Up early again we set off for Death Valley in anticipation of high temperatures! We stocked up on water and made sure we had lots of food! Its a very extreme place to experience with desert, canyons and not a lot of life other than tourists passing through. We were starting to feel the heat very early on and each time we ventured out of the car we’d soon be back inside! At one stage we had to turn the air con off so as to prevent the engine from over heating – a sign on the road told us to do this! Five of us and lots of bags, not a lot of room so in the heat it only got worse!

We hiked through the Mosaic Canyon which was really interesting and at times we were in the shade too as we walked through the narrow, smooth canyon formations. The lads improvised by using their shorts as hats to keep cool but they didn’t look very cool. Moving on from the mosaics we lunched at Stovepipe Wells (Mark and Russ decided to buy some hats here), paid for our park pass ($20 per car) and ventured onwards to find the pupfish at Salt Creek. We didn’t see any pupfish, but we did find water, although you really wouldn’t want to drink it! There are only two roads through Death Valley and we drove out to perhaps the most famous point through Furnace Creek, which recorded the hottest temperature in North America at around 134F (56 degrees C!!!). It wasn’t quite so hot when we were there peaking at around 102 F, but down at Badwater this was the hottest air temperature and sun all of us had ever experienced, plus to make it worse the salt just reflected the sun straight back at us! Still it was an experience worth having. In two days we’d gone from Yosemite to Death Valley, two completely contrasting landscapes and climates, from seeing snow on the road side to being in the dry hot desert.

Later that night we were entering our 3rd contrasting place in a row. Las Vegas.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We started our day with a trip to the Golden Gate Park by taking a bus to the part of the park that houses the Botanical Gardens. The gardens are a bit of paradise away from the busy streets of the city. We enjoyed exploring the succulent plants, flowers and plants from the Andes and the Ancient garden, although at different times of year other parts of the gardens will flourish more.

We communicated with Dave’s friends and planned to meet them in Cows Hollow as we knew there were some good places around there to eat. We took bus number 42 all the way there after a long walk from one end of the park and eventually arrived with them just after 1pm.

A little tip for those using public transport… the boys bought a travel pass for $21 each which permitted them to travel on all public transport methods for 3 days including the cable cars! Another little tip is if you’re not really planning on using the cable cars (which are $6 one way) then a bus pass is also valid on the Muni underground rail, and the street cars. One bus ticked costs $2 and lasts for 4 hours! Good stuff!

Anyway we met the boys at a nice bar called The Brixton and it was really good to see them. This is the first time we’ve had people come and join us for our trip so it’s just been great having the company and seeing such lovely familiar faces! (he he) We enjoyed a good catch up, drinks and food before making our way back up to Lombard street to the zig zag street. We were doing the touristy things again but it didn’t matter. We followed this with a trip to Coit Tower, although we decided to stay at the bottom and chill out whilst the boys enjoyed a little trip up to the top to take in the views. We took the cable car down to Powell Street as we hadn’t been on one yet, and we checked out their hotel before heading back to Mission to enjoy a lovely fish and seafood dinner with our hosts Heather and Jamie at The Anchor on Castro Street. This was our first introduction to the Gay district of San Fran.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Up early to mist and rain we both headed out for an early morning run whilst leaving Barbara in her bunk bed. Today we head back to the centre of San Francisco, but before we did we headed out to Berkley to try and get some sunshine away from the coast. We didn’t find any and it continued to pour down. None the less we headed for a coffee shop for a hot drink and found some great newspaper / what’s on guides. Café Intermezzo was very busy and people were flocking inside to order soups, massive sandwiches and gigantic salads. We couldn’t resist and all ordered our very own sarnies.

We dropped off our beloved Hyundai Sonata at the returns parking depot a few streets away and checked into Parc 55 hotel, which Barbara kindly paid for. Overall we drove 3325 miles in 30 days. We attempted to eat our sandwiches, got half way through and then went for a walk around the city, our first proper look. As it was continuing to rain we headed to China Town and decided to treat ourselves to a foot massage which was a nice relaxing way to avoid the showers. The Cheesecake Factory above Macy’s in Union Square was recommended to us by Barbara and we decided to give it a go. The food was surprisingly good considering the vast menu and slightly Planet Hollywood / Universal Studios feel to the place. The cheesecake desert was very good but we were too stuffed and all shared one, struggling to even eat that!!

