NorCal Road Trip Day 7: The Scenic Route to San Francisco

My dad and his crew were out the door by 6 a.m. so we were, too. They were leaving for a trip of their own so my dad recommended we check out Bodega Bay on the coast before heading to San Francisco for the rest of our trip. 

The early morning ended up working in our favor. After a quick coffee stop that included our first venture into a Safeway, we headed west. Our morning drive through Sonoma County toward the coast was gorgeous. We arrived in Bodega Bay before many restaurants were open for breakfast, so we stood in an empty parking lot and watched seals frolic in the chilly morning water of the bay. I can’t think of a better morning activity for Rebecca. 

We stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and asked the cashier for his thoughts on The Drake House, a restaurant that popped up on a quick Google search. He said that’s where he watches Sunday Night Football so—next thing we know—we stumbled into another perfect, spontaneous moment. We ate breakfast by an elegant fireplace with a bay view visible out of the huge window in front of us. Then, we set off to enjoy the scenic coastlines one last time before heading to the big city. 

We headed north along Highway 1 to Sonoma Coast State Park, a beautiful patchwork of beaches, cliffs and sea stacks that extended for miles. We took a road all the way down to sea level, parked and walked along the sands of Goat Rock Beach. The scene was full of life. Dogs walked with their humans, an old man and his surfboard bobbed in the waves, and mussels held tight as their rocky homes were exposed by low tide. In the distance, a natural arch rock formed a gateway—welcoming the waves to California and welcoming Californians to the Pacific Ocean.  

We stayed there for a long time and as we walked toward the car, Rebecca said it was her favorite moment of the entire trip. For the second time during our trip, an unplanned and unexpected discovery ended up being better than anything I could have planned.

Any anxiety that started to creep into my mind about how we needed to hurry on to San Francisco melted away and I was reminded of the importance of enjoying the ride and appreciating the moment at hand. Not more than 15 minutes later, we were pulled off again at the Portuguese Beach vista point. It was too beautiful to pass by, so we stood on a cliff above the beach and watched the surfers—a very different beach experience compared to what we were used to on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

We took the scenic route down to San Francisco. Taking Shoreline Highway wasn’t the fastest route to the city, but we knew it would be worthwhile. We took it all the way down the coast, passing Bodega Bay and clearing Sonoma County before stopping at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. We continued on toward the Golden Gate Bridge but had to stop at two more vistas near Mount Tamalpais, where our view of the ocean made us feel like we were above the horizon and on top of the world. 

The road got windy and snaked inland. The drastic elevation changes of the landscape around us told us we were coming up on something dramatic—topography so wild that humans had to blast rock, dig tunnels and build bridges just to tame narrow segments of it large enough to move cars on. We stopped at Battery Spencer, an old military installation on a high cliff overlooking the entire bay. The iconic red of the Golden Gate Bridge was brilliant against the blue sky and aquamarine water.

The beauty of the Bay Area stretched in all directions, especially looking east toward Tiburon, Richmond and Berkeley. We’d already driven across the bridge once on our arrival to San Francisco almost a week before, but this was the first time either of us saw it from this elevation. The wind whipped our hair and swept our words out and over the bay before the other could make them out. So we snapped some pictures and left, crossing the bridge to our final destination. 

We checked into Stanyan Park Hotel, another historic Victorian hotel, before making a quick trip to turn in the rental car. We returned to the hotel to reset before venturing out to explore. Our hotel sat along the eastern edge of the massive Golden Gate Park, so we walked through the park for a little while before exiting to check out the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood adjacent to our hotel. Haight-Ashbury was well known as the hub of the countercultural movement in the 1960s and home to artists like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. From our observations, the neighborhood still maintained its peace-and-love reputation. 

We walked through some residential neighborhoods to admire the row houses. No matter where I looked, I felt like I saw the historic architecture and beautiful colors of row houses everywhere. After coming across the campus of the University of San Francisco and admiring its enormous cathedral, we took a sunset walk back toward Haight-Ashbury. We grabbed food, Rebecca at a Thai restaurant and me at a taco shop, before retiring to our hotel for our final night on the west coast.

Because we got to the city so late that day and were scheduled to fly out the following afternoon, we both wished for another day in San Francisco. But, unless Delta overbooked our flight and wanted to pay us cold hard cash to take a later flight, we only had one morning left to sample San Francisco …