California: No fog in San Francisco – just blue skies… mostly.
Full photo album for California.
Monday 12 to Monday 19 December 2016
Arriving at San Francisco Airport, I caught an airport bus to Monterey. A couple of hours later I had located my accommodation and settled in for my 2 night stay. I caught up with friends for dinner.
The following day Fredric picked me up and we headed down the Big Sur coast. We stopped at Bixby Bridge marking the beginning of the scenic highway from Carmel River. We travelled south to Nepenthe where we stopped at the café for a cuppa and check out the view. The café and restaurant is perched high up the hill overlooking the coast. At this point of the morning it was overcast so the photos are a study in greys.
Heading back up the coast we paused a few times so I could take photos of the headland at Point Sur State Historic Park, where the blue skies showed up and the sun came out. We checked out the redwoods in the area, walked along Carmel River State Beach, then at Carmel-By-The-Sea. A quick stop to look at Mission San Carlos Borromeo del río Carmelo before dropping me back where I was staying. It was so good to catch up with Fredric.
I wandered around the town in the afternoon before heading back to the accommodation for the night.
Wednesday I headed back to San Francisco to my final home for the next 5 nights. I chose this place based on proximity to my friend Lucinda, but mainly because the photos of the room were so pretty.
I had booked to do a night photography tour but it was cancelled a few days before as the weather forecast was for rain. That evening it didn’t, but started the following morning as I boarded the bus for the tour to Yosemite. As the day progressed it continued to rain. It wasn’t exactly heavy; it was just continuous. It sure was one way to get photos of the Sierra Mountains in prime atmospheric conditions. Totally unplanned.
There isn’t a lot you can do at Yosemite in winter when it is raining. Most paths were closed as it wasn’t safe. But what I did get to see, which the majority of people who go in summer don’t, is waterfalls flowing. There were waterfalls where waterfalls normally aren’t. Yeah, it was raining some. This was the second time I lugged my DSLR with me for the day and didn’t take it out once. It was a day for the waterproof Olympus camera. Oh how I love thee!
There were a few people on the bus that were staying the night in Yosemite, and a few people who had stayed at Yosemite that were hopping on our bus to return to San Francisco.
It was dark by the time we made it back to the city, catching a taxi back to Outer Richmond. I was nicely snug in warm clothes, having warmed up in my basement apartment when I received a text from the host. It would seem that I’m too quiet. She didn’t realise I had returned and hoped I wasn’t stuck out at Yosemite. Apparently a few hours after we left, the roads were closed due to flooding.
Friday dawned to beautiful blue skies and a sunny day. It is winter, right?
Head off to Muir Woods to see more redwoods, then to Muir Beach Overlook before stopping in Sausalito, where I left the tour, had lunch, nosed about in shops and taking photos of San Francisco across the bay, before meeting up with Lucinda.
On the way out to Muir Woods we stopped to take my first photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, the first of many vantage points taken of this San Francisco landmark. On the way back to the city Lucinda stopped at a few of the other places on the north head to take photos. We then headed back to the city for more views across the city and outer areas, and the bridge. We then toured through Misión San Francisco de Asís, more commonly known as Mission Dolores after a nearby creek. After touring through the Mission (one of the few places to survive the 1906 earthquake) and Basilica, we visited the cemetery and garden where Alfred Hitchcock filmed a scene for his 1958 movie, Vertigo.
We finished up the day eating at a lovely restaurant on Valencia.
Saturday I went out to spend some time on the Hop On, Hop Off bus. I had a late start and instead of finding something to eat in Union Square, I got on the next bus and got off at Fisherman’s Wharf. Not being a fan of seafood I struggled to find something I wanted to eat.
Finally getting underway, the next stop is the Golden Gate Bridge for view number 5. I managed to get great views hanging over the side of the open topped double decker bus. Then I got one of the best views of all, of San Francisco from the bridge, and of the towers and cables on the bridge. I had wanted to walk across the bridge while there, but ran out of time.
Once we got to the park where most people get off the bus to take photos, with every other person, I was up to view number 7, so didn’t get off the bus.
As it was getting later in the afternoon, I got off at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I went into the café for a hot cuppa to warm up. I was to meet Lucinda around 4pm so I didn’t have enough time to see anything much here and took photos around Music Concourse in the Park as the sun set. As well as the museum there is so much else to see in this area.
By now I was winding down on the last couple of days of my journey, and not being one to try to cram too much into my sightseeing day, I started to view some things as, ‘I can see that next time!’ I’d prefer to take my time than rush everywhere.
Sunday went to the Dickens Fair – I was the dark clothed roadie to Lucinda’s Dickens inspired outfit. It was a fun way to spend the day, hanging out with Lucinda while she had fun doing something she loved: dancing. After Lucinda dropped me off I walked to Point Lobos to check out the views.
On Monday, before checking out of my accommodation, I was told to go to the far side of the carpark at the San Francisco VA Medical Center to see views of the bridge. There was frost on the ground and I captured some early morning views of the Golden Gate Bridge from Lands End. The eighth and final view for this trip.
Lucinda picked me up, leaving my bags at her place we headed off for a gentle walk around her local area. I wasn’t really up to doing much more than that.
This whole trip I was constantly jet lagged. Exhausted by around 8-9pm and waking anywhere between 3:30-6am, sometimes going back to sleep, sometimes not. I would have thought the 9 days in Cape Verde I would have settled into a routine, but since I was moving to different islands, I didn’t get a chance to settle in.
Then in Jamaica I thought the 10 days there, surely I’d settle down as I was in the same place every night. Nup.
Late afternoon I headed to SFO for the 14 hour flight home, via Auckland. I arrived around midday, when off to do grocery shopping, unpacked my bag and started laundry. By 5:30pm I was exhausted. I had slept a little on the flight, but not really much. I decided that I’d prefer to sleep when I was tired, so headed off to bed. I woke at 12:30am and realised I had slept 7 hours. That was the longest single stretch I’d had since I left home (I think on average I slept 5 hours before waking while away).
I was awake, I was alert, I decided to get up and get on with things. I actually felt organised during that time. It took a couple more nights of sleep before I had shifted my sleeping times around, waking at a more normal time.
Sadly it would take six months to finish sorting through 1600 photos and put them in albums on Google Photo. With so many photos it was an overwhelming task. By then I had a new job and would use my lunch break to sort photos, remember or research captions for each pic. I did start the blogs of my trip, but these last 4-5 have taken a few years to get to. I had problems with my website, which delayed me for 12 months, but that isn’t the only reason for the delay.
This is the last of the blogs on the 2016 trip. I plan to do one more on my thoughts/plans for future journeys.