We enjoyed our night in the 4 star hotel very much but instead of going for the overpriced breakfast hotel menu we opted for Puccini & Pinetti over the street from Parc 55. It was after 10am when we set off for the Golden Gate bridge opting to take the bus there, we took two buses intact and as we were en-route the sun came out, but when we arrived at the bottom of the bridge it was foggy! There’s always some fogginess going on in San Fran! This was our first time walking on the bridge and we decided to walk from one end to the other with several stops along the way, walking in and out of fog as we did so. It was very atmospheric seeing the giant cables coming out of the fog and we couldn’t see the waves below, only hear them along with the massive amount of traffic driving by. It was pretty surreal and a great experience. It took us around an hour and 45 to walk the bridge but we were much slower crossing it the first time. At the headlands end the path is currently closed but on the other side cyclists could make it all the way across.

We walked back towards Fort Mason getting more views across to Alcatraz and the headlands,  and eventually we ended up taking a bus from the top of Fishermans Wharf. When we got to the hotel Barbara picked up her suitcases and as we were hugging and saying our goodbyes an airport shuttle bus came along so she hopped on and we waved and waved until they turned around the corner. Thanks to Barbara for joining in our adventure!

So now it was back to the two of us, but not for too long as Dave’s friends were flying out that same day! Although we weren’t planning to meet them until Wednesday so we collected the mass of our bags – 2 rucksacks, 2 small rucksacks, camera bag, camping gear in new wall mart $15 bag, a water container and a cool box!!! Jeez!! What has happened here? We packed ourselves into a cab and made our way to our next home, a basement studio underneath the home of fellow travellers Heather and Jamie. Heather found our blog when she was researching for their trip to South-East Asia and sent us a lovely email about how  helpful it was! Yay! So when she knew we were coming to her home town she offered for us to stay in their basement studio at no cost to us! Wow! An amazing help in hand towards our travels and we couldn’t say no!

So our next home was located in the Mission District in between Mission and Castro. We could tell straight away that this neighbourhood had personality and it seemed to suit us! We spent our first night in the area roaming around Mission, found a great Vegetarian Japanese place to eat at on Mission Street called Chaya and followed this on with drinks in a nearby cafe. On our way home we stopped off at Bi-rite, an organic supermarket heading back towards Delores Park on 18th street. We couldn’t stretch the budget to afford their lovely wines, cheeses and deli goods but we did find a few things for us. They also own the famous ice-cream parlour over the road which has queues going on for streets! Crazy but it must be good!!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

After our first night at Jill and Joe’s house in Cambria we had breakfast and headed out for a morning stroll. This took us over an old ranch that has become a preservation area and is a great route through grasslands, forest and coast. We even spotted our first scarecrow in someones front garden taking part in the local competition. San Luis Obispo was our destination for today which took around 60 minutes drive from Cambria.

We stopped along the way at Morro Bay with the plan to kayak around the bay exploring the islands that divide the mainland and the ocean. We hired a two person kayak from kayak horizons for $18 1st hour / $10 per hour afterwards. We spotted some sea otters in the bay as well as seals sunning themselves on the wooden decks. Rain arrived and we called it time on the kayak adventure and met Barbara in a coffee shop.

The Mission in San Luis Obispo is one of the main attractions here and the church was very nice with some interesting painted wall art. The Mission itself wasn’t really that great, more of a local museum which needed some TLC. A walk around the town and a beer/wine got us in the mood for the farmers market which started at 6pm. The street market was more of a food market than anything but they had a decent selection of food on offer, mainly meat based as this is America. Chewing gum alley might not go that great with your Tri-tip sandwich or vegan Thai curry, but its a sight worth seeing.

The following day we decided to stay local and explore Cambria. We first visited the Cambria farmers market which takes place Fridays 2:30pm – 5pm, which had some nice produce on sale. The scarecrow competition was in full swing and had some great entries. A few weeks back we booked our tickets online to visit Hearst Castle (Helen had previously visited but was more than happy to go back) and decided to book the sunset tour which included themed characters wandering the grounds and interacting with each other and the visitors. The castle is pretty amazing and is well worth a visit if you are on the west coast near this area. The tour lasted a couple of hours and ended at the gold leaf roman swimming pool. All three of us loved the tour and the history of the castle.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We stayed at the Cow Hollow Inn and after our first nights’ sleep in a bed since our little night in the log cabin a few weeks ago we got up early and ventured into Cows Hollow for some breakfast. We were really being spoit…a bed AND a breakfast!! The Grove was our place of choice and it served really good oatmeal with fruit and Dave enjoyed the full works. There were now 3 of us in our little adventure and the first port of call was Coit Tower. This is probably the most cost effective and definitely one of the most rewarding views over the city. It only costs $7 to go up to the top and enjoy the views, there was no fog as of yet so we looked out across the morning city. Coit Tower has some interesting history surrounding it along with painted murals on the walls of the interior.

