Los Angeles to San Francisco

August 12, 2013

It's always exciting to be visiting families. Driving from Los Angeles to Seattle and spending three nights in between made this trip even more exciting and enjoyable. We have not been to San Francisco in a couple of years and I thought that making a stop there should be fun. Unfortunately, we left L.A. kind of late and by the time we arrived San Francisco it was pretty late and did not give us too much time to explore.

We decided not to take the fast route (Fwy 5) which is kind of boring. Instead, we opted for Hwy 101, a more scenic route with ocean views and vineyards along the highway. After stopping at a fast food place for lunch in Solvang, we continued our drive up north. Originally we planned on eating at the Hoover's Beef Palace in Templeton, south of Paseo Robles, for their famous chicken fried steak but didn't make it before their closing time at 2pm. But, we just had to stop at the rest area near Pseo Robles for memory sake.

A few years back, when we took another trip up north in our RV, we had a flat tire right outside of this rest area. When we called AAA for help, we were told that we just went past southern California and we had to call for service in northern California. Well, it turned out that the closest tow truck available was more than 60 miles away (whereas Paseo Robles was just 20 minutes away). After the sky turned dark the tow truck finally came (a long delay because he had to deal with another accident up in King City) but he did not have the tools needed to fix the RV. So MOR had to go to Paseo Robles with the guy to see if they can find a store that was still opened for the parts. As we were waiting in the RV for them to come back, a highway patrol came. After finding out what had happened, he parked his patrol car right behind us and kept an eye on the two of us until they came back. Then he guided us to back up the RV to the entrance of the rest area. The service truck fixed the tire and the highway patrol told us not to drive in the dark but just spend the night in the parking lot here instead. What a nice guy, one of the angels we've met on that particular trip!

We were parked outside the fence and the patrol car lead us backing up to the entrance to this rest area.

This was where we were, stuck with a flat tire several years back...

...and spent the night with these big trucks on both sides.

This is actually a pretty nice rest area. A tour bus with a full load of Chinese tourists also stopped for their "bathroom breaks".

Can't really tell, but it's San Francisco.

Needless to say, the hotels in S.F. are expensive, especially around the Fisherman's Wharf area. We had a free-night certificate from Priority Club that we had to use so we decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Express. A nice, clean, and friendly hotel...

...but the room was really too small.

They were not able to upgrade us as Platinum members because they were fully booked. This was the best they could do, got us a room with a view--of the street. They also gave us a $25 discount on the $45 valet parking. We ended up not having to pay for parking at all. Parking is just ridiculously expensive here.

We were on the 2nd floor and it got pretty noisy during the night. Don't know what it was but the noise really bothered me from getting a good nights rest.

The one advantage of this hotel is it being so close to the main area of Fisherman's Wharf, just a couple of blocks away.

This was around 8pm, and surprisingly very cold!

A very busy bakery/restaurant nearby. Famous for their sour dough.

Partially covered Alcatraz.

Pier 39

Almost closing time.

We bought some fried seafood, clam chowder, shrimp sandwiches from different seafood stands and sour dough baguette from Boudin to go and had a nice late dinner in our hotel room. Sorry, but this sour dough was not as good as I expected. It was cold and hard. I think the ones we normally get from the Vietnamese market are much much better.

I guess it's a tourists thing in S.F. This loaf traveled with us all the way to Seattle before we decided to throw it away.