Road Trip: Day Thirteen

Today is the day we leave San Francisco. I would have to say that given the choice between SoCal and NorCal…I’d pick Northern California as a place to live. The scenery is wonderful, it’s not as crowded…and the weather is great! I think if I had a few more days we could really explore and see all the good stuff in San Fran, but the clock is ticking and we need to go!

I was hoping we could sneak out of this city without encountering those hills. I was wrong. We came up on some REALLY steep ones trying to get out of town. My plan was to zoom up one hill and stop, just off to the right by the stop sign and wave people past me as I waited for another gap to open up on the next hill. I didn’t want to get stuck stopping in the middle…I needed a bailout spot. After about 15 minutes of sweating, we made it up all the hills and started our descent towards Pacific Coast Highway-1, or PCH-1…or “The One,” as I’ve heard it referred to before. The plan at this point was to drive the scenic California coast on our way down to LA and out of the state.

Our trip today was going to be a short one. We stopped in Big Sur for gas…a tiny hole-in-the-wall gas station/restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Gas was…$6.87…a gallon. I guess that’s what you can charge when you’re the only game in town! We headed to Monterey to see the awesome aquarium they have. When we called about tickets they said that you really need a couple of hours to see everything, so we decided that rather than blaze through it and keep on our path towards LA, we would get a hotel and spend the night, then get up the next morning and see the aquarium at a leisurely pace. Added bonus: We got to have dinner at a “regular” hour instead of 9 pm! We arrived in Monterey in the late afternoon and walked around the wharf to check out the shops and restaurants. As we walked, we snapped some photos of the boats in the marina as well as the local wildlife. We saw some more of those Sea Lions just laying on the docks (also in Big Sur!) relaxing and taking a snooze.

Today was a short day, and after dinner we retired back to our hotel where we would get some much-needed rest and I would try to catch up on my “homework.” :)