Diary of a Road Trip: Santa Maria to San Francisco

I decided to combine the last two days because we didn't go very far.  Once we got to California we really took our time and just enjoyed the beautiful non-121 degree weather and coastal scenery.

California seagull!

Day 7 - Santa Maria to Carmel, CA
     Miles: 167
     Hours: 4
     Stayed with: Jacob (My
     friend from high school)
     States: 1 - California 
     coast

My car made it to the Pacific Ocean

It was at this point that we realized our marathon driving through the Midwest paid off because we got to take our time driving up the beautiful California coast - mountains on one side, ocean on the other. 

We stopped to visit the Hearst Castle museum (but didn't see the castle itself) and then took a walking tour of Monterey.  We visited my school, my new home, and historic Cannery Row.

Day 8 - Monterey to San Francisco (and then back to Monterey)
     Miles: 237 (round trip)
     Hours: 5
     Stayed with: My new house!
     States: CA for good now

"We conquered the hill!" because the cable car was full :-(

Because Sarah had a red-eye flight out of San Francisco, we decided to spend the day there after moving my stuff into my new house.  We had lunch in the very trendy Castro district, rode a cable car, went shopping in Union Square, and saw parts of the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog. 




It was freezing cold so we kept following the sun around the city and as a result, both got sun burnt.  All in all a great day though - the perfect way to end our journey.  If you follow my blog at all you know by now that I like weird statistics, so stay tuned for road trip stats :-)