fun down hill) to go to the 'worlds steepest street', now I thought I had done this in New Zealand at Bladwin Street, so who knows, it might be a different category of steepest street?!?!? Anyway this is where the fun begins - idiotic, mannerless, stupid and rude tourists! My favourite, I think not. Having battled our way down the stairs with strong shoulders we reach the bottom of the road, where the vast majority of people are standing in the middle of the road, with oncoming traffic trying to take pictures. There was even some prat lying in the road trying to get the perfect angle - ridiculous. Even the policeman was shouting at them. I do wonder about some people at times. It was then dad and I made our way across (when the green man lit up on the crossing :) ) , I made a point of walking in front of people blocking the crossing and making it difficult for the pedestrian to cross. unbeknown to me dad did exactly the same time, so basically a load of randoms a have a wood family picture of the back of our heads haha! Like father like daughter. A bit childish I know but pretty funny (we thought). Leaving the 'I have a death wish and please run me over, but I have a nice photo' tourists behind we head back to fishermans wharf for dinner at Lou's, this was a bad idea, absolutely terrible service with dad being served a pretty much raw burger, one particularly negative tripadvisor comment later we were out of here. Off to the shop to get some water, where out of nowhere someone goes for my handbag!!! I dont think so - luckily I spotted them and got out the way. Feeling pretty unnerved by the whole thing I set off back to the hostel, clinging onto my stuff for dear life. This is the first time anything like this has happened, and then I was confronted by someone wanting money, luckily for me they just left when I said no. I nearly ran back to the hostel, and then went straight to bed. A shame really the last day was littered with unpleasant experiences, not that it spoilt our time in San Fran though. I am looking forward to being back here in a couple of weeks.
We left San Fran and started the journey to monterey. We traval down highway one which was very impressive, and provided some decent waves for the surfers out there braving the cold Pacific Ocean. On route we stopped off at San Juan Bautista, a small town on the beaten track a bit. We walk around the deserted town which has a wild west look to it and everything is shut on a Monday weirdly. We eventually find our way to the mission, and discover the San Andreas fault line. To my disappointment it is just a row of hedges, I was expecting a dramatic cliff!
We arrive at monterey, I get dropped at the hostel, and it has a curfew and they limit the time in the showers!!! What?!?!??? To be honest I get the shower bit, but the curfew!!! Discovering the hostel doesnt have a laundry I go in search of one,and find one that conveniently has a pub next door:) after this I head back and book more flights and hostels.
After a surprisingly good sleep I set off to mum and dads and then off to the whale watching boat, we make our way out of the harbour past over 100 sealions who absolutely stank. After about 45mins we see our first humpback whale! Very exciting! Albeit just it's back, but even so it still great to have seen. After this they kept popping up around the boat and eventually one did a little jump - very cool!! We also saw a few tail fins when they went for a dive. In total we think we probably
saw about 10. It was brilliant. I had only expected to see one, and that was if we were really lucky! Occasionally an inquisitive sealion would also appear. The sealions here are spotty, very cute indeed. Unfortunately there are also a shed load of horrible seagulls that stunk like the ones at Alcatraz, they also attacked other birds which wasn't nice to see:( . Having spent 3 hrs on the rocky boat I was glad to get back on dry land where we went in search of lunch and ended up in the old fishermans grotto. Dad has half a bottle of wine, and it's game over for the afternoon ( sorry dad) and I had my first taste of clam chowder in a bread bowl, absolutely delicious! We then set off, via a coffee shop to the aquarium. We arrive with a very sleepy dad and make our way to the kelp forest, the tanks in this place are enormous. It's by far the best aquarium I've ever been to. The place is impressive, a very lovely spacious facility showing all sorts of watery wildlife. The deep sea tank was probably my favourite, I had never realised tuna were so big! Having relocated dad who was nearly asleep we headed back. I then booked the rest of the stuff for my west coast adventure on my own.
The next day I had breakfast at mum and dad's hotel, it was lovely and to top it off we could see dolphins in the sea, a very nice way to start the day. We the hopped in the car and set off on the 17 mile drive, and went past the famous and very exclusive golf clubs. The drive was great, our journey temporarily ended in Carmel, a very posh and expensive town. It was nice to have a walk around, we even made it onto the beach. We got the car and headed off to the Big Sur, wow, wow and wow. The views of the coastline were amazing off the side of the very very windy road. The road snaked for miles as did the beautiful scenery. I could see why highway 1 is a must drive. I did begin to feel quite Tom and d*** by the time we were heading back. We also stopped off at the lone cypress tree on the way back. It was time for dinner, we went to the Fishhopper restaurant which was great, amazing food and wine, this was to be one of the final decent dinners I would be having for a while. A lovely evening again.
Having discovered the scenic route back to LA would take over 10 hrs we opted for the more direct non- scenic route. We arrived back in LA, dropped the car off at the airport and got the not so super shuttle back to the hotel, over 2 hrs it took, for a journey that would take less that half hr, very annoying. We had a lovely farewell dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then I had to pack and was determined to get the weight of my rucksack down........yeah, and that didn't really go to plan.......again!
The day I've been dreading, another round of byes but this time it's saying 'see ya' to the parentals, which quite frankly was horrible, I won't lie I had a few tears in the shuttle on the way to the airport. It's been an fantastic 2 and half weeks with mum and dad, I have thoroughly enjoyed, if they hadn't come out to see me I may well of been coming home early! Anyway that's enough of the sentimental stuff again. Next stop is Vegas take 2 - dubbed 'The Billericay Birds do Vegas'
Next update for the casino where hopefully i will be winning this time!
Pictures to follow.......
Lou x