All I Wanna Do

Still reachin' with those titles.

The ride from Monterey to San Francisco was a different kind of pretty, slightly less dramatic than our previous routes.  

We decided to drive up 101, a bit more inland, instead of Highway 1 up the coast.

Whoah - how did we end up in Arkansas?  Salinas Valley is known as the "Salad Bowl of World" because of its fertile soil.

And the best thing about Salinas?  John Steinbeck of course.  

Too bad we were three days early for the annual Steinbeck festival.  I know Andrew hates we missed that.

I think I'm going to have my students make t-shirts with this quote for extra credit.  I want one myself!

This quote totally sums up why Steinbeck is my favorite writer.

 

I absolutely can't wait to show this picture to my students!

My favorite scene in Of Mice and Men is when Lennie offers George all his ketchup to show George how much he loves him.  If you haven't read this book, go out and get it immediately!  It's less than 100 pages and just thinking about this scene makes me get a bit emotional - even sitting here in the freezing cold San Francisco airport.

Next on my list of Steinbeck books to read is The Winter of our Discontent, a fictional story about the disillusionment of the American Dream.  If you had a look at my syllabus, you would see most of the works I choose deal with this topic.  I try to find a natural way for these types of discussions to pop up in class.  They just don't know that I choose books that will make them happen!  Oh, I'm ready to go back!

This is the actual truck and camper Steinbeck used to drive across the country while writing Travels With Charley, his poodle.

On our way out of Salinas we dropped by the big W for a couple more dogs - and by a couple I mean four more chili dogs for Andrew and two corndogs for me.  I'm afraid I've fallen for the Schnitz too!  Then we busted it out of the ole salad bowl for San Francisco.

On our way to Point Reyes National Seashore, we ran into Lombard Street so we hopped in line to drive down the crookedest street in the world.

It was pretty windy (as in the long 'i') but really pretty with its brick road...

and landscaped flower beds.

I'm not sure why it isn't more famous for how steep it is.  I was so nervous that I actually tried to talk Andrew out of it.

That obviously did no good.  

I knew the Golden Gate Bridge would be a sight, but I was totally unprepared for how beautiful the surrounding bay would be.

We were too lazy to walk it.

Or bike it.

The drive to Point Reyes was also quite windy.

This pretty accurately depicts how I was feeling.

We were also too lazy to walk to the beach.  Might have had something to do with those dogs.  And after driving the whole coast, this beach needed a little more drama to entice us for the long walk.

A little worried about time, we opted to skip out on Muir Woods.  We were pretty disappointed to leave without seeing any redwoods, but thinking we'd want to take our kids to see them someday, we made peace with our decision.  On our way back to San Fran, we stopped in Sausalito, a quaint European-inspired town with great views of the bay.  First, we stopped at an area coffee shop.  

  

This picture doesn't show it, but the view from our table was breathtaking.

The latte and tiramisu weren't too bad either.

I'm glad only our first hotel had a scale in the fitness center.  Probably best not to know.

The sun was setting as we drove back over the bridge.  Perfect timing.

All of these pictures were taken through the windows that haven't been washed for the entire week long road trip, so don't inspect them too closely.

We're not leaving San Francisco yet.  Tomorrow holds another day of adventures.