24June06 Joan and Wayland San Francisco

24June06 Saturday

 

23June06 Joan and Wayland San Francisco

23June06 Friday

Today our main activity was to rent a bicycle built for two and ride across the golden gate bridge.  We had talked to an outfit on Fisherman's Wharf that rents bicycles called Blazing Saddles on Thursday and decided that we had to give it a try.  We also found out why they call them Blazing Saddles as it reminded me of the 30 mile ride that I took with Joe down on the Los Angeles beaches a few days earlier.

The people at Blazing Saddles said that the ride was no problem and easy as it's level over across the bridge and then downhill all the way down into Sausalito on the north end of the bridge.  This wasn't quite true.  There was a steep uphill push to get onto the bridge on the south end but not all that bad.  The weather was somewhat sunny down on the wharf and nice but as we looked up towards the bridge it was covered with fog.  As we got closer to the bridge it was not only fog but a strong wind.  I decided to buy a jacket at the bridge gift center before starting across the bridge.  I was glad that I did.  Looking up at the base of the towers it was not possible to see the top of the towers due to the fog.  It was surprising to hear a helicopter go beneath us under the bridge and disappear into the fog.  Apparently he could see the water but we couldn't see all that much.

We eventually made it across the bridge after many stops to watch the sailboats underneath us, watch a couple of workers with harnesses enter the base of one of the towers with a piece of steel to do some work up on top, and to take a lot of pictures and video along the way.

It was really windy when we got to the north end and had to walk the bikes for a ways even though it was level.  In a short ways it became fairly steep going down into Sausalito and the bike trail follows the highway into town.  Our hope was that the brakes would work at this point.  After getting down to the beach area in Sausalito the sun was out and the hills to the back of town cut the wind and it was a perfect place for lunch at a streetside cafe. 

In the morning the city had declared today as a "Spare the Air Day" and all the city public transportation was free.  We found our way to the public ferry dock and took the ferry back to pier 1 in SF.  The bike rental company had provided ferry tickets to us but we didn't have to use them and it saved us $16.  The penalty was that we had to ride from pier 1 back to pier 39 to turn in the bikes but it was also a nice ride and we got to see more of the bay.

We were going to take a ride on the cable cars after the bike ride but they were also free and the lines were so long that it would have taken over an hour to get onto one so that was given up and we did a little more touring of the wharf area and spent some time in the National Park Headquarters there looking at some of their exhibits.  Quite a bit of the bay area is National Park.  During WWII the bay area was a staging area for over 1.5 million troups and a lot of the old barracks are now part of the park buildings.  A lot of the land has been reclaimed and converted to park area.

The pictures show some of the bay, the ride across the bridge, fog over the bridge that we rode through, and a couple pictures of Sausalito.

 

22June06 Joan and Wayland California

22June06 Thursday

Today we continued our trek to San Francisco.  It has been a relaxing trip to just drive until we felt like stopping to look at something or to stop for the night.  We didn't set a schedule for ourselves only to be at the airport in Santa Ana for our flight at noon on Wednesday June 28th.

We stopped at a couple places along the way today to "smell the flowers".  From Santa Cruz we headed north on Hwy 1.  We stopped at Pigeon Point lighthouse which is a postcard view.  Lighthouses, as with a lot of other historical buildings, are suffering deterioration and are expensive to keep as historical places.  As I recall the lighthouse area has been designated a state park but they are looking for funding to preserve the area. 

 Adjacent to the lighthouse is a hostel with a terrific view of the Pacific and shore.  The private room with bath is $55 for a night. We headed on up towards SF but at just past Half Moon Bay the coast road is closed due to a slide and we had to detour inland to I280 for the rest of the trip SF.  The GPS that came on the rental car has been an asset and probably prevented a lot of arguments between Joan and I.  It took us right to the hotel at the corner of Lombard and Van Ness. 

As we eventually found out Lombard St. has one of the major attractions of SF.  It is the curvy street that is often seen in movies on one side of the hill and the other is the steep 40% grade street that is often in race scenes with the cars coming down the hill and being propelled into the air as they go across the cross streets.  On our first walking excursion we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and then up and down Lombard St.  All in all it was a pretty good hike.

