Current Location: Eureka, CA, N 40 46.504', W 124 11.470', elev. 49 ft.

On wednesday, I left Modesto and headed west to San Francisco via California 132 to I-580 to I-80, across the Bay Bridge and into the city. The Bay Bridge was pretty cool, and by cool, I mean temperature. The weather went from 90 degrees and sunny to 65 degrees and overcast as I drove into San Francisco. Don't let the palm trees fool you, it is cold! But I did have a great time in the city. I got into the city at about 5:30, and I headed down to the Fisherman's Wharf area to see if I could get a ticket to Alcatraz for the next day. To my chagrin, I was told you need to book trips to Alcatraz 6 or 7 days in advance unfortunately. So my next stop was down to SBC Park, to see the Giants play the Rockies. As I got close to the stadium, I started to see signs for parking. At a full half a mile from the stadium (pretty far), the price was $20! I did not want to pay this and may have skipped the game if I hadn't found cheap parking, but somehow I really lucked out and got a street parking spot on a secluded back street, directly across the street from a sign for $20 parking. San Francisco was so cold that I had to put on jeans and a sweatshirt for the first time in months, it felt like a late September game in the northeast.

SBC Park is a very beautiful stadium, the best I've yet to visit, and I suspect it will remain in first. Since I got free parking, I splurged on a $17 seat (the lowest priced tickets were $12 standing room). The main feature is the short porch in right field leading to an awesome view of the outer bay in San Francisco (with a navy vessel in the background). Here are the photos. The game was pretty slow, witch decent pitching performances from both sides. The Rockies wound up winning 3-2. For some reason, I saw more Red Sox hats at SBC park than at any other park I've been to this year other than Toronto when the Sox were in town.

On thursday, I went back to the Fisherman's Wharf area and walked around. I went out on Pier 39 and got a clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, it was delicious. I walked further down the pier towards the sea lions, and while I was standing there, concentrating on feeling the cool wind and watching the sea lions and smelling the smells of the wharf, a seagull flew down, and grabbed a piece of bread right out of my hand. I was dumbfounded, because I didn't feel the bird, he did it so deftly. I also got some photos of Alcatraz from the pier.



The sea lions, the witch, and the wardrobe

After walking around a bit and taking in the wharf, I signed up for a streetcar tour of the city. I climbed aboard and found a seat. Soon thereafter, an Australian tourist climbed aboard and sat next to me, and we struck up a conversation. She was very thin, but quite pretty, looking a bit like Keira Knightley. I don't know what it was, but we hit it off very well, and she seemed to be quite interested in me and my little trip. We also talked in detail about Australia, since I would like to visit there next. I was hoping I'd have my own little Before Sunrise moment. The tour was pretty uninteresting, and rather than give any historical information about the sites in the city, I joked with the Aussie girl that it was more like the movie tour of San Francisco, since the tour guide was really only pointing out where movies like Bullit, The Rock, and Mrs. Doubtfire were filmed, the TV show Full House, and where various celebrities lived. Blech. At one point, we drove by the cable car tours and she warned me not to bother with that, since she had waited in line for an hour and a half the day before, and the trip definitely was not worth the wait or the money. Anyway, the street car tour ended, and the Aussie girl had a boat tour next. She asked if I was going on it, since apparently you could book the boat tour with the streetcar tour. Unfortunately I didn't have a ticket for the boat, and she was late for it, so she ran off only wishing me good luck on my trip without ever even exchanging names. It was fun nonetheless.

Next up for me, I went on the 49 mile scenic drive of San Francisco. The drive was interesting, and took me past many landmark sites in the city, but for any of you entrepreneurial young go-getters out there, it would have been nice if you could buy a cheap audio tour or even a map detailing the sites along the way. The drive took me the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate National Park, where I got out and took many photos as I walked across the bridge.



From there I found a lot of other places, but the fog rolled in pretty heavily and didn't afford many photo opportunities. I definitely loved the city of San Francisco, it was certainly one of my favorite cities so far on the trip. The people, the atmosphere, the weather, all just has a certain charm which is missing from southern California. You can view all the San Fran photos here.

As the evening rolled in, I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge (US 101) into Sausalito in Marin County, where I stayed the night. In the morning, I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway (California 1) a little ways, and got some very neat photos of the fog rolling on the coast. I drove into Muir Woods National Monument. I do believe Muir Woods, as well as several other little park areas in the greater bay area are part of the greater Golden Gate National Park. From Muir Woods, I cut back over to US 101 towards San Rafael. In San Rafael, I happened upon a road called Lucas Valley Road, and I happened to know Skywalker Ranch was in a top secret location in San Rafael in Marin County, so I figured "what the heck". For those who don't know, I am a big Star Wars fan. Lucas Valley Rd might have been a little too obvious for Skywalker Ranch, but I drove up it anyway, figuring I might get a glimpse. I drove a long ways and decided to turn around, and it just so happened I turned around at 3838 Lucas Valley Rd, which looked suspiciously like it could have been Skywalker Ranch. I took a photo, and later looked on the internet and confirmed that 3838 Lucas Valley Rd is the back entrance of the ranch. The road is not named after George Lucas, but he did happen to build his home and company there. Here are my photos of Marin County, including the coast, the Muir Woods, and Skywalker ranch.

From there, I drove across California 37 on the northern end of the bay, until I reached I-80. I cut onto I-505 north to I-5 and I was on my way to the very northern part of California. In Red Bluff, California, I cut across California 36 to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Although Lassen (N 40 28.493', W 121 29.999' elev. 8499 ft) was not as interesting as some of the other National Parks in the state, I did drive through and take a few photos. I happened upon my first snow of the trip in the park. The park is built around the Lassen Volcano, which last erupted in 1917. The park has some neat landmarks, photos of which you can find here. Lassen makes 7 national parks in 6 days (Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Golden Gate, Muir Woods, and Lassen).

From Lassen, it was getting pretty late, but I wanted to make my way back to the coast so I could get to the Redwood forest for today (saturday). I drove up and over the mountains, via California 44, which turned into California 299 in Redding, CA. I continued on CA-299 until I reached Eureka, CA at about 11:30 at night. Eureka is a coast resort town of sorts, and so had many many motels, all of which were booked solid, (except one dirty motel, which had a dirty, smoking room for $101, which I balked at paying). So since it was way too dark to set up a tent anywhere provided I had been able to find a campground, I ended up finding a parking lot and sleeping in my car for the night, the first real hobo moment for the trip. Whoohoo! I think that Eureka is about as far north as Newark, NJ.