SoCal

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. I fell asleep at 8:30. I'm a whimp.

We did the Highway 1 drive from San Fran to Los Angeles. We stopped in beautiful towns along the way, including morning in Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was mayor). The sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks. They were yawping so loudly, we thought they were piping in the noise to attract tourists. But it really wasn't the case.

Here's part of the fishing bay. You can see a sea lion on the floating tire attached to the boat.



We continued on south through Pebble Beach Golf Course. The road takes you right though the lodge, shopping area and restaurants of the course, so we stopped and had a snack. Yum! Golfing this course really is right on the shore:



This tree is the logo for the course:



After spending the night in Santa Barbara (which was beautiful), we met up with my friend Shawna and her kids who took us on a whirlwind tour of Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Sprinkles (cupcakes) and Hollywood.





Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but it's looking like sun!

Muir Woods and the coast

I'm pretty beat, so this will be short. I went to Muir Woods this morning with my new friend Laura. The photos really don't do it justice because they aren't scratch-and-sniff.





This was a fella who wandered into the shot on accident, so we decided to make the most of it:



The tour included a stop in Sausalito (sp?) on the way back. It's a cute little town known for its houseboat residents. This is one of the more famous--the Taj Mahal.



After Tim finished his presentation at the conference, we rented a car and headed for the coast. We made it just in time for sunset.



Tomorrow, we continue down Highway 1. I hope it's warm!

It really is uphill both ways

I am sore. And beat. And did you know you have muscles in your shin area? Well you do. I know this because mine hurt. But I don't feel guilty for eating that crepe, though.

We did a ton of walking today. The weather has been beautiful (sunny and in the low 60s) for the most part, so it was a great day for a long walk. Tim went to his conference this morning, so I explored the area near our hotel. Apparently, there is a swanky neighborhood just across the street full of old, victorian and art deco architecture. I started walking up a hill, turned right, walked up another hill and came to a park. What do you know? There was a hill in the park. I felt like a mountain goat.

After picking up Tim at the hotel (wow, that sounds naughty, but it really wasn't), we had lunch and headed back to China Town. I couldn't let him leave San Fran without experiencing that. We made a bee-line for the fortune cookie factory. Since I already had a photo of cookies being made, I opted for a photo with the adorable little old man who acted as "host" of the shop.



After China Town, we met up with my new travel friend, Laura, at City Lights Books. The bookstore is famous for being owned by one of the Beat Poets, but I didn't see him there. I did see this mural behind the building, which I thought had some pretty sage advice:



The next part of our adventures led us up, up and up hill. A lot of up hill. We wanted to go to the top of Coit Tower, which was built to honor the firefighters that battled the post-1906 earthquake fire. Some people say it looks like a firehose. Others say it looks like a, well, AHEM. I think it looks like a lighthouse.



After climbing to the top of a very steep hill and then taking several flights of stairs to the base of the tower, it turned out you couldn't go to the top because it was under renovation. Figures. But the view from the tower area was nice and we got to go though some really beautiful backyard gardens on the way down.

Our next stop took us to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in San Fran. It has eight switchbacks that cars have to navigate to decend the hill (it's a one-way street). They also have to navigate tourists jumping into the road for a photo. We started at the base of the hill and walked up more stairs to the top. It was a nice walk, beautifully landscaped, so it didn't seem bad.



At the top of the hill, we all decided it was time for a drink and a snack. Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39 were only a few blocks away, down this street:



We made it to the bottom and thought we should check for the sea lions that frequent the bar area of the warf. We smelled them before we could see them. Cute animals, but woof! SMELLY! Alas, it was naptime:



Tomorrow my new friend Laura and I are going to Muir Woods. Then Tim and I leave San Fran and start making our way down Highway 1 toward Caramel and San Simeon, and eventually L.A.