24 September: Los Angeles to San Francisco

We set our alarm for 6:30. We wanted to make one last visit to the Pier, in daylight, to put our toes in the Pacific before we started the day's drive to San Francisco.

Thankfully, our accommodation included breakfast (surprise, the only included breakfast we had this entire trip!) so we had a very yummy toasted bagel with Philly cheese again (didn't have to share this time. Haha). I should really hunt down a good bagel in Joburg now, I kinda liked this snack :)

Then we had a bit of a run-around trying to find cheaper parking for The Pier. The first place we tried was a shocking 12 USD (for the day) but it had a very friendly attendant who directed us to some hourly-metered parking for 1 USD an hour. Much more suited to our needs!

Again, everything was closed, but in the sunlight we could enjoy a walk in the sand, feel the cold water and enjoy the experience a little more.

And then we got back on the road and took the Pacific Coast Highway :) We took a much longer route today than we could've. But it was absolutely amazing!



The Trucker had to pump gas ;) We stopped, for a laugh, at Zuma Beach when we saw the sign. I know it's not remotely related to our Zuma, but it amused us none the less.



The Trucker lucked out at lunch as we spotted another In n Out Burger driving thru Santa Monica. So, of course we stopped! Haha, He did say he wanted to eat it at least 4 times this trip!

This time I tried the Double-Double since last time there wasn't enough patty or cheese to offset the other flavours. We also ordered the fries "Animal Style" this time :) This was a much better experience! Yum, yum.

When we stopped for gas in San Louis Obispo, I also managed to find the only Chicken and Waffle Lays chips we saw on the whole trip. Hahaha! I know, it sounds completely bizarre, but since they went around on Facebook a few months ago, I had to try them!

Oh, and on the drive to LA, we also tried the Chile Limón Lays. You know me an my must-try-weird-flavours obsession :)

We stuck with the coast all the way up Highway 1, even tho Google was very unhelpful and refused almost the entire way to offer this as an alternate route ... I think because it occasionally closes. But if you're interested, you can get the up-to-date info on the California Department of Transportation's website.

We drove past a place called Harmony that has a whopping population of 18. Eighteen! Wish I'd got a photo of that sign!

The drive was AMAZING. Such variety and such gorgeous cliffs. Often felt like the longest Chapman's Peak ever ...



We stopped at the Elephant Seal Vista Point. I couldn't really tell how they were different to our seals, but there were certainly some big guys! They were mostly lying in the beach sand, flapping sand on themselves. Not as noisy as the ones at Cape Cross.



It took us ages, but this drive was completely worth it and I'd highly recommend it. But we were exhausted by the time we finally got to San Francisco (around 7pm). And then we had to try and navigate to our AirBnb host's apartment. Finding the road was easy enough, but I reckon we easily spent half an hour driving in circles looking for parking.

We found a 24hr Parking Garage nearby enough and left the car there overnight (25 USD!), till we have to return it in the morning. We've both had enough driving for one day.

After we let ourselves into the apartment, we found a late night Laundromat for some much needed clean clothes!

We were limited for our dinner options, the place we were eyeing between the apartment and the laundromat had unfortunately closed by the time we were done there.

So, we decided to share the most expensive margarita pizza of my life, from the fancy looking Italian restaurant below our apartment because it was still open and involved no additional random wandering. Exhaustion will do that to you.

It was a tasty dinner, at least :) We met our host when we headed back upstairs and then we went to bed.