California - Part 3

On our way down south, we stopped in San Francisco.  I have always wanted to visit this city and I was excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was really cool, the bridge that is.

When we got into the city, we got a hotel room which I thought was in the theater district.  It very well might have been.  After we checked in, we took Simon on a walk to do his business. There were weird people everywhere!!  I was scared we were going to get mugged and we had to keep walking around because there was no grass to be found anywhere and Simon wouldn't go. Finally we found 4 blades of grass growing in the crack on the sidewalk where he could relieve himself.  After taking Simon back to the room, I thought we could go get some dinner at a hip place down the street.  We walked back out and apparently so did the rest of the vagrants.  We had a drink and then decided it would be best to order a pizza from the safety of our hotel room.  On the way back, Adam put his sunglasses on and puffed his chest out to look more menacing.  I didn't dare pull my camera out in fear of being pegged as a tourist. 

The next day we drove around the city a bit, but the damage was done, I was disenchanted with San Francisco.  It was nothing like I've seen on TV.  I think the next time I go there I will have to stay in a very expensive hotel in the rich part of town because where we stayed was scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is not the street we stayed on!

I did love all of the intricate architecture though

After leaving San Fran, we headed down the Pacific Coast Highway to southern California.  This road was filled with beautiful scenery, scary heights, steep dropoffs, and winding pavement.  We stopped at a couple of scenic vistas to take in the views.  You just can't capture the beauty.  I loved all of the wild flowers!

The greatest surprise was when we spotted a beach full of seals!  It was awesome!  They were huge!

This guy below was fighting other seals to get to a more cozy position.  

What the  ?

I love this!

Next we saw some guys kite surfing.  I think I would like to try this one day.  I probably need stronger arms.  (Note to self, work on arms.)

After a long day on the PCH, we stopped in Santa Maria for the night.  When we got to the hotel, we checked in and then went to move the truck in front of our room.  It would not start!  In the morning it started,   and we took it to a Ford dealership down the road.  While they were putting a new battery in for free, thanks Adam's dad for the extended warranty, we walked down the road to get some lunch.  Little did we know we were in a town famous for pea soup!  We ate at Andersen's, a danish restaurant, and both had pea soup for the first time.  It was surprisingly good.  We also shared a Monte Cristo sandwich on the advice of the waitress and the couple in the booth next to us.  I should have suspected something, they were both 400 lbs.  The sandwich came and was covered in powdered sugar.  It was like a funnel cake with ham in it.  Plus they provided raspberry preserves to spread on it just in case it was not sweet enough.  We ate the sandwich and then rolled ourselves out of there past the danish wedding cookies and fudge in fear of a diabetic coma.

With a new battery, we rolled down to Malibu.  I expected more.  The beach was OK, but I prefer the Gulf Coast.

As we got into Los Angeles, the traffic was horrendous!  There were 25 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic.  We could not get out of there fast enough.  I think I might like to fly there and spend a couple of days seeing some sights on another trip.  Adam and I were just not in the mood after San Francisco to deal with a big city.

Plus I couldn't get over the smog.  There was a haze lingering over everything.  I felt like my eyes were foggy. Below is a picture of smoggy mountains.  EEWWW.  No thank you.