Today we said goodbye to Fresno. After a last motel breakfast, where they not even had some bread anymore – probably they forgot to buy some – we packed our bags into the car and started. We had planned a scenic tour today, towards the last destination of our tour.
Our route first went over highway 99 for many miles. After a little more than 1 hour we made a short stop-over. Via I-5 we finally reached highway 12 which brought us in a westward direction. The trip went well, we speedy made progress. Short after noon we stopped for lunch in Fairfield, had some delicious coffee at a Starbucks and a little snack aside. After filling up our tour could go on.
Our way led us through the Californian vineyard Napa/Sonoma. The road was partly surrounded by water on both sides. Traveling a short part of highway 37 we crossed Petaluma and hit finally highway 1 in the north of San Francisco. And now the adventurous part of the tour started.That’s because highway 1 in that area is like a rollercoaster – serpentines upwards and downwards, partly steep gradients, sometimes water at side, sometimes thru the woods. The driver and some of the passengers had lots of fun, for some others this was not all the same. Anyway – all courageously bore it and were visibly relieved when finally spotting the Pacific aside us, what also meant the end of this wonderful but extremely winding route. After a short stop-over to take a deep breath we headed for the last part of today’s tour.
Shortly after highway 1 led us to highway 101. The San Francisco Bay was heavily foggy, after some miles we saw the silhouette of San Francisco as well as the Golden Gate Bridge in front of us. What a sight! We could pass the bridge for free because it was already after 4 p.m., and our car was occupied by more than 2 people (otherwise crossing the bridge into town costs $6). Then we were stuck in the rush hour, drove the Lombard Street and turned into Van Ness Avenue towards the airport. The traffic was relatively heavy, but it went on, and so we reached airport exit after some time. From here we needed only 2 minutes to arrive at our motel..
We checked in, and then we went for dinner. Near the motel lobby is an IHoP which should be the one today. The dishes were ok, but the waitress wasn’t in a good mood, forgot something of the order, put something wrong on the check – what she felt in the end with a smaller tip.
After returning to our motel rooms we decided to go to bed a little earlier this night to be fit for tomorrow‘s sightseeing tour thru San Francisco. But before it we yet had action live – around 8 p.m. the fire department came with “full illumination” into the motel to pick up someone who needed medical aid.
