Waking up in the morning as I said, was surprisingly nice. Even though me and Mike would have preferred a bit more snooze time, everyone was eager to get going and see what else we could get out of SF! After a quick dash around the corner to the only trees within sight so that Mike and Hazen could get their morning rituals taken care of, Gena and I reconfigured the car and found a nearby Jack-In-The-Box for breakfast other necessities. Fed and ready to go, we made our way to Golden Gate park.
There was plenty to see in Golden Gate and I think if we had more time to spend, or lived closer, we could easily make a full solid day out of it alone. Unfortunately we had plenty we wanted to take in, and Mike and Hazen weren’t welcome in some of the parts of the park so we took a walk through the beautiful AIDS Memorial Grove, and then a slow stroll around the area near the Japanese Tea Garden, and the Spreckles Temple of Music. We left most of the west end of the park for a future visit, but we did stop by a small pond where Hazen got to meet a 20 year old duck with an attitude. Hazen thought it’d be a good idea to quietly move along, and I think everyone else agreed.
We left Golden Gate Park and headed over to the Presidio once more, and went directly to Baker Beach this time. This is a beach where quite a few photos of the Golden Gate Bridge are taken from. After a quick walk to the north end, you can immediately tell why. What is a very nice beach, ends in an outcropping of rocks, and a long view of the entire bridge. On a clear day this has got to be an amazing sight, because even in the fog it was something to see! We crawled around on the rocks a bit, took the requisite tourist photos of each other and the dogs in front of the bridge, and even got a couple walking by to take one of everyone together. I had to return the favor for them, as there’s always a catch!
Walking back to the car from the beach we passed by a group engrossed in some activity, and took note of their Whippet sitting on a blanket, occasionally looking very curiously at our boys! We decided to take a different route, up towards the tree line, and ended up discovering a gun battery that was used during WWI and WWII. I knew there were historical bunkers and gun batteries in the Presidio, but didn’t have any plans to specifically go looking for them. I’m glad we stumbled onto these though. They gave us a great opportunity for some photos, and just added to the amount of different things we could take in during our day.
After a little walking around, and checking out the picnic areas near the beach parking lot (again, for reference on future trips), we headed over to the Crissy Field area. There’s a great public park area between the bridge and Crissy Field, with plenty of bike riders and dog owners enjoying the day out, along with families having picnics. A few walking paths in the hills just above are where most of the popular photos of the Golden Gate bridge are taken, but I honestly think the view and scenery from Baker Beach was better.
Leaving the Presidio, we headed back into the city streets and roamed up and down the hills just taking in the general character of San Francisco. Along the way I found myself commenting repeatedly on how much I just love the overhead cabling all over the streets of downtown! On top of one of the hills, very hard to miss, is Coit Tower.
Getting into the afternoon at that point, we decided to leave San Francisco and head back south. For the route home we chose the Pacific Coast Highway, otherwise known as the scenic route, and I can’t tell you how great of a decision that was to do! Winding roads with beach to the right side, and foot hills to the left after we got south of San Jose. We really do believe that the best part of road trips is always the journey and the unexpected, as opposed to the end destinations you set. Our beliefs were proven to be solid once again, when we stumbled onto “Pebble Beach”, and the tidal pool area adjacent to it. I’ll just put up a photo here, as I don’t think I can really start to explain the visuals accurately…
Continuing down the road, we had more than our fair share of wonderful views along the coast. The spirit of exploration really filled our minds during this portion of the trip thanks to our luck finding the tidal pool area, so when a sign for free jam tasting popped up along the road we just couldn’t say no. Swanton Berry Farm turned out to be a small quiet farm, geared toward self-picking of berried by customers, but with plenty of on site created jams, desserts, and treats for sale as well. We took them up on their jam tasting and have to say that neither of us would have ever guessed to mix strawberries and rhubarb into a jam, but we’re sure glad someone did!
Two small baskets of strawberries later we were back on the road, with our next intended destination being Monterey Bay. Unfortunately Monterey Bay wasn’t as bustling as we would have hoped for, and the restaurants weren’t very IG friendly, so we ended up passing through after a quick leg stretch basically. I had been there years ago, but seemed to remember it being quite a bit … more. Either my memory is inaccurate, or times have really brought out the boring in Monterey. I’m sure the Aquarium is still quite a treat, but again, we weren’t really looking for something every other area tourist is going to line up to pay $40 for. On the hunt for dinner, we continued down through Carmel, which reminded us way too much of old-town Pasadena. Not that we don’t enjoy old-town here at home for what it is, but why stop somewhere that you feel you’re back at home in? This is a road trip, right? As night fell and the light dimmed over the horizon of the water off to our right, we continued down the PCH, and finally pulled over at a road side restaurant called the Redwood Grill. They were closed. Just as well, as a hamburger runs about $17 there. Don’t even ask about a steak. We hit up the small grocery store attached to it, available to resupply local campers with the bare essentials, and enjoyed dinner in their parking lot while using their WiFi to check some maps and plan the nights sleeping options.
Figuring out the route before us, and taking into account the amount of time left in the day (being close to absolutely none), we made the decision that the Redwood Inn, also attached to the overpriced grill, was the closest option being that we were sitting in their parking lot already. Of course, no wanting to pay outrageously for a cramped little room even if their office had still be open, we just found an empty parking spot to one end of the lot and quietly configured the contents of the Element for a good nights sleep once more…