The last days have been too full of snags, rethinking and decisions. We left towards Alaska, then stop less then a 100 kilometers after against a deer, scared and sad or a trip ended too soon. Then a call to a friend and a ticket to San Fransisco booked have enlightened a new smile on our faces. So, from the cold Alaska, we end up in the sunny California, ready to live our California Dream.
We land in San Fransisco in a hot sunny day, with not only two but three backpacks and no car. The tour around the city is so pretty a short one, we enjoy a nice stroll around Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, trying the local specialty, the clam chowder, this crab soup served in a sourdough bread. We go then waving our hello to the always present sea lions, surveilled from Alcatraz on the island in the middle of the bay.
Then we go towards our new home for just some days: Aptos, California, is waiting for us.
Fisherman’s Wharf, the dock and beating heart of the turistic San Francisco, always very fascinating
In Aptos, a few kilometers from the world known Santa Cruz, we are hosted at a dear friend’s house from italian origins and her family. We live with them for some days: stroll and lunch in town with the super american hamburger, dinner with the family, an unforgettable crossfit lesson in one of the places where this sport have born, the Santa Cruz Crossfit Central, and long afternoons on the sunny beaches.
So, we enjoy ourselves and relax, but it just takes a couple of days and we begin again to feel the urge to leave and travel. We then book a rental car, buy a California state map and…our California Road Trip is ready to begin!
Relax at the beach, Aptos Beach. It’s still full summer, but the ocean is cold, as always and the strong wind blowing is fresh too
The morning of our fourth day in California, we go take our rental car. It’s nice and wide, but we will not be able to sleep in it, such a shame.
We then decide not to immediately leave southbound, since the afternoon has almost begun. We decide to go towards the north, instead, up to the little town of Pescadero. There is not a lot along the Route 1 we are driving, but we get an idea of what we will find later on, during the next days, and we can’t wait to leave.
The Pigeon Point lighthouse, the historical lighthouse guiding ships along the coast since 1871
Before getting into Pescadero, we stop at a historical place along the coast, to see the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, an historical and old one built back in 1871 and even the tallest on the West Coast of the US. We would like to enter and visit it, but as the boards explain, the lack of funds doesn’t let it to restaure it. So it’s precarious and then closed to the turists. Such a shame! It is pretty funny indeed, we really feel in Italy for once.
Then, once we get in Pescadero, we go straight to the Arcangeli Grocery Store, a nice historical shop, food shop actually, where we have a very good sandwich stuffed with everything and we buy some good cheese for tonight.
Time to eat and the Arcangeli Grocery Store in Pescadero don’t let us down
It’s time to go back, the family is waiting for our last dinner all together and we really don’t want to miss it.
Along the road back home, we enjoy movie landscapes, guys who, probably, live in their van together with their surfboards. Everything you can imagine while saying California it’s real, is not only in the movies, life here is really like that!
A dream, the California Dream, enclosed in a little van and a surfboard
We go home, but we have to make one last stop in Santa Cruz, to see one of the best sunsets in the worlds, with a daring surfer who challenges the ocean with grace and prowess. While we look the brave surfers from the cliff, the sun sets and for some seconds the sky is on fire, while the girls and guys, with their wetsuits in the cold water go on challenging the waves.
Then the dark comes and only the most daring ones stay for a night photoshoot and since we can’t see anymore, we go back to our car.
Sunset in Santa Cruz, with the surfers on the cliff, is something everyone has to see once in a lifetime
Then the day ends. We say our goodbyes to our friends and thanks for the great hosting and that touch of Italy we were missing, after three months away. Tomorrow it will be a usual ordinary day for them, but for us will be the beginning of another great adventure.
Let’s go rest well, one last hot comfortable shower and our backpacks ready.
In a matter of minutes, we are sound asleep, dreaming about California and what is waiting for us.
AP
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