Day: 23 and 24: San Francisco Treats

Day 23 was largely an uneventful. We left Yosemite early in the morning stopped and took a few more pictures and then we on our merry way. It was about a 4 hour drive to San Francisco and went off without many problems of course we arrive during rush hour so that obviously added some time.

Which brings me to my first point or observation. California drivers are by and large the worst drivers we've experienced so far on our trip. They are extremely rude, impatient and at times extremely dangerous. We did not mention it earlier but our first experience with road rage happened on our way in to San Diego where a driver nearly ran us off the road, but that is neither her nor there. As I said above we arrived in San Fran around rush hour, there were tons of cars on the road all going very fast and seemed very cramped in the tight lines of one the four lane highway that goes in and out of the city. Coupled with the fact that the GPS was not very quick on the directions, and the ever present fog around the golden gate bridge, we ended up with a little bit a stress. But not to worry we arrive safe and sound and quickly veged out to Anderson Cooper's 360 on CNN to catch up on some news and then went into the city to catch some delicious Thai food. Afterwards we came back and promptly passed out.

Day 24, was much more interesting. We slept in since we did not have to check out by 11am and got into the city around 1pm. after parking we headed straight to the gold and blue ferry station, so we could get to Alcatraz and really explore the place. right before we got in line a couple approached us asking if we wanted tickets for the 1:45 ferry. They had prepaid and another coupe could not use them. They fofered us normal price, but we did not take them, because we did not have the cash on us. So we waited in line for the real ticket counter and when we got up there we discovered that they have sold out through the weekend for tickets to Alcatraz. This frustrated me a lot because we had a chance to go and blew. Alas live and learn. Just leaves us something to do when we come back.

So instead of the prison we went to eat at a fairly decent seafood restraunt right on Fisherman's Warf. A little over priced but the meal netted us 3 free hours at the garage we parked at. So in the end was worth it. After lunch we tried to go to the City Lights Book Sellers and Publishers. The problem being that the GPS did not have City Lights in it, instead the listing was under Book sellers and Publishers, and our travel book gave us the completely wrong address of 2261 Columbus St. The true address is 261 Columbus, which we found later.

Eventually realized 2261 did not exist and headed down to the Hyde St. Pier, where there is another National Park about the shipping industry in San Francisco. This brought our total cancelations to 11! Woot! (Tying my all time high on one trip.) The park was very interesting chronicling the kinds of trade goods that went through San Francisco and even had some ships that tourists could go on and explore from various eras. There was a sailing cargo ship, under reconstruction (Which was just as neat to see a NPS exhibit work in progress.) a stand plank ferry, a tug boat and some other smaller ship exhibits like a turn of the century house boat and the light from a San Francisco light house.

After the park closed and we were kicked out we went for a walk on the Municipal peir and got shots of both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from a far. Then we retrieved our car and explored the City Lights Book Seller and Publisher. It was a very cool trip. Bring in the same palce as Ginsberg, Dylan, Keroack, etc. It was very chill place wwith some slogas here and there, but nothing over the top and tons of sings inviting visitors to sit and read, which I found refreshing. Sure B&B has confy chairs and such but it does not seem like they really want you to sit and read, while sipping coffee. Here they were content if you just sat down and read all the books there. The point is they just want people to read and be enlightened and that was really cool.

To finish the day, we got some take out in China Town located conveniently near City Lights and too it back too our hotel, but before we left San Fran completely we did each take turn driving down the most twisted street in the world, and road on a trolley car.Both great fun and comes highly recommended as cheap thrills in the most expensive city we've ever experienced.

Since its getting late in the month we have restructured our route. Sadaly that required we cut out Napa Valley and the Grand Canyon, but I think during this time of year its better off. But enough downers lets go to the uppers...

Stats for the past two days:
Distance Traveled: 736.3mi
Moving Average: 56.8mph
Overall Average: 47.2
Moving Time: 12h 58m
Stopped: 2h 37m
Total: 15h 35m
Wrong Turns: A few here and there, San Fran is a lot like Boston in the way that it is a pain to drive in.
Distance to go: Lots of long driving days ahead

Tomorrow: Death Valley