Cousins Wedding; Our Last Day Part 3

So it is the day after the wedding, everyone is exhausted.  Since my boyfriend and I didn’t get to go to San Francisco when we plan too we decided to go on our last day.  We didn’t get to stay as long as everyone else and they were planning to go to SF the next day.  So we took off! We saw so many things in a short amount of time.  We didn’t get into san francisco until about 1pm. I planned all the stops so that we could kind of go in a big circle.  There are plenty of things to see but time was limited so we had to narrow it down to just a few.

First we stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts.  I’ve always wanted to visit this place it looks beautiful!

Our second stop was to drive down Lombard Street it was awesome!  Although my cousins live close to San Francisco we never really got to do any of these touristy stuff.  It was always mainly drive through the golden gate bridge and then to chinatown.  But since it was just my boyfriend and I, I really wanted to make the effort to see all the things I never got to see whenever I came up north.

On the way to Lombard Street

After Lombard Street, we went to see the “Painted Ladies.” Growing up watching full house and always seeing this park, I just had too.  Parking can be a little hard but we got really lucky and got parking on the side of the Painted Ladies!

Third stop was going into downtown, we stopped by Ghirardelli Square to get some ice cream and it was so good! Then we went to Minamoto Kitchoan to pick up some Japanese desserts which is also very good, but very expensive.  After that we walked for a little bit and then drove by Japan town.

Fourth stop was to see the Dutch Windmill at Golden Gate Park.  There is a lot to do and see at this park I wish we had more time, but at least we got to see the windmills. 

The last stop to our trip was at Sutro Baths to watch the sunset.  There are some trails to walk on leading you to other parts of the cliffs, but we just stuck to one side.  It was amazing to see how what was once a building is now in ruins. At the top of the hill you can see a heart shape in the middle of a rock in the ocean.

Heart in the rock

Part of the Golden Gate Bridge in the back.

That is the end of our 4 day weekend trip to my cousins wedding.  I can’t believe we did so much in so little time! I got to see and experience so many things I never thought I would actually get to do. Definitely another check off the bucket list!  I can’t wait to take another road trip up north, but next time it will be longer so that we can enjoy more of the things we want to see and do.

Crossing the bridge to go home.

Cousins Wedding means Road trip! Part 1

One thing on my bucket list is to drive along the coast and see the beautiful California scenery.  Since my oldest cousin who lives in NorCal was getting married, it was the perfect opportunity for me to make that happen! It was a short trip we didn't get to spend as much time as we would like at each stop.  So I had to get very organize and made a list of all the places I wanted to go too in order with gas station stops along the way.  It had to be on point since some areas along highway 1 could go for miles without a gas station.  Doing my research paid off with getting the cheapest gas station mainly stopping at Costco.

Our first stop was at Morro bay, it was a beautiful small town. There were sea otters floating around, it was super cute!.  We went to Morro Rock there is plenty of parking on the side of the rock facing the beach, but very limited parking spaces on the side of the rock facing the harbor.  The water was very choppy on the day we went and extremely windy but still beautiful.  The rock was massive!

On the way to Morro Rock

The next stop was to see the elephant seals.  At first we missed the area but ended up finding a little trail to hike with an amazing view.  After the mini hike we decided to find the right spot to see the seals.  There were so many and some babies too.  If there is no parking spot in the first section just a little bit down the road is another parking section that has a trail connecting to the first area.  There is also a trail to hike to the light house but I think there is only a certain time you can go to the light house.  It is called Piedras Blancas Light Station.

Random Beach

Elephant Seals Vista Point

On our way to the next destination we decided to pull over at a view point.  We were tired of being in the car for such a long time. I'm glad we pulled over it was refreshing. The view was amazing!  It was a cliff view of the ocean, my boyfriend went to take a video by the edge of the cliff and omg ugh it was making me nervous I didn’t want to go down there because to get there it was a slight hill not steep or anything but I’m already scared of heights so adding any slant will make me extra nervous.

You can kind of see the slight downhill slant that is a NO for me.

Another bucket list item checked off!  I’ve always wanted to see McWay Falls! I never thought I would ever get to see something I’ve seen so many times in pictures.  In the parking lot there is a trail that leads into the forest for hiking and such we didn’t go far in because we still had a long way to go to San Francisco.

So beautiful

Our last stop was at Bixby bridge.  I love cliff view of the ocean! Seeing it from so high above stretching out for miles and miles, it’s just breath taking.

So now we are headed for San Francisco we stopped at the last Costco before getting into Downtown San Fran to fill up and pick up a pizza.  We were so exhausted and still had to drive another 45 minutes to 1 hour past San Fran.  But it ended up being even longer because we got lost not sure what happened we did have the GPS on.  We ended up in Oakland eventually found our way through the back roads, it was so dark!  After our little mishap we finally made it to my uncles house.  We planed to spend the next day in San Francisco but we didn’t get to bed until 1-2 am.  We woke up around 6-7 am in total zombie mode and feeling horrible so we decided to not go to San Francisco and instead help my cousin with her last minute wedding stuff she still needed to finish.

Well, this post is extremely long I will continue the trip story in another post.  Thanks for reading!