Living roof

San Francisco, CA - Thursday, 17 October

And so back to San Francisco. With Fleet Week over, hotel rooms are somewhat less overpriced (and fighter jets are no longer making a lot of noise overhead), and I've found a nice spot in downtown (the Hotel Fusion). They even have Magners in the bar, which is nice, as "hard cider" is relatively rare over here. I've been on beer for the past week (although not much of it, since I've been driving most days).

I spent today at the California Academy of Sciences, which is a fairly substantial natural history museum and includes an aquarium, some penguins, and a "living roof".

As it turns out, the cost of parking in downtown SF is sufficiently tedious that I've returned my rental car early, and found a deal with Budget which means I (a) come out ahead on the money and (b) have something with a bigger engine lined up for my Pacific Coast Highway trip, starting Saturday. The lack of grunt in the Nissan was really starting to annoy me, and it will be fun to drive something actually made in the USA.

The back of my metaphorical napkin for the PCH trip reads as follows:

Leg 1 = SF to Carmel-by-the-Sea, 123 miles

Leg 2 = Carmel-by-the-Sea to SLO, 132 miles

Leg 3 = SLO to Santa Barbara, 115 miles

Leg 4 = Santa Barbara to LAX, 94 miles (stop in Malibu, Santa Monica)

I'll blog on the places to stay if they're good.