California, The Coast and San Fran

Well again you'll be getting 2 posts close together because we are slack and are having far to much fun!!!

LAX 

 We flew out of NYC bound for Los Angeles. The flight as always, for me, was terrible. The turbulence was horrible. It's such an irrational fear but for me it's terrifying. Any who we landed safely, as always, making our way to collect our van for our road trip around California. As we headed for Escape campers we kindly asked a shuttle bus driver if he would be dropping off any other customers close to our location. He kindly stated yes and gave us a ride.......to nowhere near where we needed to be. We then hailed a taxi, told him the address of our location and he then refused to take us as the fare was to little and distance to short. Our first experience of LA, what the hell is wrong with people and this place. We then called the campervan hire location and Rafael one of the workers there was kind enough to come and pick us up. We hired out Moby, our whale painted van and headed straight up the coast on Highway 1. On the way we passed Santa Monica and Malibu beaches and then started the more windy road of Highway 1 before making our first stop at El Captain State beach. We were hoping to watch the sun set on the west coast of California but unfortunately the fog/hayes that loomed over the water would not allow us. We set up camp and snuggled into the back of the car for our first night of camping.

Just outside of Malibu

Waking relatively early we ate breakfast, strolled around the small beach and then packed up the van for the journey to Big Sur. The coast road was amazing. It reminded us a lot of the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide. With cliff and coast that meets the ocean which is eroding away due to the constant crash of water against the earth. We had no real plans along the way apart from stopping at vista points to take photos of the scenery and to our (especially Andy's) amazement we stumbled upon one of USA's and North America's largest elephant seal populations. These animals are incredible. Although it was not peak season there were still hundreds of seals along the beach, with juvenile males practicing their fighting in and out of the water, before the larger more dominant males arrive in late September for breeding. We could of stayed there for ages just watching these animals doing what they do without any interruption from humans.

Male Elephant Seal

One section of the Elephant Seal Beach

Juvenile males fighting

Juvenile males in the water

We continued to drive up the coast and made our way towards Big Sur. However we continually struggled to find accommodation along the coast road with a lot of the RV parks and State beaches full. We finally made our way to a camp site, Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins which was lovely but also a little on the pricey side at $55 for the night. If we had more time this would've been a nice campground to stay a little longer. It was right beside a nice little creek/river and not to far away from plenty of hiking trails.

Big Sur Coast

Big Sur Coast

Just outside of Big Sur

Big Sur Coast

Setting off the next day was much like the day before, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the coast road. Not knowing where to stay along the way we drifted inland and found Henry Cowell Redwood State park just north of Santa Cruz. The states park is host to a centuries old Redwood Grove with some of the tallest trees in the world. The tallest tree in the park is 285 feet (87-88 meters) tall and around 16-18 feet (5-6 meters) wide. This was just a small portion of what we were going to be seeing in the Sequoia National Park and Forest yet it still amazed us. We left the camp site and hiked around the trail before heading back to camp, as some dark clouds were looming, we wanted to have dinner and be ready just in case the rain came. Not long after dinner the rain started, so we curled up in the van and got some sleep. We needed it cause the next day would be frustrating to say the least.

Giant Redwood

Redwood 

Part of the Redwood Grove Trail

Driving from Redwood grove we headed back towards the coast for some more of the windy roads of Highway 1 and hopefully not too long of a day before our intended stop at Half Moon Bay just south of San Francisco. We arrived in good time to Half Moon Bay and drove into a RV park asking for any available spots, Nope, full. So we headed to the next park and same scenario, full. What was going on, school holidays, no it wasn't that. Just that time of year were tourists and families seem to take holidays and enjoy the coast. We were having no luck finding any accommodation in or around Half Moon Bay so we made our way to San Francisco hoping to find something there. Everywhere we were checking was way out of our budget, at least $100 a night and the frustration was starting to build from both parties. This moment of the trip was testing the relationship for sure. Not knowing where we were going or where we might be staying that night we called Escape campers in San Fran who pointed out some places to stay on the Great Highway or down on the Marina. However the problem with this was if you get caught it's a $200 fine, money we really couldn't afford to lose. The frustration continued to build, and after a couple of arguments we made the decision to stop. Finding the ever trusting McDonalds for their free Wifi to collect our thoughts. We scanned over the internet and found an RV park close and after some deliberation, was our final choice of places to stay. Not too expensive and only a 20-30 min drive from Downtown San Fran. Candlestick park was our home for the next 3 nights whilst enjoying San Fran, and for those of you who are NFL fans the home ground for the San Francisco 49ers was right across the street, too bad it wasn't football season.

