We’ve made it to San Francisco. Ding, ding goes the Powell St. Streetcar next to our hotel.
Perhaps I should begin at the start of the day in Santa Cruz. We were planning to go visit the Boardwalk, but I got outvoted by the ladies, and so we went shopping instead in downtown Santa Cruz. After having some coffee at Bad Ass Coffee (I got tea), we wandered some shops… well, they wandered, I watched the people on the street (which was more interesting to me). Around 12:30p, we met up with lrc (Larry C) and had lunch at Sitar Indian. It was a delightful lunch — it was great to finally meet Larry.
After lunch we got on the road. We were going to meet honeywoney (Anneliese) at the San Gregorio General Store, but we were running late and she had some afternoon stuff to do… so the meeting didn’t happen… but we decided to go to the store anyway. It was quite an interesting drive, as we were going through the area of the Lockheed Fire near Bonny Doon: the sky was covered with smoke, and we could see the fire from Route 1 and see the firetrucks. The road itself was interesting, evoking ideas of what Malibu must have looked like before development (with a lot less farms). Beautiful country: farmland and beaches and cliffs. We made it to the store, and had a delightful time shopping and talking to the proprietor and some local visitors.
After leaving San Gregorio, we drove to Half Moon Bay, where we visited a Wine and Cheese Shop. Karen and Erin picked up some cheese to snack on, and we were back on the road. Continuing up Route 1, I finally got to see the Devils Slide Project firsthand. They are building a massive tunnel to work around continuing hillside slides. The bridge at the northern end is beautiful. The tunnel will be just over 4,300ft long, and shorten the length of Route 1. I wonder if they will change all the San Francisco exit numbers :-).
Entering San Francisco, we decided to take the scenic route. We left Route 1 at Route 35, and took that to the Great Highway, and then to Geary. Very nice drive around a side of the city not often seen. We found our hotel (Cornell Hotel de France), which is next to a male entertainment club. It is a restored victorian owned by a French couple and French themed. We’re on the Chagall floor (they were kind enough to upgrade our room to give us a bit more space).
In a little bit we’ll go out to dinner, probably somewhere within walking distance.
