travelog: san francisco road trip

i only took 322 pictures.  which may sound like a lot, but i didn't take pictures that often, just a lot at a few places.  and i have decided, i don't really like to sit at a computer to look at pictures, i want them printed. i also just discovered that i am lazy and don't like to sit and edit pictures, so they here they are in all their straight off the camera glory.  there is also a lot of words, but who actually reads the words?we left tuesday mid-morning and started our drive up the coast.  i think luke was a little scared when "take it easy" by the eagles came on the radio and i had to sing every word.  i was stoked, to me it is one of the most perfect road trip songs, so it was a good sign when it popped up on the radio.   you know that scene from the movie the heartbreak kid when ben stiller's new wife is singing and annoying in the car?  welcome to luke's life.  oh, and did you know that it's a good idea to take cd's or an ipod with you when you road trip?  well, it is.  we forgot that.

we stopped at malibu- flat.  checked rincon- flat.  not that we had boards and could surf it's just fun to see some good waves, but we didn't see any.  the drive on 101 is beautiful, especially this time of year when everything is green.  and hundreds of golden poppies along the road, they are one of my favorites. 

 i love california.  there, i said it.

the highlight of tuesday was stopping at the thrift stores in oxnard.  five years ago there was a  thrift store there called "the retarded citizens thrift store" today it is called "the ark foundation thrift store"  i wonder why they changed their name?  anyways, i scored some old pillow cases and sheets.  someday when i steal my mom's sewing stuff i want to make some skirts and dresses out of them, i am really excited about that.  and later that day, we got the best strawberries ever from a roadside stand, the old guy with no teeth was so sweet and gave me a ton of extra. my mouth is watering.

tuesday night we rolled into monterey and stayed there for the night.  the next morning we ate some nasty danishes and were on the road again.  a few hours later we made it to san francisco. and first things first, we got lost.  but we found mollusk and drooled over boards, books, and clothing for a good hour, at least.

next stop:

favorite bum's sayings written on cardboard:

"why lie? i need a beer."  thanks for your honesty.

"the best nation is a donation"  held by a kid that looked to be maybe 10.

"will date your girlfiend for $1" and on the other side:

he was crazy. 

we had a grand time looking through thrift stores, got some cd's from amoeba (when was the last time you bought a cd?), ate lunch at an italian place, and people watched- probably one of the best places on the planet for people watching.  after we had our fill of second hand pot smoke we decided we would go find our hotel.  and didn't get lost! we actually found it really easy, probably cause we were high and could think more clearly.  the francisco bay inn-  it was a great little hotel right on lumbard street- close to fisherman's wharf and all that stuff and was cheap.  being a tourist in the off season has it's perks.  we walked to the crookedest street and watched cars zig-zag down the steep street then walked back up the hill to see trolly's transporting tourists. (you can't really tell but the street has 7 switchbacks, it's crazy steep and this is a crazy junk picture of it)so san fran, so cool. 

then we walked to ghirardelli square to sample chocolate, and that is all there really is to do there, not sure why people think that place is so cool.

friday we were hardcore tourists.

we ruled that strip of bay front property known as fisherman's wharf, walking up and down it multiple times until it was time to catch our ferry to alkatraz.  my favorite was pier 39's seals and the boudin sourdough bread factory- we are sort of obsessed with sourdough bread around here.  

next stop, alcatraz.  the highlight of our trip on "the islander" (the ferry) was this crazy sea gull who hovered over our heads the whole 15 minute trip and didn't even flap his wings.we made it to the island without getting pooped and headed for the prison to get our headsets and start our tour.  

honestly, i wasn't all that into the whole idea of alcatraz at first but i am so glad we went, it was really cool.  the headset tour was rad cause there was commentary from guys that were actually in the prison.  and you could go your own pace.  that place was crazy, i think we should pay the money to get it back in working order (that's why it closed).  maybe take all the money from the rich a-holes that are taking advantage of our government (think corporate ceo's and thier bailout money) and put it towards making the place live-able (or not) and throw them in it?  sounds good to me. their new homes would look like this. i really like the soothing sea foam green and white walls:

they could hang out here and play dominoes:

and if one of thier grandmothers had taught them how to crochet, like one of the old prisoners had, they could crochet pink scarves.  the visual of a hardened criminal crocheting pink scarves is so funny.i guess you gotta pass the time somehow.  a lot of the guys there were into art, this picture looks like a brock billings original to me:

this is the one photo of luke and i together.  1 out of 322 aint bad.

after doing some hard time on the rock we did some more touristing and walked around the city some more.  we stumbled across a real hip little area and had dinner and window shopped the rest of the night.

friday we had a long drive ahead of us.  there were a few more things we wanted to do in the city, but we were kind of at our touristing saturation point so we cruzed the golden gate and headed for home.  the golden gate is huge. 

i was white knuckling my camera the whole time we were walking on it because for some reason i thought i was going to drop it.  there were some dolphins under the bridge and i couldn't take pictures of them (made luke do it) because i was scared to drop my camera.  and i had to chuckle at all the "crisis prevention signs" along the path, luke read somewhere that there is a suicide attempt there at least every two weeks.  it would be a long fall.  we couldn't even see our spit fall the whole way.  i wonder how many people spit off that bridge everyday.

and in case your planing on dropping a missile off the bridge:

there is a little surf spot at the base of the bridge so we walked down a little path in the bushes and watched some people surf for a bit- that little white speck in the water would be a guy paddling for a wave.

then we turned and headed south.  really far south.  stopping only for some fine outlets and in-n-out at lunch, to get gas and clean remnants of thousands of kamikaze butterflies,  and to get stuck in la traffic.

so yeah, we had a good time.