Moving on we started our next stint of road trips with Santa Cruz being our first stop. We intended to stop at a few more places along the way but the weather wasn’t so great, however we did enjoy a good lunch on picnic benches behind the Arcangeli Grocery store. Another stop included the Moss Landing beach where surfers battled the strong waves and from there we got into Santa Cruz at around 3pm. We had booked to stay at the HI Carmelita Cottages but they weren’t open for check in until 5pm, this is common in many of the older HI hostels on the west coast. So we spent our time wandering along the pier, enjoying the mass of sea lions and a few cocktails at a bar on the bottom of the pier.

So by 5pm we were ready to check in and really pleased with the standard of the room, we had a 3 person room with one double and a single bed for $65 (shared bath). We ate at an asian fusion restaurant called Malabar on Front Street, interesting curries and good vegetarian food. The rain continued so for us Santa Cruz was a little wet and perhaps not as enjoyable as it would be on a sunny day! It also felt like it was end of season there so during the summer months we’re sure this place has more personality.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We journeyed off down the 1 to Point Reyes National Seashore about an hour north of San Francisco. The drive down was once again very scenic and rugged, so with a few stops along the way we made our way to The Samuel P Taylor State Park to find a camping spot, the main problem being that it was the weekend and the campground was already full with more San Francisco weekend holidayers! We knew of one other campground in the area called the Olema RV resort and after a quick call we learned that camping spots were available, at an all time high of $42/night! It was a very well equipped campground and we found a spot amongst many campers, which made a change for us!

We ventured out to Point Reyes Station, a small village up the road from us where a farmers market had been taking place. It was still pretty busy when we arrived and so we walked around the village and chatted to a local photographer about his work in his little studio on the main street. After picking up some maps at the visitors Information in Bear Valley we decided to drive out to do a hike out to the most northern point in the area. There were a good few historic ranches along the way and we parked right by one of the oldest ranches in the area called Pierce Point which is open to walk around. From there the path heads out into the marsh-like landscape, it felt very much like the Scottish Highlands and wild Elk accompanied us along the way.

We didn’t manage enough time to fit in the whole walk out to the furthest point as it was getting dark but we did cover around 6 miles on the trip. At the end of the walk we drove down to McClures Beach where the photographer had talked about the rocks he’d been photographing. We took the path down to the beach watching and photographing the sun go down. The waves were immense and the sky was angry but we had an amazing sunset and there were only 3 other people on the stretch of the entire beach the whole time we were there. More amazing views for us!

We got back to the campsite when it was dark, prepared a stella meal and then proceeded to sit in the laundrette to do some washing and work indoors for a bit. We won’t miss these laundrettes!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

When we got up the following day the fog had cleared and we spent a few hours at the Indian Creek Cafe topping up our writing for the blog. It’s a popular place for those passing through on-route and we felt a little bad for taking up a table for just a coffee and an orange juice, friendly and funny staff though.

We drove in and out through the fog and stopped off at various places along the route. It’s a rugged coastline with rocks jutting out all along the way, there are so many stopping points it takes ages to get anywhere. We drove through some of the well known Redwood Forests and State Parks but the weather was not so good so we decided not to camp there for the night. A little further down Highway 1 and we landed in Trinidad and decided that we weren’t going to camp, instead we wanted a room…a bed!! After searching and stopping off at a few B&B’s we ended up at The Emerald Forest Resort, where we got a log cabin for a AAA reduced rate because Helen’s aunty is a member! This was our first night in a bed in nearly 2 weeks and we were pretty excited!

We walked up to Trinidad Head, which proved to be very rewarding, it’s a good little walk up to a point with more fantastic views. Trinidad is a nice little town but does seem to have most property on the holiday rental lists so it’s hard to find the community there. Back at our cabin we enjoyed food and Finding Nemo, oh how easy it is to get sucked into TV.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)