Alcatraz Night Tour

Tim and Rameen decided to fly out to California to celebrate my birthday and take a little vacation for themselves.  They flew directly into San Francisco and planned to spend the weekend there with me, then go to Yosemite when I was working, before meeting me in SoCal for my birthday weekend.

We did a lot of things that I've done on previous trips to San Fran, so I won't rehash them here.  The one new thing for me was Alcatraz, and what made it especially cool is that we did it at night.  The night tour costs $35 and leaves from Fisherman's Wharf.

The ferry ride over was very smooth - no need for motion sickness pills if you get easily sick like me.  There are a lot of good photo ops of the city and bridges as the sun goes down.

When you enter they give you an audio tour and it is really good.  They interviewed prison guards and prisoners that were at Alcatraz so that each section of the prison you're walking through has actual stories from the actual people.  After the sun went down it got a little cold, with the shadows and echos increasing the eeriness.  Most touristy sights are one-and-done for me, but I would do this again in a heartbeat.

PCH from LA to San Francisco

One of the best drives in the land

After my solo two week odyssey through Panama, I still had two weeks of (forced) vacation from work. I spent an entire week chilling out in Atlanta with some friends and Zabba, then made my way back to Newport. My girl Daya just so happened to be going to a wedding reception in San Francisco that weekend and invited me along. I had been looking for an excuse to drive up the California coast on the scenic PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), California State Route 1.  It's on every website's top 10 drives in America, so you should, too.

My first time in SF was a whirlwind visit two years ago after a wedding. This time I was hoping to catch a few of the things I missed the last time around, plus soak up the view on the drive north.  I packed a bag for the weekend and took off early on Friday morning to face the LA traffic.

The PCH actually goes right into Newport Beach just a few blocks from my house.  It cuts through all of the beach cities - Huntington, Seal, Hermosa, Redondo, Manhattan... it would've taken me 3 or 4 hours to get through all of the surface street traffic (plus it's not scenic). I skipped it and hopped on the 405 and cut over to the coast on the 101 until it met up with the PCH in San Luis Obispo - a cool little town where I just had enough time to grab lunch. If you're in a hurry you can take the 5 all of the way up to San Francisco in 6 hours but you sacrifice the view.

Up close and personal with a mangy squirrel

From the beginning of the scenic section as I hit the coast, I was quickly reminded of my drive with Nat along the Great Ocean Road on the coast of Victoria, Australia.  No wild koalas or helicopter rides this time though. :(  I stopped pretty frequently along the way to take pictures of the windy route and mostly empty beaches.  I saw a few good surf spots but I had a long way to go and a short time to get there (thanks Jerry Reed).  I wasn't listening to that though... XM was having a Death Cab for Cutie weekend, playing all of the songs off of their upcoming album called Codes and Keys.

I was making pretty good time despite my stops when I started seeing signs for Hearst Castle. I vaguely remembered that William Randolph Hearst was a newspaper tycoon from the early 1900s. When I got home I researched him a bit and found out that he was the inspiration for the lead character in Citizen Kane. Also, his legacy company now owns Cosmopolitan Magazine, Esquire part of ESPN, a dozen or so newspapers and a really cool building in New York City (a modern skyscraper built on top of the original stone structure).  But I digress... the mansion was now a state park and they gave tours so I went to check it out.

Water colors reminded me of Whitsunday Beach

There were packs of old people and Asian tourists everywhere as I pulled up to the visitor's center.  I spotted an employee that told me tickets were $25-35 depending on which part of the house you visited.  The shortest took 2.5 hours.  I didn't have that kind of time so I took a few uninspiring pictures of the mansion from a distance, looked at a few pictures, read some factoids and I was on my way.  Before I left I got a good tip - there had been a landslide a few weeks ago that totally blocked the PCH.  I would actually need to backtrack a few miles and take some switchbacks to get around it.

 I stopped at a gas station to make sure my directions were correct because there were hardly any road signs and my GPS was trying to take me back to the PCH. I had the right route and drove through a military base called Fort Hunter-Liggett. Their training ground had littered shells of tanks and old cars. It looked like I was driving through a firing range... gulp.

The winding road narrowed down to through the foothills of the Sierras to almost one lane at some points. I passed the infrequent cars going surely taking the PCH south and then accelerated like a rally car around the next corner.  The road actually gave some hilltop views that wouldn't have been seen down on the PCH so it wasn't so bad of a detour.  It did take a 2.5 hour chunk from my timeline because I was going 25 mph or less for a lot of it.

