Coastal Road Trip to San Francisco!

In light of the fact that it was possible to make it from San Diego to San Francisco in one day (it's about an 11 hour drive up the slower coastal/scenic route), I got up very early the next morning at dawn. However, the night before was the end of finals night for Thomas Kim, the Korean-American guy who was actually going to be the one driving us up to San Francisco. The compromise between party, sleep and early drive delayed our travel start till after 10am. The other guy going up was Min Seo Ki, a Korean-Korean. We had take-out breakfast at the Cliffs, which is a cliff next to the beach with magnificent views where many UCSD students hang out during the middle of their classes.

With enough caffeine, and anticipation of the trip to come in our systems, we drove straight to our first destination...Orange County, with the windows down and music up. Weather was on our side that day, with good conversation and good songs...ideal! Thomas lived in Fullerton, which is in Orange County, south of downtown LA itself. On the way there we saw glimpses of Disneyland and Crystal Cathedral (the massive church that is broadcast on Channel One on Sundays).


After Thomas had everything packed and ready to go, we found out that the Interstate traffic wasn't as giving as we had hoped, so at Fullerton, we bought a tent to camp out for the night, somewhere south of San Fran. We then continued on our road trip along the Californian coast, where the beaches were beautiful and so was the land. We passed the city of Santa Barbara and stopped by for dinner at Buellton, a city in Santa Barbara County famous for the filming of the 2004 comedy road trip movie, "Sideways". We had dinner at AJ Spurs, a restaurant which gave out a very American vibe.


Next stop was at San Luis Obispo, where we unfortunately rested our eyes for a tad too long at a carpark. Getting to a campsite in time had become a mission (excuse the San Luis Obispo-related pun hehe), as we still had a decent drive ahead of us in order to reach the campsite. The art of speedy but safe night driving was impressive, as we managed to reach Salinas at around midnight. We chose to spend the night at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway (funnily enough, it had a campsite), west of Salinas. It was freezing despite being inside the tent, the wind chill factor generously giving me 2 hours of sleep that night.

The next morning, we drove south down the coastline of Big Sur, known to have been called "the greatest meeting of land and sea in the world". I remember having had some trouble grasping for superlatives as I took in the amazing views of the mountains, cliffs and rocky coves while holding my camera at eye level. Something I noticed worthy of noting was that the land in NorCal (northern California) was much greener than that of SoCal, with cows on pastures. It often literally seemed like we were driving through New Zealand on the wrong side of the road.

We then drove back north through Monterey, the city famous for the largest aquarium in the US and Pebble Beach. We went further northeast back to Salinas, the agricultural centre known as the "salad bowl of the nation". Famously, it is also the birthplace of Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who set many of his naturalistic stories near the area ("Of Mice and Men" being one of them). Up the Interstate 101 we drove, towards our final destination many people have recommended as their favourite city in the US, San Francisco.

There was no time to visit Stanford University in Palo Alto, as we only had a few days to explore San Francisco. From the freeway (motorway in NZ English) I could see what Silicon Valley was famous for. Many big-name companies like Google, Intel and Microsoft were concentrated on this stretch of land between Palo Alto and San Jose, world famous as the centre of the computer industry.

Arriving at San Francisco's famous Fisherman's Wharf, we began the adventure of this much-loved city. Without doubt, we had seafood lunch at arrival, including clam chowder and sourdough bread - two things every tourist must have when in this city. Delicious. Fisherman's Wharf was the origin of SF's fishing industry, now given way for tourism as its main focus. Pier 39 felt like an outdoor mall, crowded with eager tourists and locals, having a collection of restaurants, shops and amusements, set against a backdrop of the bay. This place attracted tourists even more by having an area on the dock where Californian sea lions basked and barked. There were also horse rides with carriage wagons, steel robot men (like the one in "Road Trip"), clowns, spray paint artists and breakdance teams, all doing their part in contributing to the liveliness of the atmosphere. Walking down the street next to the piers, I saw the Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.





We couldn't leave SF without riding its cable cars, so we hopped on like any other eager tourist would. A central cable car powerhouse wound looped cables underground, generating the force that pulled the cable cars along the hilly streets of the metropolitan area. The cars were slow and shaky, but it was a cool experience riding a form of transport that originated in the 19th century. We went to Ghirardelli Square, once home to the world-famous chocolate factory, where we had an ice-cream called the Earthquake - 8 scoops of ice-cream with 8 toppings, all of choice. For those who know me... yeah, it was my cheat night alright.

Later that night we trekked Chinatown, where there were dragon lampposts, up-turned roofs, and glowing red lanterns. Road signs had a Chinese translation, and so did firms with English titles. Interesting fact: The Chinese are the largest ethnic group in San Francisco! There are many Chinese who speak absolutely no English who live in SF with no trouble. I scrutinised the alleyways and buildings of the area, hoping to remember some scenes from "Karate Kid" and "Indiana Jones" which were filmed here.

We also trekked Downtown SF, and saw the cool high-rise buildings that make SF the New York of the west coast. Most notable was the Transamerica Pyramid, a distinctive landmark with a unique design that is the tallest building of the city.

We stayed the night at Hostelling International for a decent $25 for accommodation and breakfast. I finally rewarded myself with some proper sleep, dropping into a deep state within seconds.

The next morning, we checked out and drove over the Golden Gate bridge. This famous symbol of SF is the most photographed bridge in the world, spanning 1.2 miles in length, having taken four years to build. This internationally orange suspension bridge was probably the climax in terms of the "ooh-aah"'s of San Francisco for me, and it sure was absolutely breathtaking!

We travelled south, had lunch at Quizno's Sub (sort of like Subway) in Palo Alto, where I was picked up by Toby (apartmentmate) to head east towards Nevada to Lake Tahoe!