Arrived in San Francisco

Day 1 - January 28, 2010

We started our short weekend trip to the San Francisco area today. This trip will be almost completely spontateous. All we arrived with today was hotel reservations, a car reservation, and of course the flights. From here we will play it by ear and do whatever sounds good at the time. This is a welcome change from our usual vacations. =)

We arrived in Oakland from Houston with no problems. Then, we hopped right on the BART train that took us from the airport to San Francisco. We rented our Smart car in Union Square. The walk to Avis was only 7 blocks. For our short weekend trip, we packed in only a backpack each, so it was an easy walk. On the way we stopped at a Jewish deli for a yummy lunch.

Once we had our Smart car, we drove off to Muir Woods and had enough time for about 2 hours of hiking. Then, we took highway 1 to the north until we arrived at Motel Inverness. On the way we watched a beautiful sunset off the coast. I nearly stopped for photos. We were tired from the time change, though, so we kept going.

We were very pleasantly surprised to find that we had gotten a free upgrade. Also, this little "motel" is nothing like a motel. There are only 7 rooms and there is a big lodge/lobby at one end that serves as our living room. Here we have access to a pool table, a big tv, computer with wireless internet, and a little mini-kitchen. The room also is nice with a large private balcony that overlooks a lake. In the lobby we found lots of good books of information, maps, and even binoculars for use while here. We didn't stay up too late before heading to bed.