People kept on telling us that San Fran was the place to be although a tad windy. To test this theory we decided to head down to Baker Beach on the west coast of San Fran. Like any typical beach of course it was a little windy but nothing out of the ordinary. This particular area and beach were part of the Presidio, a military base from the founding of San Fran in 1812 until 1997. In 1904 it was fortified with several disappearing gun installations known as Battery Chamberlain, which one of the guns can still be seen today. This beach was nice to walk along and it also gave us a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Big Red crosses from San Fran to the north and a couple of days later we would have the pleasure of driving over another one of man's incredible structures. We walked along a few path's, drove around for a bit  and then headed down to the Pier area to browse. We parked the van at the escape campers location and sussed out something to eat. We stumbled across a joint called "The Codmother", a fish and chip shop from out the side of a van. Not a bad little joint but in my heart I would still say not as good as Australian fish and chips. Now onto Alcatraz. We had tried to order tickets online but it stated that nothing was available until mid July. Ah man. Decided to try our luck and scope out the ticket sellers along the pier but to no avail. Our hearts sank as this was going to be one of the highlights of our trip to San Fran. Visiting this amazing gaol which once held some of the most infamous criminals such as Al "Scarface" Capone and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. As we dawdled around the streets of the pier we got sucked into a vitality shop offering water massages. You laid in a cylinder and above you water spurted out of some jets onto your back moving up and down. It wasn't bad especially when we got buy one get one free but there is always a catch. It was a promotion for something similar to tense pads and other small massage equipment. We took the free massage and left the shop feeling somewhat relaxed. We made our way back to the RV park and sussed out some accommodation for the national parks. This was good as it put our minds at ease, instead of just turning up to the first in first served parks and hoping for a spot like what we experienced in the first few days along the coast. There will be more about that in a later post about the national parks.

Golden Gate Bridge

Andy Photo Pose

Together with Golden Gate

Golden Gate, It's not that Tall

The next day we went back towards the pier to see the famous street cars (Trams), Pier 39 and Lombard street which is known for it's hairpin style turns in the middle of a main stretch of road. We walked to Hyde street and began the hike up the hill. We could have taken the street cars up the hill but for a small fee we decided to use our free legs and just walk it. We made our way to the corner of Hyde and Lombard street and watched the jam packed street cars pass us by. Turning to the left there was Lombard street and all it's turns. Cars were constantly streaming through and navigating the turns and people who were not meant to be walking on the street itself. The side of the street was filled with hydrangeas and amazing apartments/houses and from the top of the street gave a great view of the ocean and of downtown San Fran. We made our way back down towards Pier 39 and stumbled across a Seal colony which is ever present here at the end of the pier. The seals frolicked about in the water constantly communicating with each other via loud barking noises. Our stomach's were feeling a bit hungry and where better to eat than "Bubba Gump Shrimp". This chain restaurant surprised us. The Garlic bread was so delicious and the fish and chips filled our bellies. Nom Nom Nom... During the course of our meal our server came to ask us questions regarding "Forest Gump" the movie. We (Andy) did pretty well accept for one question. How many Dr Peppers did Forest Drink before meeting the president? do you know? We continued to stroll around Pier 39 and then made our way to a sports bar near by to watch the Socceroos play Chile in the first game of the World Cup. A good game but disappointing for Australia with a 3-1 loss. Picking up the van from the car park we headed back to Candlestick park and sorted out the van for the next days travel to Sacramento.

Alcatraz, that's all we got to see of it

Bubba Gump Shrimp

Top of Hyde st with Street Car

Lombard st

Pier 39 Seals

SF Carousel on Pier 39

An early start we hit the road for another warm day of car travel. We had the pleasure of driving over the Golden gate bridge, past six flags somewhere along the way and finished in Sacramento where Manny Ray Gonzales and Nate would be our host for the next 3 nights. Stay tuned for the next edition of California, being Sacramento and the National Parks. Stay safe everyone

Peace Out

Andy and Maddie xx