PCH Roadtrip – Santa Cruz – San Francisco

Day Four

Carol Blog today.  First one ever.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean in Santa Cruz. Robert popped out for a morning coffee and we sat on the terrace having our Solvang pastries for breakfast with a beautiful, fresh view.

After breakfast we set out on the road heading for San Francisco.  Not too far into the journey we saw a local park with a covered bridge. Felton Covered Bridge.  A long time dream of mine was to see and photograph an old covered bridge. A few photos later, we are back on the road.

The next part of the journey was simply amazing. Coming off the coastal route today we headed through the redwood forests, stopping at Henry Cowell State Park. Parked the car for an hour and took a hiking trail down to the water…these trees are some size.

Not as big, we hear, as other redwood forests further north but still very impressive and bigger than we’ve seen before in height.

After our morning hike we headed back on the road to our next stop enroute – San Jose. We stopped here so that we could visit the Winchester Mansion. After watching the movie recently, I was expecting it to be spooky and was apprehensive about going on the tour.  However, when we arrived we paid our $40 for the tour as I was pleasantly surprised.  It was such a fun, quirky, beautiful house. Full of amazing craftsmanship and lots of innovative designs for the time. Mrs Winchester deserves quite a lot of credit for this.  Definitely glad we took the tour.

 

Feeling a bit hungry after the tour we stopped off at a local Burrito deli for a spot of lunch.

Excitedly, late afternoon we arrived in the ‘City by the bay’, passing over the Golden Gate Bridge. A first for the me and it didn’t disappoint. Amazing piece of engineering.

We were staying in Tiburon so headed there to check into our hotel before exploring the big city. Tiburon has a ferry service commuting to San Fran…this seamed a more relaxing option rather than driving into the city and trying to find a parking space.

It was a pleasant 5 minute walk from our hotel, the Lodge at Tiburon, to the ferry port. What a lovely 35 minute sail, passing the Golden Gate Bridge , the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Saved us a Bay Boat Tour.

Once in the city, we wanted to tick off the cable car experience. We were only spending a few hours in the city so we were happy with jumping on the cable car down to Fishermans Wharf for some dinner. The Trolley Car driver was sorry there were no seats for us and we had to hang off the edge. Little did he know this was my dream way of travelling on the tram!

A little bit chilly at this time of day, we were happy to try some clam chowder to heat us up and some Calamari.  Washed down with a local beer.  Tummies full and happy with our San Francisco whistle stop tour we headed back to our hotel. Missing the last ferry we got an Uber for only $5 extra. Arriving back at the hotel for 9pm we decided a night cap was needed at the hotel bar, before turning in. An early start tomorrow for the journey home…☹

RoadTrip #3 – LaFayette – Destin

4 States in one day (Texas is so big that it always takes a day just to get out then you can breeze through the other states.

Sophie is the author today.

Day Two.

Once again we woke up in darkness, with a 5 am wake up we were out of the hotel sharp by 6:10.  As we drove through Louisiana we saw the mist roll over the swamps and fields like invading troops.  After a while of driving we hit the Mississippi state line! Almost a mile over the line we hit a rest stop where Dad and Ben stopped for a quick toilet break and Mum and I took a few pictures with the sign and grabbed a wee coffee in the visitors center.

As we got on the road again we decided to take about 20 minutes out of our journey to take the scenic route by that time we had switched seats with Dad complaining about the space in the very small back. (Editor note: it was too small for my torso and after 17 hours like that I was dying…17 hours may be an exageration).  Set up was – Ben in the middle and Mum and I in the front, me navigating and Mum driving. After a few minutes of driving we decided to stop off at the beautiful white sandy beach and then  some ice cream at Sonic then we got back on track to Florida!

Right as we hit Alabama Dad almost had a heart attack because we missed the rest stop and couldn’t take a selfie with the sign. (second editors note: I like the selfies with the signs…that’s not a crime).  After that fiasco was over we stopped off at Zaxby’s chicken for lunch and from then we pushed onward until we got to the Florida rest stop.

Across the Florida line at the rest stop we got a map, a selfie and some really nice orange juice then another hour and a half till we got to Destin;

In Destin we found our hotel room with a beautiful beach front view. After we got settled we went for a walk along the beach where we found quite a few broken pieces of sand dollar and then walked to the pier, taking pictures as we went.

Mum and Dad walked along the pier while Ben and I played in the sand down below. After our walk we quickly went back to the hotel room and got changed and went out for some Chinese a few miles away. Finally we ended the night back at the hotel room where we all got ready for an early night at 8:00. (Last editor note – we struggled to keep the kids awake…a new phenomenon).