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Ben & Sara's Trip
Since our last entry we've travelled a few miles so we'll go back to San francisco where we left off. If this is full of spelling mistakes then apologies, trying to get used to the rubber mat covering the keyboard to stop people from spilling drinks over it!!
As I said in the last entry we moved across town to the Green Tortoise hostel for something a bit better suited to our budget. It was a nice place and eased us in gently to the Hostel way of life. Tuesday afternoon we went back to the Pier 39 and went to the Aquarium of the Bay which was absolutely fantastic and as you can see from the photo's we've added the fish were pretty unreal. Highlight of the day was definitely Sara soaking her entire sleeve while we were stroking the Rays and Skates, it was absolutely hilarious!! We also got to stroke a Leopard Shark which was pretty cool!! We spent Tuesday night at Safeways and back at the hostel as San Francisco proved to be a very expensive location!!
Wednesday morning we were up bright and early as we headed off to Alcatraz for a tour of the island. It was absolutely incredible, first of all the views looking back at San Francisco were absolutely beautiful. After a short intro talk we walked up the hill a bit and met a former inmate who was doing a book signing. From there we watched a short history of the island before continuing up and doing the audio tour. The audio tour has a running commentary from former inmates and ex guards, it was really incredible to get that view of "The Rock" whilst actually being there in person. After we finished the tour we went for another walk along Fishermans Wharf and got our photo's developed to CD as we'd already filled a memory card!! Wednesday evening we took a walk through Chinatown and ate there and we had a drink in Union Square.
Thursday morning we had to get up and check out the Green Tortoise and make our way to pick up our car. The car we've ended up with is not quite the small economy we ordered. We ended up getting upgraded to a Chevy Impala which is not the 1.0L small car we expected but is instead a 3.5L beast which is absolutely huge. The boot alone is probably the size of the Punto GTi Sport I'm used to(!). So we picked the car up and headed off on the 49 Mile Drive that takes in the sights of San Francisco, so we thought we'd do the bits we'd missed. This took in Lombard Street, supposedly "the crookedest street in the world" which we drove and also the Golden Gate Bridge. We also went to Golden Gate Park which had some lovely views. That afternoon we drove from San Francisco down to Santa Cruz where we lucked out in the first Motel we visited, a room with two double beds and breakfast included for $39!!
Friday morning we woke up in Santa Cruz early ish and headed over to the boardwalk where all the rides etc. are. Unfortunately it turns out that Santa Cruz doesn't open until 12 so we had a quick walk and made tracks. As we headed down Highway 1 South I noticed a sign for the Pebble Beach 17 Mile Drive, which turned out to be a $10 drive around Pebble Beach. We were a bit miffed at first as we were expecting it to be free but that soon passed as it turned out to be one of the highlights so far. The drive took in some amazing beaches and beautiful golf courses as well as some really cool wildllife. Having done that we swung by Carmel on the way to Big Sur which was where we were planning to stay. Unfortunately Big Sur turned out to be a one shack town so we (I) took the decision to carry on. The scenery as we made our way along the Pacific Coast Highway 1 was breathtaking as it hugged the coast, it was a bit hair raising at times as we looked out the window to sheer drops but well worth it. About this time the Petrol Gauge was looking not too good and I was starting to worry a bit as we hadn't seen a Gas Station for 50 or so miles, fortunately we found somewhere where they were willing to rip us off for some gas!! We carried on down to San Simeone where upon telling the first hotelier our budget I was told to leave town. After leaving San Simeone and heading back out onto the road Sara spotted a beach with a bit of movement. It turned out to be full of Elephant Seals who are pupping at the moment so we got to see an entire beach filled with these amazing creatures. We then tried our luck at Cambria and Morro Bay before finding a room in San Luis Obispo at about 8.30 last night.
This morning we had to be out by 11 so we got up and went to explore San Luis Obispo, end result was that it was a pretty boring place. The only point of Interest was the Madonna Inn where there are oveer 200 rooms all unique in their decoration. Whilst there i also saw a genuine CSI Truck which made my day much to Sara's amusement!! We set off again down Highway 1 and headed towards Santa Barbara which was our destination for tonight. From San Luis Obispo we headed via Lompoc to Santa Barbera. Santa Barbera is a really quaint town and we checked into a hostel dorm at about 3pm and headed off to the beach. We walked around for a couple of hours and then decided that we;d spend Saturday night at the Cinema, sad I know but it's a pretty cheap night and we enjoyed it!!
So that's pretty much us so far, we're just chilling out now ready to spend our first night in a dorm with 8 other people!! Tomorrow we're going to have a look around Santa Barbara and then head down to LA where we have accomodation booked for the remaining time we have in the US.
Hope you are all well and keep the message board comments coming, they've all been great (except for Beadle who got his little fingers around the keyboard long enough to abuse me!!) and we'll try and get involved with that to!! Also keep the e mails coming as it's really cool to hear from everyone.
Lots of Love
Ben and Sara
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