San Francisco and Beyond!

PCH Day 6: A busy day, as we had a lot to fit in to our 1 day in San Francisco. The hotel manager/owner was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and gave us a lot of useful information about what to see, where to go and how to get there. We set off for Alamo Square first up to see the "Painted Ladies" (a group of picturesque Victorian style houses, many of which are all over the city). Then we headed for the Bay and took in the Nautical Museum, Fishermans Wharf and Ghiradelli Square, amongst other things. After that we headed to Chinatown and then the Ferry Building to watch the lights on Oakland Bay bridge. That box ticked, we went back to Chinatown, had a meal and returned, weary, to the hotel. I reckon we must have walked over 10 miles today! Oh, I forgot to mention our ride on the Cable Car, and watching the Vice-President's cavalcade on the way back to the hotel! The police still use Harleys here, and I asked one if I could take a photo. He said if we wanted to see Police Harleys, that we should hang around for 20 minutes and we would see loads, because of the Vice-President. Sure enough, at least 50, plus cars, ambulances and Secret Service vehicles came thundering through - very exciting and very OTT, but fun to see!

PCH Day 7: An early start, as there were a few more parts of San Francisco that we wanted to see. After coffee and donuts for brekkie, we then took a drive over to Haight/Ashbury, the 60s/70s hippie hang out. Then we headed for the Golden Gate Bridge but, disaster! - it was completely covered in thick fog!  So, our only sight of it was yesterday from a distance. We crossed the bridge and took a few fogbound photos from the north Vista Point, before detouring through Sausalito and then picking up Highway 1 North to make our way to Fort Bragg. It was extremely disappointing about the bridge, but we loved San Francisco. It is very quaint/pretty and an unusual City, with so many different parts and cultures - and loads of (steep) hills! The coastline North of SF was equally as stunning as before. As we got further north the coastline became very much like Big Sur, only many more trees and forests. The journey took a long time as the road is very windy and quite narrow for US roads. The fog rolled in as we arrived at Fort Bragg and it is very chilly. A long, tiring day but a good day.