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The New Zealand we discovered was all golden in the automn sun. Our first taste of America is basking in spring. California's trees are just waking up, dizzy with their sprinkling of flowers and brand new leaves. The hills between Santa Barbara and San Francisco are wearing pretty dresses in princess bright yellow and fairytale pink. The roadsides are rolling cactii carpets of loud orange and fuschia.
We finally found the quaint road we were dreaming of between Santa Barbara and San Luis obispo to start with. On a sunny Saturday late afternoon, we queued with the locals for Pismo Beach famous clam chowder served hot in a bowl of bread. Then it was off in the sunset along the beach and yet another jetty. The food is so rich here that without our long daily walks, we would end up looking like the elephants seals we saw between San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz.
Imagine a whole sandy beach covered in huge smelly elephants seals. We saw them, flapping their flippers to cover their large bodies in home made sun screen: sand (now why did I not think of that before), going for a little swim to cool down in an elegant caterpilar fashion, showing off in loud honking barks for their new girlfriends who were going like yeah, whatever.
Pacific highway 1 between Pismo Beach and Santa Cruz is one of the greatest drive in the world. It has all the right ingredients, blue ocean? checked. Long sandy beaches? Checked. Waves pounded redearth cliffs? All there. Winding up and down road? Yep. Pretty hills in flower dresses? You bet...we saw it all whenever the season confused summer fog lifted bit by bit, tantalising us with magnificients landscapes at each corner of the road. There too we saw some of the money that still hangs around here, in Porches and Ferrarris.
Santa Cruz (yes, another jetty, another long walkay along the sea) so laid back, it nearly falls backwards. We stayed there two nights, to chill out. Paul went for a long bike ride while the kids caught on their homework. If we wanted a sign that America is not doing well, the walk downtown would have provided plenty. It was quiet, with empty or closed down shops, the only people we saw were either buried in their laptops at coffee shops or obviously suffering from serious mental problems... Maxim and Callum were very much spooked by the other side of the American dream... No more Disneyland sugarcoating here...
The drive to San Francisco was fog free and charming in the mid morning sun, guided by sweet benevolent Tom Tom to a cute motel and a big room with a view over the Russian Hill district. Time for a walk, in the cold to Fisherman Warf and Pier 39, high on the SF must do list.
Okay it is yet another jetty, but a much bigger one, covered in quaints shops and coffee shops. We walked in an happy crowd in the sunshine to the very end of the pier. What makes this place so special is that a colony of sea lions, spooked by the 1989 earthquake decided to call Pier 39 home. No Jenny Craigh option for the females, 110 wobbly kilos each, no biggest losers cameras pointed on honking 390 kilos males. There are so many of them, they caterpillar over each to jump in the water.
Our hotel is on Lombard street, famous for something I could not quite remember. So we followed it on the way back home. As it became hillier and hillier, we learn why it is so well known. It is the crookest street in the world. At one stage, the climb became so steep that it had to be made into a zigzaging disneyland like rides with views over the handsome city. We liked that walk so much we did it again, at night after a meal of warm chowder in the cold of Fisherman Warf.
Clam chowder is meant to be eaten outside, in the dark, in the cold, under the light of a little shop on a warf. Each spoonful of seafood goodness is like being transported in a world of warmth, it is as conforting as a huge hug, as satisfying as a chat with a good friend, as confortable as a cozy living room. And when the spoonful is finish, when the cold and the dark reassert themselves, wait there is more in a big bread bowl...it makes me think of the fishermen who came back to that warf 30 years ago, frozen and weary, desparate for heat...it is like travelling in time.
- comments
Gareth Desmond ......................am I jealous?.....yes but thanks for continuing to share your adventure with us : ).
James Desmond Food-wise would you say the seafood in San Fran is better than back in Australia? Have always heard that the seafood there is amazing., alaska crab, maine lobster etc.., thoughts??