US TRIP - San Francisco to Modesto

Today we picked up the rental car we'll have for the next couple of weeks. We ended up with a mini-van! Eeek! Great on the roads to be seen, but parking is fun!! Driving in the US is much easier than I thought it would be, it's just remembering to stay on the right.

The first thing we did once we got out of San Francisco was drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, finally getting to see it properly!

Of course the fog promptly rolled in once we were across! I'd planned to stop at Vista Point on the other side, but there was a marathon on during the morning, so Vista Point was closed. Oliver did a great job of getting us down to the Fort Baker park area, where we got a good parking spot and a good view of the bridge. 

View from Fort Baker. 

We decided to walk across, but of course we had to climb the hill first! Only half a kilometre, but a huge winding hill! 

First to get onto the bridge! 

But we did it and stopped up on Vista Point, where we met some very friendly bikers from the Bakersfield Iron Hoggz club.

The Bakersfield Iron Hoggz

We then walked across the bridge, about 2km each way and really noisy! Especially with the cars constantly going past. But a beatiful view and worth the walk. 

View to the left (west) - no fog. 

View to the right (east) - fog! 

After that we started towards Muir Woods, but there was way too much traffic, and by the time we found something to eat (at Starbucks of all places!) it was getting late, so we tried to find out way to our hotel in Modesto. 

Between San Francisco and Modesto. Some of the landscape was very alien-like! 

We got turned around a few times, so it took longer than expected, but we found it. We had a pretty amazing dinner at Fuddruckers (which I remembered from my first trip to the U.S in 1990), and then had a Walmart adventure! No weird people, but still a bit of fun. 

Fuddruckers had a 'topppings bar'. Anytopping you can think of!