California
here we come: the second 4 days!
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first 4 days)
fri
| sat | sun
| mon | tues
| wed | thurs | fri2
day
5: tuesday, may 28
We took a morning stroll over to yosemite falls, which was right across
the street from the yosemite lodge. The falls consist of two different
drops and a middle falls. Altogether, it is the highest falls in north
america. After some souvenier shopping, we headed west and out of the
park. As we left the park, one of the most amazing things happened.
We ran smack into a huge monarch butterfly migration. The butterflies
were so dense that they were smashed all over the windshield and car.
Our white car had an orange looking front end the rest of the day. Just
unbelievable.
Lunch
was some burgers and fries at the in-n-out
burger in the town of merced (truly great, fresh fast food!), and
then we continued west to the mission
san juan bautista. The mission is the fifteenth of 22 missions established
by the spanish friars from 1769 to 1823. But san juan bautista has another
claim to fame: the location for the "suicide" fall from the
bell tower in alfred hitchcock's classic vertigo.
While the bell tower was a hollywood creation, many other sites here
will be familiar to anyone who has seen the movie (see my san
juan bautista pics). Also on this site are el
camino real, which was the king's highway back when spain ruled
the land, and the san andreas fault, although there weren't any obvious
signs of past earthquake activity.
We
finally made it into carmel
and took a quick tour of the fancy homes along the beach, and also squeezed
in the famous 17 mile drive around pebble beach (see my carmel
and pebble beach pics). Being a bit of a jazz fan, we
stopped off at krml
jazz radio station (which was where clint eastwood played a DJ in
the movie play misty for
me. Haven't seen the movie? See it!). To cap off the day, we had
dinner at clint's place (the restaurant at mission
ranch). He converted an old dairy and sheep farm into a hotel and
restaurant, saving it from a condo conversion. I had a tremendous florida
grouper and a smooth belvedere martini!
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day
6: wednesday, may 29
After
breakfast at the dakota coffee
house, we headed south to view the wonders of big
sur (see my big
sur pics). Then we turned around and made it to cannery
row in monterey for lunch at the fish
hopper restaurant overlooking monterey bay and some friendly otters.
Monterey is the setting for many of john steinbeck's works, including
of course, "cannery row". After lunch, we headed north toward
san francisco, making quick stops in santa cruz and half moon bay along
the coast (see my monterey
pics).
Once back in SF,
we had to stop at the corner of haight and ashbury streets, drive down
the crookedest street in the world, and take the elevator to the top
of coit tower (see my around
town pics and skyline
pics ). We then met up with my friend simmy, who took
us to some good spots to see the golden gate bridge and the beautiful
sunset, followed by dinner at the oldest italian restaurant in town:
fior d'italia. This was an excellent
meal of pumpkin ravioli and more anchor
steam beer. And then we headed to the bar scene and took in an old
beat generation hangout: vesuvio,
located on columbus avenue at jack kerouac alley! Find out about their
house drink: the kerouac.
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day
7: thursday, may 30
We
had breakfast at mel's diner, and old-fashioned style diner on lombard
st., complete with a juke box and a list of songs at your table (see
my mel's diner pic).
Then we took the powell-mason line of the cable
cars down to market street, and then back on the powell-hyde line.
The cable cars are the only "moving" national historic landmark.
(Check out my pic of special safety tips
for riding the cars.) We took a quick look at the golden
gate bridge, had a pot of green tea in the japanese garden at golden
gate park (see my golden
gate pics), and then headed over to pac-bell park for
a game between the giants
and the world champion arizona diamondbacks (see my SF
giants pics). While the game was pretty boring (we were
sitting above the left field foul pole!), they had good micro brew beer
and tremendous gilroy garlic fries! The fries are worth the trip alone!
After the game,
we headed over the golden gate, past sausalito, and to muir
woods national monument. This park, near sf, is famous for its redwood
trees, and was another scene in hitchcock's vertigo!
It was getting dark, so we didn't stay long (see my muir
woods pics).
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day
8: friday, may 31
For
our last day in frisco, we took a quick tour of chinatown and then had
breakfast in ghirardelli square
at a boudin sourdough bakery cafe.
This is delicious, soft sourdough (I had a bagel), not like the hard
crusted stuff you get back east. But it was time to leave! So we headed
south to the san jose airport and on to vegas.
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first 4 days
