San Francisco

As we got closer to San Francisco we found a rest area to plan our day in San Francisco. While we were looking for information about the Golden Gate Bridge, we learned that we could park at one end (we weren't sure which) and walk across the bridge for free. If we wanted to drive across it would cost us $24, according to Lauren's calculations. I thought that the number seemed outrageously high, and so Lauren tried to defend her point. She told me the toll was based on how many wheels your vehicle had and that because our jeep had four it would cost us $24. She must have realized her mistake as she was talking because she suddenly went quiet and said out loud to herself, "wait we only have 2 axles, and the toll is based on the number of axles we have"! The cost of the toll ended up being only $6, a much better deal to cross the bridge for! We drove west on Highway 1 for about 15 minutes until we got to a very curvy section of the road and camped in  a pullout in Muir Woods National Monument. We woke up the next morning and began our drive into San Francisco. I am sure that many San Franciscans expected the morning to be cloudy and foggy, but we were really hoping to get some great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and walk along the bridge. Unfortunately the morning was foggy and while Lauren was busy frantically searching the internet to find the public parking, the concrete highway suddenly turned into a bridge deck. Two huge columns of steel rose from the mist as we raced across the bridge carried along by the rush of morning traffic. About halfway across the bridge Lauren discovered that the public parking was on the north side of the bridge...the part we had just crossed! Oh well, it wasn't like the weather was cooperating anyway. Even if we had walked on the bridge we wouldn't have seen anything. We continued on our way, and I promptly got us lost in downtown San Franciso. Lauren located a Big O tire that we could take the Jeep to and have the tires rotated and our oil changed. Our plan was to have the oil changed and leave it there until we were done sight seeing in the city. It would have been a great plan if the Big O had a parking lot! They didn't and now we were stuck in the middle of a very crowded city with no where to park our oversized vehicle! The Jeep was not exactly equipped for city life. We drove around until we found a parking lot with a reasonable price. We parked it, paid the attendant, and began our trek towards pier 39! We stopped for coffee as we toured the capitol building and then continued on through chinatown and the iconically steep city streets.

Capitol Building

St. Mary's Cathedral

When we got to Pier 39 there were a bunch of sea lions resting on the boat docks, barking up a storm and clambering all over one another. We watched them for a while and then walked around the pier until we found a good place for lunch. As we were getting ready to leave the pier a man stopped us and gave me a ticket for not holding the hand of such a pretty woman in San Francisco! He was right how could I have been so foolish! He also gave me a second fine for attempting to grow a beard and mustache without a permit; my penalty was to give a couple dollars to the local food bank so we paid our debt and continued on our way! Lauren received a sticker for having such a beautiful smile and I got a sticker of a cable car.

Alcatraz

We walked, hand in hand to ensure we would not receive another ticket,  along the business district of San Francisco and saw the Dragon Gate that served as the entrance to Chinatown. When we got back to the parking lot we hopped in the Jeep and began driving down to Santa Cruz via California 1 to visit Lauren's second cousin Mike.

 Along the way we decided to stop at an area we thought looked really pretty. The surf was breaking on some sharp coastal rocks, and as we observed the ocean more closely we noticed that a group of seals were eyeing us suspiciously from the waves!

We got to Santa Cruz just as the sun set and met up with Mike. He offered to treat us to dinner at his favorite restaurant in the area. It was called Tyrollean Inn. It served great German beer and food. We both thoroughly enjoyed the evening and catching up with Mike. Afterwards we all went to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park where he paid for a camping site. The three of us camped there that night and in the morning we made breakfast before Mike had to leave for work. Mike noticed that morning that our bike lock had been cut and one of the tire fasteners were undone! We concluded that someone in San Francisco had tried to steal our bikes and did not realize that they actually lock onto the tire carrier, luck for us! We said goodbye and continued down California 1 towards Monterrey Bay.

When we reached the town of Monterrey it was about 10:30 am. Crystal, Lauren's parents neighbor in Castle Rock, had an annual pass to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and they were letting us use their guest passes for the day. We spent the afternoon at the Aquarium visiting all the exhibits. We love aquariums, especially Lauren, and to visit one of the best was a real treat! Thank you Kanabers! We had to stop around noon for Lauren to get a snack, because she told me she could feel the grumpiness coming on! While eating in the cafe that sat against the open ocean. There we saw a seal and sea otter swim by, and earlier others had a humpback whale! The touch pools were probably the coolest, because you could stick your hands in the water with ray fish or pet crabs and starfish. We spent the most time at the sea otters exhibit for obvious reasons! We also got to draw our own Jellyfish and send them into the ocean on the TV screens in front of us! It was a very fun day.

When we finished with the aquarium we went to a small pizza place that made custom individual pizzas and we split one for a late lunch. We left around 2:00 to go to Turlock to visit Peter Frost!