Day 5 - Big Sur to San Francisco

I'm a bit late with this update as we went straight to bed after a long day yesterday where we drove from Big Sur to Monterey and then onto San Francisco. We were in the road shortly after 7.00 and it was barely light. A few miles down the road from where we were staying is the Bixby Creek Bridge. We stopped off to take lots of pictures.

30 minutes further down the road and we were in Monterey where had tickets for a whale watching tour. The tour was delayed by an hour which meant we couldn't do the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach way so I couldn't check out the golf courses. I was a bit worried about the whale watching because I didn't want to feel sea sick. I knocked back a few sea sickness pills and felt like Captain Cook himself for the first hour or so as we made out way out to see. As soon as we stopped I was struggling :) I didn't throw up but I felt awful. Jess wasn't affected in the slightest so enjoyed the whales more than me. We were surrounding by humpback whales who we're feeding on a load of anchovies in the area. We hung around for nearly an hour before heading back to Monterey. Not quickly enough for me.

As we had lost an hour to the delay we grabbed something to eat before the 2 and a half hour drive to San Francisco. So far we've driven a good 500 miles in the car and we've had the roof down for about 490 of them. We've both caught the sun on our faces and both have white sunglass markings. I've bought a cap to stop my head from burning up. We need to find a hat for Jess before we leave San Francisco.

We parked up at the hotel, checked in, then headed out nearly straight away. We walked across town to catch our night time Alcatraz Tour. San Francisco is so hilly!!!! We walked down Lombard a Street (where our hotel is) to the crooked section of Lombard Street, but we had to walk up what must nearly qualify as a mountain to get there. There were a few cars driving down the crooked street and lots of tourists. I bet the people who live there hate it :)

By the time we were boarding for the Alcatraz Tour the famous San Francisco fog had set in. So my plans of sitting on the left side of the boat to get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was setting was well and truly blown out of the water. The fog and low light did make Alcatraz particularly atmospheric. We got some history from a tour guide up to the prison block and then we were left on our own to do the audio tour of the prison which was narrated by formed prison guards and prisoners and it was actually very good. The whole place is pretty spooky and the symbolic nature of the prison was designed by the prison authorities back in the day. Certainly looked a decent deterrent for crime to me.

We left Alcatraz on the first of two boats back as by this time were both shattered. Again. After a short walk to catch a cab were back near the hotel at Mel's Drive-In. We payed nearly $35 for a burger, some fries and a coke and it was pretty average at best.

 

 

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