Our Travel Blog: Part 2 - Big Sur & San Francisco

We had a big day of driving up the coast from Pismo Beach to San Francisco (almost 6 hours if we didn't stop), so got up nice and early, had some breakfast at our hotel, and hit the road. Unfortunately there were some fires in the Big Sur area, so our view for most of the trip was grey and hazy and a lot of the main sights were not accessible. It was still a really nice drive though.

Our first stop was at the Elephant Seal Vista Point, where we got to check out some lazy but noisy seals. Not far up the road was another viewing point, where we were greeted by some very friendly squirrels and a nice view! Further up the road agin we stopped at Nepenthe - which is known for having a restaurant with a view. Unfortunately, given all the smoke and haze, there was literally no view, so after a quick stop we kept on driving! Our next stop was the famous Bixby Bridge where we took some pictures. Once we got a bit further past this point, the haze started to clear, and we saw our first glimmer of blue sky! We then took a drive along 17 Mile Drive which took us by Pebble Beach Golf Club, the Lone Cypress and Monterey.

By this stage it was getting quite late in the afternoon, and we still had a few hours drive to get to our hotel in San Francisco. On the way we took a quick detour via the Google & the Googleplex Visitor Center and then headed towards the city. We didn't realise how bad the peak hour traffic was going to be heading into San Francisco (not sure if it was a bad day but it was definitely on par with LA traffic) and it was a very slow drive in. After what seemed like an eternity we finally made it to our hotel! Our hotel wasn't too far from Union Square so our first night we wandered around our area, and grabbed some dinner before heading to bed.

What we did realise very early on in our visit to San Francisco, was how cold it was. I think the most commonly used phrase while we were in San Francisco was - "holy crap it's cold!!" We quickly discovered that a San Francisco summer is colder than a Brisbane winter.

Our first full day in San Francisco was a big day. We walked from our hotel to where the tram starts to take you to Fisherman's Wharf, saw how long the line was and decided walking was a better option. About about 40 minutes and some epic hills later, we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf (while our feet were very sore, it definitely helped with warming us up). We wandered around the area for a while, checked out the seals at Pier 39 and then headed off on our Alcatraz Tour. It was good to finally get to Alcatraz and do the tour, but "holy crap it was cold" over there. We caught the boat back to Fisherman's Wharf, and not stupid enough to make the same mistake and walk back to where we were staying, we got an Uber back to Union Square! We had a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (we took our White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Cheesecake "to go" as we were too full from lunch) and then headed back to our hotel to quickly change before heading off to a baseball game. We walked down to AT&T stadium where we watched the Giants play the Orioles. It was actually a really good game to watch and thankfully the Giants won. After the game we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Our next day in San Francisco was a Sunday and we decided we would hire some bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. We headed back to Fisherman's Wharf (thank you Uber) again to get our bikes and off we went. It was crazy busy - and we soon discovered how many people had the same idea as us on this very cold Sunday! There were way more hills on this ride than I was prepared for and I quickly discovered that I am definitely not at my fittest!! Not willing to give up though, I kept pushing on, and we made it over the bridge. Once we got over the bridge, there was actually some blue sky and it was so much warmer than in the city! We then rode a bit further on to Sausalito, where we grabbed some lunch (fish and chips) before taking the ferry back to San Francisco. We grabbed an Uber back to Union Square, did a bit of shopping and then headed back to our hotel for a bit of a break. We ended the night with a few drinks at the 39th floor of the Marriot Marquis. This location is known for its amazing views, but unfortunately all we saw was fog. As such, it seemed fitting to have the "Karl the Fog" cocktail (which also included Bundaberg Ginger Beer)! We then grabbed a quick dinner of sushi at a nearby restaurant, and headed back to the hotel for bed.

Here are some photos from these few days.....

Noisy Elephant Seals