May/June 2000
Richard was attending the JavaOne conference in San Francisco in June 2000 and so we decided to make a holiday of it.
San Francisco
We spent 4 nights in San Francisco staying at the Powell hotel. We were fortunate enough to be in San Francisco at the time of Carneval, the Latin America festival and so headed down to Mission to watch that. We also did some visiting of places – Golden Gate Park, Fishermans Wharf, Shopping :), Chinatown, Yuerba Buena Gardens
Travelling
We spent 1 night in Monterey staying at the Sand Dollar Inn. We explored the area and had a great walk down to the harbour where there were a load of sea lions basking and barking.
We spent 1 night in Morro Bay staying at the Sunset Travelodge. No matter how hard I try I can’t think of much good to say about Morro Bay. It had surf shops and surf dudes which is always good for me, and we saw our first chipmunks… but that’s it.
We spent 1 night in Pacific Grove staying at The Wilkies Inn. Pacific Grove was a nice little place, and we did the 17 mile scenic drive from there which was pleasant but a bit over-rated in the tourist guides. Ate at an excellent restaurant “Peppers”, a MexiCali restaurant and drank excellent margaritas.
We spent 1 night in Santa Cruz staying at the CasaBlanca Inn (which was a fabulous spot). Santa Cruz was a really fun place, loads of surfers, loads going on. Reminded me a bit of Brighton, England, but with a sandy beach. The battery in our camera ran out so unfortunately we only have the one photograph.
Back In San Francisco
We spent Jane’s last night in San Francisco staying at the Stanford Court Hotel. We drove the “49 mile scenic drive” during the day which was great, except we drove more than any 49 miles, we fell off the route a few times. And the best bit on the tour for me was the view from the top of Twin Peaks across the city, this was fabulous.
After this Jane flew back to the UK, and Rich stayed out for the conference
Jane has a full diary of her visit to California, but for once kept a paper copy rather than an electronic one and so has to type it up sometime… don’t hold your breath 🙂