16/09/11
See you camping and bear boxes and bring on a bed in San Francisco.
Arrived in San Fran in the early afternoon and headed to the painted ladies – famous for movies and the city skyline in the background. Next we went the the Golden Gate Bridge – yeh I finally get to walk across it – not. Almost did. Walked almost the entire length in the freezing wind before having to turn around and go all the way back –nooo!
Was a good walk/run could feel a few sore muscle from yesterday though. Eating out in China Town tonight and Alcatraz and a grid iron game tomorrow – can’t wait to go around Frisco again tomorrow.
17/09/11
A long day and filled with San Francisco sites – cable cars, Alcatraz, a college football game at the baseball stadium, China Town, Lombard Street and a long wait for the trip home.
Headed to Pier 33 to grab out Alcatraz tickets and check out the wharf. We breakfast at a surfie style diner and it was yummy – a breakfast sandwich for me and tasty – egg, bacon, chips and a great hot choc. We made a quick stop at a college shop and bought up some California Bear t-shirts for the game before heading to the rock.
It was exciting for the others, not quite the same for me. I still enjoyed it but not quite as much as the first time. Allison and I were the only ones to make it back on the 1pm ferry so we made our way by cable car back to Market and Powell so we could grab tickets for everyone. The cheapest tickets were $65 – for a college game – what!
We ended up buying some from a scalper and I was a little nervous that the tickets wouldn’t be any good – such relief when we got through the gates. Great seats in the lower section except for the pole. Moved over a few spots later and it was perfect. California Bears were on fire and smashed the opposition. My camera even worked for a while. The marching band was amazing about 200+ in it and the music and formations were great. I can’t believe how many players are on a team in grid iron – about 100 we reckon.
Afterwards we did some shopping in China Town for cheap souvenirs, then made our way to the wonkiest street in the world – Lombard and we walked up through the zig zags and then headed to the pier for some ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s and then attempted to head home – cable cars and trams just didn’t want to arrive for us for quite some time.
20/09/11
The last few days of our cross-country trek and the end of my organised adventure.
18/09/11
We left San Francisco and headed to Monterey. It was a windy road and a few passengers were a little motion sick. Another bushy camp site and a nice western style dinner.
19/09/11
From Monterey we made the idyllic road trip down the scenic Sur Highway, highway 101, much like the Great Ocean road on the other side of the Pacific. There were some low clouds, rocky mountain outcrops, waterfalls and rocks protruding through the water. We did one totally bush hike that cut our legs and skirted along the mountains and no waterfall – yikes! We ended up on the beach and were excited at the prospect of perhaps camping on the beach. Alas it would have been cold, windy and wet so we went back to the creek just behind the sand dunes. We celebrated the last night of our trek together and had the State Police pop in for a visit.
20/09/11
Our final day together as Northern Trail ‘B’ team. We stopped off at Santa Barbara to check out the pier before having a great lunch stop at In and Out. Great fresh burgers and then off to Hollywood! We had a little tour through LA, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Making a stop along the walk of fame and having a picture with the Hollywood sign in the background. Then off to our final stop the Hacienda Hotel just near the airport.
Sad to see it all end and a little nervous now I’m back by myself –especially as my accommodation is a little far out of the city – I thought it was closer so maybe a little bit of a hike in and out of the city. Once I get to my next stop and find my way around I should be ok though – I hope!
Whilst wating around at my best western luxurious room I received a call from the office to say I had a package delivered – woohoo my star wars x-wing. I continued trying to work out how to get into the city and to Disnelyand and Universal, Hollywood and Downtown L.A. when I thought – why don’t I get out of here and try and book where some of the other trekkers are – the Banana Bungalows – West Hollywood. I checked them out on the net and they had tours from there to Disney and other places so I decided to call them and if they had a vacancy I would go for it before it got too late. I was prepared to forfeit my nights already paid if I could get in. I rang them and yeh – they had a vacancy in the dorms for me – thank the Lord – only I had to give up my comfy queen bed and private room!
I went back to the desk to try and get my 4th night refunded and the lady was Catia was so nice she reimburst the whole amount and didn’t even charge me for my 2 hour stay. I contemplated a taxi and then train and bus but I ended up going with a taxi – a chauffeur for the 1 hour drive. Arrived at banana and soon ran into Mikey, Zeddy and Andy, was nice to see some familiar faces.
I chatted to my roommate another Aussie and with Mikey we headed into Hollywood, I activated my LA card to get free entry in 40+ attractions and we had dinner in the Kodak Theatre plaza. After walking around and taking a look at the Roosevelt – famous for housing Marilyn Monroe we headed back to Banana.
Hitting Universal Studios tomorrow with most of the gang and we will try to get Andrea and Allison in to – although they already missed out on staying at banana, Allison was robbed in her dorm room. Thankfully I wasn’t staying there.
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