Bixby Bridge, built in 1932

With the detour over I got back on the PCH and was going the speed limit (plus) again, but every now and then I would hit construction.  I recommend checking the highway warnings before starting this drive so you know of any road closures.  It looked like there had been more landslides over the past few years that required them to totally rebuild some barriers and sections of road.

One of the coolest parts of the drive had to be the Bixby Bridge near Big Sur that has become a regional landmark. It's supposedly been featured on car commercials and is coincidentally in the name of a song by Death Cab.  The arch spans the steep valley and displays a great blend of nature and engineering.

A long way down

By that time it was starting to get late so my roadside stops became more infrequent. The projected 9 hour drive ended up taking closer to 12 with my stops and the detour.  Yes, I-5 will get you there in under 6 hours, but who wants to drive inland?  I had brought my new camera tripod along but never got it out.  And yes, it would've been nice to have a passenger for conversation, but I had gotten used to the solitude over the past few weeks of traveling.  I also knew that it would be short lived once I got to San Francisco.

I soaked it all in because this would be my last vacation of the year.  By the time I got near Monterey I was starting to get impatient.  I could've taken the PCH all of the way into San Francisco but I decided to hop on the 101 for the rest of the route.  It probably saved me another hour.  This is definitely one of the best road trips and scenic drives I have ever seen.  It's something you must do and will definitely make my Best of California list.

I finally pulled into downtown San Francisco to be greeted by Daya - a fun weekend was in store.  Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

California, here I come.

My friend Rachel, from high school, got married in Placerville, California a few weekends ago. I flew into Sacramento and drove there, about half an hour east. If you ever get a chance to go to Placerville… don’t. It’s not very exciting. It’s an old gold mining town that hasn’t changed much since then. The one bar downtown was tended by a girl that was pregnant… as in 2 weeks from her due date pregnant.

The wedding was cool and the surrounding countryside was beautiful. We were less than an hour from Lake Tahoe, although we didn’t get to go. Napa Valley was also fairly close, but again no time.

Rather than sit around in an old gold mining town that looked like it hadn’t changed since 1849, Josh and I decided to go to San Francisco to see the sights. We both had an extra day to waste, so we figured why not? I could hook us up with a free hotel room through my Marriott points, so it was pretty much a no brainer. Neither of us had been there, and we only had 12 hours or so to explore.

We got into the city after noon, and went right to the wharf. We walked around to the different piers and had lunch at a little hole in the wall – crab salad sandwiches. The most interesting thing down there, besides the view of the bay, were the street performers. There were a few guys acting like robots, a few acting (or being) crazy, break dancers, a violinist, a steel drum band, among others.

After getting our fill down there, we drove up the hills into Golden Gate Park. Contrary to logic, the bridge isn’t there. It was a really cool park though, and a lot different from Piedmont in Atlanta. There weren’t a lot of wide open spaces, and a road cut right through the middle. We didn’t get out to explore, but it looked as if there were a lot of walking trails.

We made our way to the bridge via Baker Beach. The wind was gusty but the view was great. We hiked a short trail down to the beach and were surprised by two nude sunbathers. Don’t get too excited, they were both old and male. Josh got to touch the Pacific for the first time and we took a bunch of pictures down by the rocks with the bridge in the background.

From there we went to Haight Ashbury per Josh’s request. I had never even heard of it, but apparently this is where the hippy movement started. It was definitely a unique area in the city. Tie dye – everywhere.

By that time it was after 6:00 and we were both hungry, so we went downtown to check into the hotel and get something to eat. Luckily we were close to Chinatown, and ate at a place called R&G Lounge, as recommended by Yelp. It seemed very like a few of the restaurants I ate at in Chinatown, NY.

After that we hit up the bars. We found out that the Mission District is a cool and up and coming area, so we went there. After a going into a few random places, we met a few other out-of-towners and tagged along with them to places in the area. Each bar only took cash, which was different, but they were all smoke free – that made me very happy.

We got home around 2 am and had to be up early to drive back to Sacramento for our flights back east. All in all, I had a good time. There is definitely more to do in the city though. I didn’t even look into the museums, but I assume there are some good ones. We didn’t go up to Coit Tower, visit the parks, cross the bridge into Saulsalito, do anything in Oakland, visit Castro (though it’s the gay part of town, I think it would still be worth seeing).

Take me back, and soon!

Pics from the trip.