10/31/10 Day 28

     We got up and went for a walk along the rocky cliffs for a little exercise and fresh air.  Next we brushed off all the sand left on the tent from camping on the beach the night before.  Oh, and since it was Halloween, we put on our costumes for the drive.  Even though we didn’t really get to celebrate the holiday, we enjoyed getting into the “spirit” of things, and hopefully gave some people a fun surprise at our stops along the way.

     We got back on the "coastal road of death" and wound our way around towards San Francisco.  We stopped at a beach where we though there were a bunch of seals in the water, but when we got out our binoculars we realized it was a gaggle of surfers.  Dozens of them were out at Bodega bay catching the waves.  We watched them riding their boards and wiping out for a few minutes, it was pretty entertaining!

Seals?  NO!  Surfers dude! WHOA! Cowabunga!

     About an hour later, we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.  

Yeah, we both hummed the Full House song too...

Our original plan was to maybe find a hostel so we could spend the night in the city and not have to worry about finding a campground.  We took a wrong turn as soon as we got off the bridge and quickly got frustrated because we hadn’t gotten to stop at an info center to get a map of the city.

     We found our way back to the highway and went a little further south to San Mateo where we parked and found a Peruvian restaurant to eat at.  We wanted some fresh local seafood, so I got some halibut and Eric ordered seafood picante.  This day is also our three-year anniversary of dating, so we kind of splurged and ordered a dessert of picarones, which are Peruvian pumpkin fritters in a honey and cinnamon sauce.  It was delicious! It was a nice end to a delicious lunch for me, and a tasty relief from a slightly nauseating one for Eric.  He said that his meal tasted too fishy and looked too much like a bunch of fish guts dumped in tomato soup for him to enjoy.

     We tried to find a hostel by using the laptop, but Eric couldn’t steal wireless successfully, so we just decided to continue towards Oakhurst where my friends Melissa and Cameron live.  We aren’t meant to stay in big cities I guess.

     We got back on the Highway and I thought we would just find a campground for the night, call Mel and let them know we would be there the next day, eat some chili, and that would be that.  However, we made much better time than I expected, so we were very close to their house and it was only 5pm.  I called and informed them of our situation.  They were a little unprepared (messy house and such) but otherwise welcoming.  It took us another 3 hours to get there, but we made it!