Seconds With Steff

This morning started… Well, let’s just say it started.

Last night I went to the Budget Rent-A-Car in my hotel to see if I could trade my car because it needed oil. Like then the light that is not a suggestion but screaming at me for days that it needed oil. He said no problem, but it was 5 o’clock and his workday was over and to just to come back at 8 o’clock in the morning which annoyed me but OK fine. 

So this morning, Hunter and I were down at the rental counter at 8 o’clock and by 8:45 everything transferred into the new car.  I’m annoyed that I lost 45 minutes, but trying to be positive. 

So we made our way down to the cable cars as planned. The best place to get your ticket is at the turnaround so you’re getting a full ride for your eight dollars. We only had to wait for two cars before we got our turn to go down to the wharf.

The only problem was about halfway through the ride, it started down pouring. I had seated Hunter on the bench and was standing in front of him, but it just didn’t matter I was drenched. The worst part was when I left the hotel room this morning. I was feeling all good about myself looking cute with make up and full hair and a shirt that was brand new that I bought at Hotel Del Coronado, but never wore. And then the rain! I’ve never worn a white shirt in my life and of course it was white so yeah… 

We got off of the car and made our way to Ghirardelli Square. They were open, so a cup of hot chocolate warmed me up. Hunter had a cookie as we tried to weak out the storm a bit.

Looking at the weather app, it appeared like it was going to rain for another two hours, so I ordered a Lyft to take us to Coit Tower. As we walked outside, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and it became a beautiful day. Lyft cancelled! And we made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf.

After a quick photo, Hunter led the charge to Pier 39! There’s a great show on Disney+ called United States Animals. Season One; Episode Four is called Bay City Brawlers and has a part all about San Francisco’s Sea Lions. We were really excited to see them and they did not disappoint.

Then Hunter in his infinite wisdom suggested we get a taxi to go to Coit Tower, but I really wanted to walk. As we were leaving the pier, a man was leaning against a taxi, so I felt it was meant to be. Thank goodness we did not walk because 234 stairs later, we had the most spectacular views of San Francisco. Coit Tower itself had gorgeous murals throughout the first floor. And we even made a new friend, Frank, who encouraged us up those stairs. 

PS- it was Hunter who wanted to see Coit Tower because of a Little Einstein’s episode.

For lunch, I thought it would be nice to surprise Hunter with a spaghetti meatball lunch in Little Italy. As we entered Washington Square Park, I asked a group of girls behind me if they were locals and where we should eat. They pointed me to a restaurant two blocks away and up another hill. No problem! Hunter and I make it there, but they didn’t open ‘til 5 o’clock, so back to Washington Square Park where I picked a random restaurant and had a fairly decent lunch.

Back to the original restaurant to jump a cable car to the Cable Car Museum which honestly if I had not had Hunter could’ve really spent like a long time reading every single piece of information they had. I was completely unaware of how cable cars work, and I still really don’t have a clue but at least now understand it’s very intricate. 

After another half a mile all uphill, we arrived at Bob’s Donuts  which I had to come back for and they are still amazing!!! 

Lifting back to the hotel, we got in our new car, grabbed a couple more pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, and headed down Route One

Devil Slide was our first stop down the coast. It was a portion of Route One that was constantly damaged and closed, so they tunneled through the mountain instead of reinforcing the road. It is now an urban trailway that has a dedicated bike lane and it was really cool. If there were two people on the trip, you could easily do it with one person hiking one way and the other person picking you up. Hunter and I walked a little bit but not much.

As we made our way south I made it my mission to stop at Swanton Berry Farm. They were the first organic strawberry farm in the US. It was somewhere I had wanted to stop in 2019 but completely missed it.

But this time…SUCCESS! We bought a pint of strawberries and a slice of marionberry pie for dessert later on tonight. 

I had planned a quick quick stop in Santa Cruz as I wanted Hunter to see the surfers in the cove, and we got lucky as we were able to see The Surf Museum just before closing, but the waves were dead.

I had heard of Capitola and drove down to see the Capitola houses, but the sun was in the way. My pictures are absolutely terrible so I zoomed in as best I could to give you an idea to get an idea of what the houses look like but they’re so cute and the town seems adorable… Like one of those places where the pedestrian think they have the right away. 

Dinner at Phil’s Fish Market & Eatery was supposed to be epic! Years ago, I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and saw this tiny little restaurant in Moss Landing just outside of Monterey where it was explained how Cioppino was invented by local fishermen returning at night and “chipping in” to the pot of stew, but couldn’t stop in 2019 or 2022, so third time is a charm…except it was terrible. My Cioppino had so much black pepper it was barely edible and I left most of it, and Hunter’s linguine with clam sauce was described as, “with butter cream sauce, sauteed garlic, green onion, tomato, thyme and parsley”…yeah…I don’t know what’s in that sauce but even I wouldn’t have eaten it. So Bob’s Donuts and pie for dinner!

Also, Castroville is the artichoke center of the world.

And we’re sort of staying in a dive tonight…and not a cheap dive but it’s clean.

Vertullo Summary – 234 steps and bad dinner