Year 5, Day 255 “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 1/10/2026, Day 5 of 22 day California Zephyr cross country trip, followed by a California coastal drive, and then a 14 night Mexico Cruise – Today is Day 1 of our 4 day California coastal drive. We are driving from San Francisco, California to Pismo Beach, California. We will stay two nights in Pismo Beach before heading to the Los Angeles area. Last night the California Zephyr pulled into Emeryville, California a little after 7pm. We were 2 hours later that scheduled. Considering it was a 52 hour train ride and we had an engine problem. I think it was great. In the last few miles of the train ride. We saw many homeless people living off to the side of the tracks. They were living in cardboard huts, tents, under canvas covers hung from the trees, or just sitting by open fires. There were mounds of garbage around their living areas. How sad it is. We are exhausted getting off the train.
We quickly picked up our checked luggage. Then, we called for an Uber. It took us to the Double Tree at San Francisco Airport.
The traffic was horrendous and the Uber driver at some points was doing 80 mph. Yup, I felt like kissing the ground when we got to the hotel. That was an intense hour long ride. The hotel lobby was really busy. We got our warm chocolate chip cookies and headed to our room on the 7th floor. The bed and shower were huge compared to the train. Today we had a really good breakfast. Although it was quite expensive for a buffet of just under $69.00. Here’s a video of the hotel lobby and breakfast area.
Here’s a video of room 714.
We had a nice panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay from room 714.
Here’s some advise about always checking your reservation rates. We reserved a car ages ago through Enterprise Car Rental for three days for about $560.00. I checked the rate again this morning. They were running a special and the same rental cost us around $210.00. They were running a special. I was able to cancel the old reservation and get the new rate. We checked out and took an uber from the hotel and picked up our car at the San Francisco airport.
We decided to go to the Golden Gate visitors center. Big mistake the traffic was horrendous and we could not get parking.
After being very discouraged we decided just to head to our next hotel at Pismo Beach. Maybe next visit. I am going to do a ship excursion or a Viator trip on another visit. I know I am going to be upset later because we lacked the patience to wait out a parking space. We should have parked far away and walked. The one exciting thing we saw were lots of WAYMO cars in the city. Waymo is an autonomous ride-hailing service. There are over 800 Waymo cars driving around the San Francisco area. At one point we were surrounded by them.
Here are links to other times in San Francisco.
9/25/2024 (Alcatraz) – https://deestimes.com/…/living-the-dream-year-4-day…/
9/26/2024 (Pier 39) – https://deestimes.com/…/living-the-dream-year-4-day…/
We didn’t drive down the coast like we originally had planned. We decided to drive route 101 to save time. This route took us through a valley of beautiful farm land with lots and lots of vineyards.
The Amtrak Coast Starlight train does go from Emeryville, California to Los Angeles, California. If you don’t want to drive that is another great California Coastal trip.
Look at the pumping oil wells.
Ohh and fields of greenhouses.
We saw lots of sheep in one of the vineyards. This is a sustainable farming practice where “living lawnmowers” graze on weeds and cover crops, reducing herbicide use. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 60’s.
The ocean would appear on and off to the right as we drove south down the California coast.
Oh let me tell you about the Nissan Rouge we rented. It has Pro pilot assist. We are not using it, but very interesting. Kind of almost like a Waymo. Waymo is completely autonomous where this is semi autonomous. That’s it for today.
Here’s a little something to ponder.
Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/4bAtYWS 40×60 Monocular Telescope with Smartphone Adapter: A must for traveling. Don’t miss that far away detail. Great for viewing wildlife.
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