Qualifying day! My favorite part is watching inspection.
Driving: 21 miles
Walking: 9,065 steps
June 20th – Fort Bragg to Sonoma
Another beautiful drive this morning, this time through forests and mountains. And then finally Sonoma! The whole reason I came out here in the first place. Beautiful track, got here just before practice started, had some (over-priced, of course) lunch between practices, checked out the souvenir haulers. I had forgotten how much I love the sound of those engines. Also finally tried In-n-Out Burger, was very good.
Driving: 168 miles
Walking: 11,782 steps
June 19th – Tiburon to Leggett to Fort Bragg
Another long drive, but beautiful. Highway 1 ends in Leggett, where the drive-through tree is. There’s nothing else there, so I ended up driving another hour back to Fort Bragg.
Driving: 264 miles
Walking: 6,495
June 18th – San Francisco
I took the commuter ferry from Tiburon to San Francisco, then did the 9 hour extended tour with San Francisco Shuttle Tour (http://www.sanfranshuttletours.com/), I would recommend them. It was a nice tour, lots of getting off the bus to actually see things. The poor guide though, can you imagine guiding 40 tourists through a city? I’m sure he doesn’t get paid enough.
Anyway, nice tour, hit most of the famous parts of SF:
Driving: 0 miles
Walking: 18,210 steps
June 17th – Carmel to Tiburon
Nice drive, though not as nice as the central coast. I found LA traffic easier than SanFran for some reason. Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. Staying in Tiburon and will take ferry back to SF tomorrow for a tour.
Driving: 136 miles
Walking: 8,230 steps
June 16th – Cambria to Carmel
I do love the central coast – took all day to get through the Big Sur area, about 100 miles or so. Stopped at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and had lunch at the Big Sur Bakery.
Driving: 112 miles
Walking: 14,928 steps
June 15th – Dana Point to Cambria
Me: Well, Highway 1 is kind of boring down here, so I’ll take I-5 North instead, should be easier.
State of California: ahahahahahaha
I-5 through/around LA is pretty incredible, especially considering it’s a Sunday. Whatever, I was in no hurry, picked a lane and went with the flow. It actually reminded me of the fish schools (the little fish, sardines maybe) at the Aquarium, the way the traffic flowed.
Finally got through LA, so it’ll get better right? Well, there was less traffic… there also was a mountain so steep (elevation sign said 4144 feet near the top, considering I started at literal sea level…) that there were signs to turn off the air conditioning so that your car wouldn’t over heat and a free! radiator water refilling station about half way up. (and of course I had to watch the thermostat the entire rest of the day) It was hot, somewhere vaguely around Bakersfield I stopped for lunch and it was 95F. But it was a dry heat (no really, it didn’t feel like 95F at all).
So, it’ll get better once I get over the mountains, right? Well… I drove through the edges of a dust cloud on this loooonnng straight flat road (I think it was after I got off I-5, Route 46 West maybe?) that seemed to go on forever and ever – it freaked me out more than the LA traffic honestly, it was a little surreal.
Anyway, finally made it back to the central coast, yay!, but didn’t end up taking any pictures today.
Driving: 293 miles (broke 1000 total!)
Walking: 2,943 steps
June 14th – San Diego Zoo
I was at the zoo just before it opened. First I took the bus tour around, which covers about 70% of the zoo. Then I walked around for a while (uphill both ways I’m pretty sure), then did the Backstage Pass. I only covered about half of the zoo in the 7 or so hours I was there. Next time I’ll plan for two days.
After the zoo, I drove about an hour to Dana Point and then collapsed. Fun day though!
Driving: 81 miles
Walking: 16,096 steps
June 13th – Santa Monica to San Diego
Long drive, not much exciting. Highway 1 at this end is kind of boring. Traffic is amazing – 70mph or 10mph, 5, 6, and I swear at one point 10 lanes wide.
Made it to San Diego in time to make one round of the Old Town Trolley Tour but not enough time to get off at any of the stops. San Diego is definitely somewhere to come back to sometime. I could have spent a whole week here.
Driving: 147 miles
Walking: 5444 steps
June 12th – A Day in LA
Started with a short walk to the Santa Monica pier to catch my tour bus – A Day in LA (http://www.adayinlatours.com/la-city-tour-1.html). I would definitely recommend them. It was interesting to see all the sights: Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, The Farmers Market at the Grove, The Hollywood walk of fame, but probably my favorite was Griffith Park. Beautiful views and I would have loved to spend more time at the observatory.
That car: $1.8 million.
Driving: 0 miles
Walking: 20,234 steps