Day Thirteen: Just Our Luck

Up and at 'em in San Fran. Looks like it may be another dreary day, but by the time we hit the Presidio, the sun is out and it begins to look like a great day. We hang out in the park for a while, then head to downtown to find the Beatnik bookstore and Chinatown. We decide to find the curviest street in the world, Lombard Street. We miss our first turn, so we take the second which leads up up a very steep hill (the car was crawling at this point, so overloaded and no horsepower), and at the top of the hill, alas, was Lombard street directly to our left...we miss it the first time. No worries, Tom makes an easy u-turn, and we simply take a right onto Lombard.

Well, I say simply. That's how it happened, but I am the only one who sees the mile-long line of cars waiting on Lombard street to go down it. But, as we approach the road, we have right-of-way, take our right-hand turn, and cut off hundreds of people wanting to turn down the road...oh well, just like with the hikers in Glacier: you snooze, you lose. Especially because anyone could have found out that the Lombard does not carry the right-of-way and they could have chosen to go our way. But, once again, we prevail and park at the bottom of Lombard and make our way south down Columbia. We pass Little Italy, we pass some historic landmarks (thoughtfully pointed out to us by a passing tour bus, whose driver was on a loud speaker. As he passed us, he jokingly told us it would be $5 for the info), we start to get hungry as we pass more and more restaurants. The decision is made to eat at a small Italian place, where we get lunch specials, and it is the best Italian we have ever eaten (we were hungry, mind you). So from there we browse City Lights, aka the Beatnik Bookstore. It is where Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsburg would hang out. It is the largest collection of Beat literature in the world. It was pretty sweet, and I should have bought a book. But oh well, I am sure I will return.

We move on to Chinatown, through it, and back again in search for the Golden Gate cookie factory, which was closed that day. So we leave Chinatown and its busy streets and good smells, and head back for the car, which is and hour overdue in its two hour spot. No worries, cause once again we have escaped a ticket. We move the car a block or two down to the wharfs. They were okay, lots of people, lots of tourist traps, not a whole lot to do without spending money. We get back to the car after an hour of meandering and looking through a spy shop, then drive on to LA.

Traffic blew. We left SF at 2 or so, and it took 3+ hours to get through Oakland to Hwy 15. Then several more hours into LA. We saw one of the best sunsets of the trip on the into LA. Then LA traffic was awesome, 55mph speed limits, traffic going 80+mph, no one caring about the speed limit. It was sweet. Show up at Josh's at around 11 or so, we eat the best burgers I have ever had, and pass out on his floor cause he has no furniture as of yet.