Highway 1

Friday morning we hopped in the car and started driving. No real destination. We found highway 1 and started driving north. Highway 1 hugs the entire California coast.

Our first stop was in Santa Cruz. They have a boardwalk there and a big building that said "Casino". We got excited and found a Bank of America for cash. Upon finding the Casino again we realized it was an ARCADE Casino. Not a really Casino. Booo. We did walk down the Wharf to see the ocean and stores. There were some quite vocal sea lions on the side of the pier.

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The boardwalk which has an amusement park (which was closed :-( ) can be seen in the background.

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Kelli bought some salt water taffy and I bought a huge bag of cotton candy from a store, then we hit the road again. The view of the coast was nice. Many small towns along the way that were very Un-California like.

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We did see an interesting lighthouse on the way and stopped to take a few photos. I chose to take photos down the highway from the lighthouse versus right next to it to get a better overall picture.

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Along the way we stopped in Half Moon Bay and took a look around. Neat little city. Kelli remembered it from her childhood. She has family just up the highway in another town. Kelli had  bad day with memories as she would say something would be coming up the road that she remembered....but it was never there. Me being me gave her a really hard time on a McDonald's she remembered that never appeared. Every time we passed a McDonald's the rest of the day I would ask if that was the one she was talking about.

Eventually we made it up to San Francisco.

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Last time I visited San Francisco was with my in laws. I remembered buying really good bread from a huge cafe and bakery. Kelli had no idea. She called her parents...no idea. I used my phone to search for "San Francisco Bread" and found many cafes of that name...NONE located in San Francisco. I finally found the Boudin Bakery. That was it! Using our portable GPS system (a cheap unit hacked to be a TomTom) I found it and then a parking garage

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I had Chili in a bread bowl while Kelli had a mini-cheese pizza. The bread was very good as was the chili.

We then walked down the pier shops for a bit. Next time we come I am going to eat at the crab stands. They have fresh steamed crab and the smells are amazing! I know no one in Kelli's family  (well maybe my father in law)  would eat at them.

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Kelli bought MORE salt water taffy, some bread from her father (we are meeting up with my mother in law tomorrow) and then we headed back to the car. Below is a photo of us with Alcatraz in the far background.

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I parked the car in the Pier 39 parking garage. It's expensive...but in a good location. The first 3 levels we packed very tightly with cars. I would never park my car in any of those spots...door ding city! On level 4 though....wide open.

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We then made a 2 hour drive back to Salinas. This time we took the main highway which took us over the bay, through Oakland (which is just as bad as media describes it), Freemont and San Jose again before arriving back in Salinas.

Today we head to Monterey to meet up with my sister in law, niece, mother in law and my sister in laws new girlfriend (who is a red head....my favorite hair color!).

Tomorrow the flights look iffy out of San Jose. We might have to fly from San Jose to Chicago and then Chicago to Dallas. Only good thing. First Class is open both flights. The flights from San Jose to Dallas are very full. The flights from San Jose to Los Angeles are very full. We could fly to Santa Ana (Orange County) and then Dallas. Maybe.