Had a little sleep in this morning and then had breakfast at the hotel. Managed to get our bags down in the antiquated lift and then flagged down a cab to take us to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up our rental car.
The guy who served us at Hertz wasn't very helpful. Just gave us the keys, said the car was in 2c in the multi level car park and gave us a voucher to get out of the car park. I had to ask if they had some maps we could use and we got a map of California and some scant directions on how to get out of San Francisco. Annamaree went to get the car while I stood with our luggage and there was a parking spot right up until she came out so she had to do a lap of the block. In the end she just pulled into the car park driveway and we quickly piled in our luggage and moved on before we got into trouble.
Off we set with Annamaree driving and me navigating (don't laugh Peter!) and trying to keep her on the right side of the road. Thankfully she only turned onto the wrong side twice and there were no cars around.
When we turned off Geary Boulevard onto the freeway to the South there were fantastic views of the Pacific Ocean. Amazing to think it is the same waters that lap the east coast of Australia. We drove down along the coast and it is very similar to the Great Ocean Road only much longer. We stopped at Daly City for something to eat and drink and a toilet stop. At least we think it was Daly City, there is a huge lack of signage here from town names to speed limits. There was a big cement wharf and lots of people were fishing off it.
Back onto the freeway with lots more ocean views. There is a lot of agriculture mainly vegetables and strawberries. We passed several large artichoke farms. We also saw lots of groups of pickers bringing in the vegetables.
We were looking for somewhere to have lunch and pulled into a place off the highway. It was very alternative. There was a wooden caravan outside that was a shop and sold books, soap, bread and cheese and a couple of other things. In the main building they sold organic fruit and vegetables as well as fruit tarts, chocolate strawberries. You could also see into the kitchen which had a big glass window and see them making pastry by hand. The front of the shop was an honour system, there was an open till and you just put your money in and took out your change. As we were looking for lunch not dessert, we decided to press on.
A bit further on we found a tavern and it had great food. Annamaree had crab cakes that had feta, sun dried tomatoes and peppers in them and I had fish and chips. The fish was so delicious, so fresh and moist. They had some yummy pies too but we didn't indulge.
We headed on to Monterey and came across a sign saying headlights had to be on for the next 9 miles. There was a lot of fog around so we think that was the reason. Unfortunately we couldn't work out how to turn them on!
We eventually got to our turn off and found the motel using the GPS in the car. Huge improvement on the last one!
We decided to go the laundromat and do our washing. Annamaree got some directions from the office but we got a bit lost (we were walking) so we had to phone the hotel and get better directions. We were only one block away! After that we dropped it back to the hotel and went to the big shopping centre over the road for tea. There were lots of choices and we ended up at P. F. Changs Chinese family restaurant. It looked like it would be really pricey but it was very reasonable. I had Moo Goo Gai Pan which was stir fried chicken and prawns with book Chou and vegetables and really delicious. The serving was quite big so I only ate half and took the rest to go for tomorrow night's tea. Annamaree had Wonton soup and Lo Mein, a prawn and noodle dish.
Still recovering from the big day yesterday so we headed back to bed.
Cheers Roz
No comments:
Post a Comment