In the pictures are scenes of the flowers along the coast, Pigeon Pt. lighthouse, beware of cat signs on an apartment building gate, and photos of Lombard St.

21June06 Joan and Wayland California

21June06 Wednesday

Today we left San Luis Obispo and headed further up the coast.  About 40 miles north of San Luis is San Simeon and we stopped at the Hearst Castle welcome center.  We thought about going to see the castle but decided instead to see the National Geographic movie they have about the Hearst family and the eventual building of the castle.  The original Hearst came to California during the gold rush hoping to find gold.  Long story short is that he found silver instead and made a fortune.  With his money he began buying land and I think that in the end had about 85,000 acres along the coast. He also got into publishing and became quite successful with that.  Eventually his son built the castle and lived a pretty lavish life there.

North of San Simeon it becomes pretty desolate as you drive along the Santa Lucia Mountains.  The Big Sur area is beautiful and very rugged.  In this area was a place where elephant seals have taken up home.  There must have been about fifty or more laying side by side on the beach soaking up the sun.  North of there you come to Monterey and home of the Pebble Beach Country Club.  There is a 17 mile drive along the Monterey peninsula which has a $8.50 charge.  The drive is beautiful with fantastic homes and three or four major golf courses.  We stopped at Pebble Beach and walked out to the 18th hole and shot a few pictures.  Very high class stuff here.

From Monterey we drove to Santa Cruz and stayed there for the night.

20June06 Tuesday

20June06 Tuesday

Today we left Redondo Beach and headed up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) with the intent of eventually getting to San Francisco.  We stopped at Venice/Muscle Beach which is just 20 miles north of Redondo to check out the action there.  Venice is famous for it's street performers and other oddities.  They do have a nice park area there and quite a large weightlifting area in the Muscle area.  Also lots of souvenir stores along the beach with every kind of T-shirt imaginable.

From there we followed the coast highway which does have some very beautiful scenery.  It's mostly 2 lane highway and hugs the side of the mountains.  We drove through Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and then to San Luis Obispo where we decided to stay the night.  San Luis was a beautiful town and has a lot of hotels and restaurants.

19June06 Monday

19June06 Monday

Today we went out to breakfast at a pancake house next to the Palo Verdes Inn and had an excellent breakfast.  Joe and I got the bikes out of the furnace room at the hotel where they keep them.  We headed down to the beach on the bikes and got on the bike path for our ride down the beach.  The paved path is really great for walking, biking, roller blading, etc.   It's about 10 feet wide with a center line to maintain traffic directions.  There was little traffic on the path until later in the afternoon but since it was Monday we didn't have to worry too much about traffic.  We rode from where the path begins at Redondo Beach north to Marina Del Ray which is about 15 miles.  Along the way you go past probably a couple hundred volleyball courts on the sand beaches, a huge power generating plant, a city campground filled with RV's, under the approach for the main runways for LAX, and enough other diversions to keep you interested. 

Along the way we passed the handmade wooden bicycle in the attached photo also the one man submarine. 

Joan and Bev met us at a restaurant in the Marina Del Ray area called the Warehouse.  The place had a lot of atmosphere and we ate out on the porch area overlooking the marina filled with sailboats and a blue sky background.  The Warehouse apparently was the site where the restaurant scene was filmed in the movie Meeting the Fockers.  They had a lot of photos of movie stars photographed in the restaurant hanging on the walls.

Joe and I made it back to Redondo Beach completing about 30 miles on the bikes about 6PM and had tea with Joan and Bev.  Joan and Bev raved about the napoleons served there.  Apparently they have them shipped in from Italy. 

After Joan applied the icepack to the body part I sit on things were fine once again (just kidding).

18June06 Sunday

18June06 Sunday

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

Today we went to Joan’s uncle’s church, the Indio Church of Christ, where he is the minister and then went to lunch with him.  We left from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Indio and headed down to Redondo Beach.  It was another scorcher of a day with the temperature around 108 in Indio.  As we headed to the beach we had to keep turning up the temperature in the car and when we got to Redondo the temperature had dropped to around 72.  It seemed almost cold there.

 

Tomorrow morning a beach bicycle ride is planned for Joe and I and shopping for Joan and Beverly.