At the end of May 2004 we flew to San Francisco, California for nearly a week during the Memorial Day weekend. We went to see some of Northern California, including Santa Rosa, the Redwoods, and San Francisco.
We spent a day in Santa Rosa, California. After strolling through the downtown area in the morning we went to see the Charles M. Schultz Museum. They had a lot of original drawings and mementoes of his life. Built next door is The Redwood Ice Arena where the Warm Puppy coffee shop is. Unfortunately, I think Snoopy was off that day, since someone else was driving the Zamboni. At Snoopy's Gallery and Gift Shop there were a lot of Peanuts related items for sale as well as collectible items on display. After leaving there, we started heading up north and cut over to Highway 1.
The drive up north along Highway 1 and the coast was spectacular. I was surprised that it was not crowded. We had plenty of chances to stop and take pictures, and there were definitely a lot of photo opportunities. Sometimes the toughest part was stopping a couple minutes after having just stopped because it was worth another picture.
In Northern California we had a couple days to spend in the Redwood National Park and surrounding area. This was a really scenic area with a couple unique things you can't pass up. You have to stop at 'The Big Tree' and 'The Drive Through Tree', despite having already seen nothing but trees for hours. Another good sight to see Redwoods was driving 'The Avenue Of The Giants'. Part of this time was spent away from the coast and Redwoods in order to go into the Klamath Mountains and Klamath National Forest. A good portion of this driving was on gravel roads. It seemed really remote, especially when you are on a road for 3 or 4 hours and only see 2 other cars. We ended up driving as far north as Crescent City, California before turning around and driving back to San Francisco.
In San Francisco we had a couple days to see the sights and both days it was very clear weather. The first day we rode a cable car, walked around Pier39, took a boat cruise in the bay (which included going under the Golden Gate Bridge), had dinner at Fisherman's Wharf, and ate the chocolate at Ghirardelli Square for dessert. The next day we took an early boat out to Alcatraz Island and did the audio tour. Since we were the second boat, it was not crowded until we left. I was amazed at how small the island was and how close to the surrounding shore it seemed. That afternoon we took a day bus tour around San Francisco. This gave us the chance to see other sites including Alamo Square, China Town, Twin Peaks, Nob Hill, Haight and Ashbury streets, the Lombard Street hill, and of course The Golden Gate Bridge.
top