San Francisco Road Trip

 ♫ Headin' up to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show♫
-Come Monday, Jimmy Buffett

So this Labor Day we drove to San Fran Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday drove to Pismo Beach and returned back home today.

We haven't taken a trip together since Christmas and wanted to get out of town for the long holiday. We went straight up I-5 and didn't run into much traffic so it took about 8 hours.

A friend who used to live in that area told us about Twin Peaks (not the TV show). She said that it is not that widely known and researching places to go we never heard of it. So before we even checked into the Hotel we drove up to the top. Gorgeous views of the city and bay. The weather for our trip could not have been any better. From there we drove down the "most crooked street" in the world, Lombard Street. Last stop before the hotel was the "Painted Ladies".

Crossing the Bay Bridge

View from Twin Peaks

Alcatraz from Twin Peaks

Panorama. Click to enlarge

Lombard Street

Lombard Street

Painted Ladies

Our Hotel

Unfortunately we couldn't get tickets to Alcatraz and we didn't want to drive across the Golden Gate because the BART bay rail tunnel was closed this weekend so the bridges were really busy.

We stayed at The Rex Hotel near Union Square. The Rex was built in 1907 just after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. We paid more by staying right down town but we could walk anywhere and by did we walk. Friday night we just walked to Union Square then went to dinner. Saturday we must have walked 10 miles total. Did I mention that San Fran has some of the steepest hills I have ever traveled for a city? First we drove near Fort Point to take some photos of the Golden Gate, then the walk from Hell began.  First stop the Ferry Landing Farmers Market. From there we went to Chinatown where we got one of the cheapest lunches I can remember having. Since this place did not have any seating and there was none in the area at all we walked back to Union Square where we ate. I could not believe how many people there were in Chinatown. I have never been to China before but I think I have a good idea of what it is like. Don't think I will book a trip there anytime soon. It was very tiring dodging and moving through the crush of humanity. Incredibly we did not take a singe picture of Chinatown, probably because if we stopped we would have been ran over, it was like a river of people.

Union Square

Golden Gate

Transamerica Pyramid

Stumbled across this. Church of Scientology

Cable Car

Curved Escalators, never seen that before

We still had time before dinner so off we trekked to Japantown. Chinatown and Japantown could not have been any different. Where Chinatown was chaotic, dirty, and bustling; Japantown was quiet, clean and orderly. We walked down Post street to Japantown and part of that trip was through some sketchy neighborhood. We had to dodge vomit on the sidewalk and saw a black guy wearing a blond wig, wearing a midriff shirt and looking 9 months pregnant. Yes it was a guy!! So we decided to go back on Sutter street and what a world of difference one street can make.

Japantown

Our walk

 We thought that after such an exhausting day we would sleep soundly the 2nd night and we did until 2:40am when a bunch of drunk young adults decided to take an after party to the room next to us. We tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work so we got up early and headed to Pismo Beach, our 2nd stop. On the positive side the hotel took off $115 from our bill due to the noise.

On the way to Pismo I wanted to take "A" down the Pacific Coast Highway 1. Beautiful drive but also very demanding on the driver. By the time we reached the end,  we had enough of the twisting turning road.

Along Highway 1

We stayed at The Cliffs Resort and got a room upgrade to a full ocean view. Don't know what we did to deserve that but we were happy. So we went down to the "beach", funny thing about the central coast, their "beaches" are not really beaches. At least not to anyone from SoCal. Everything is rocky with a small part of smaller chunks of rock they must consider sand.

Our view at Pismo Beach Hotel

Giant room at Pismo Beach

The "beach" below our hotel

For dinner we went back to a wonderful Sushi restaurant.

On the way home we see "Herbie the Love Bug".

Herbie the love bug

Overall it was a really fun trip that I am glad we took.

Palm Springs

This weekend we needed a break and decided to take a road trip to Palm Springs. Plus this month marks 21 years of marriage and it seemed like the thing to do. This was the second time that we have been there, the first was five years ago.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel which was near "downtown" and close to all the touristy stuff, namely restaurants and shopping.  If you have ever been to Palm Springs you know about the mountains that are really striking. They remind me of Hawaii, except these are brown instead of green. The Hotel was really close and I got some great pics.

We also "toured" (in other words we just walked in like we were staying there) a hotel, The Parker Hotel that was really amazing. It is surrounded by hedges and has all these pathways that lead to hammocks/fire-pits/Pétanque court/croquet lawn, etc... We also had a afternoon snack at one of the restaurants, "A" had coffee and a fancy Belgian waffle with bananas/blue berries and a creme brûlée topping. I had a smoothie and some of "A's" fancy Belgian waffle with bananas/blue berries and a creme brûlée topping. This set us back over $30. Did I mention that this place ain't cheap?

Lobby of the Parker.

The first night we ate at the hotel restaurant which was really good, "A" had sea bass and I had salmon.  The second night we ate at a Japanese Robataki, I thought it was pretty good but "A" wasn't too impressed.

We also did some sightseeing, mostly looking for mid-century houses/architecture.  "A" did some shopping at a place called The Estate Sale Company. I have to say it was impressive! Their collection of furniture is all second hand/consigned. So nothing cookie cutter about it and the prices were extremely reasonable. "A" found two chairs for $100 and we were able to get them shipped for $80. They need to be reupholstered but still it was a good deal. However since they kept moving the delivery times around and they pissed me off I told them I wanted a discount and we ended up paying $50.

Wile E. Coyote wasn't too far behind this road runner.

"A's" Chairs

Texas/Wyoming Vacation

We interrupt this renovation to take you on a vacation. I took two weeks off to attend a family reunion and make the annual pilgrimage to the Ranch.

First leg was to fly into Albuquerque and meet up with my brother. The next day we drove to Dallas, Texas to meet with my other brother and attend the family reunion/60th wedding anniversary on my biological father's side of the family.  It has been 45 years since we have seen them, needless to say I didn't remember any of them.  However I had a great time and want to attend another reunion in the future.

The weather was horrible!!! The temperature was in the upper 100sF with upper %90 humidity pushing the heat index to 105F, but the room was a cool 65.

This isn't the hotel we stayed at but I just had to snap a few pictures because those wolf statues were HUGE!

From there we visited Mom and Dad in Casper for a few days then headed north to the Ranch. However our stay was almost cut short. Five minutes after we arrived, my brother was walking back after parking his truck and was struck at by a rattlesnake. Fortunately he has quick reflexes and when he jumped the snake missed. Shortly thereafter there was one less snake around.

Snake no more

Mother or Father Robin feeding baby

Mother Sage Grouse and babies

After four days in the "wild" (not really, we had running water and electricity), we went back down to Casper for a few days. On the way back down to Albuquerque I jumped out at the airport in Denver and flew back to San Diego.