Thursday 16th March – So long to one friend and reconnecting with another!

Candlestick RV Park entrance - San Francisco

We aimed to leave the RV site at 930am to get Becky to San Francisco International in plenty of time for her 1220pm flight home (via Iceland!).  It was sad dropping her off at departures but she seems to have enjoyed her stay.  So, it’s just me and Simon again….  But we have only three weeks until our next guests arrive so we need to maximise what we do with those weeks.  And save some cash!  We have agreed that we need to be realistic and double our budget (at least!) when we have visitors.  This is because there can be no ‘down-time’ when you are trying to cram in as much fun as possible within a fortnight to maximise our guests’ holidays.  We have the luxury of being able to take it easy sometimes because we’re not limited by time – although 6 months is NOT enough time to see the USA as far as we’re concerned!

From the airport, Simon wanted to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, so we headed north again through the city. Low level cloud covered the city, including the bridge. Having expected to pay a toll to cross, it was a bonus when we discovered that it was only for those travelling into the city.  We stopped at a Vista point on the North side of the bridge. The cloud actually made the scenery more intriguing I think.   

The view of the bridge

A lone yacht sailing into the mist...

A memorial to all of the sailors that leave the harbour to fight for their country at sea

San Francisco through the mist

From there, our next stop was to San Quentin State prison – built in 1852, it is one of the oldest prisons in America and to this day courts controversy as executions are still held here.  We went in to the museum to find out the gory details, but weren’t allowed to take cameras or phones onto the prison grounds so can’t show you anything, but it had some interesting exhibits, i.e: the last rope used to actually hang someone (still knotted) and a model of the gas chamber, though they have since moved over to lethal injection…. 

San Quentin State prison

We spent an hour there, before having lunch with a view of the Richmond - San Rafael bridge - a feet of engineering.  When it was completed in 1956 it's 4.5 mile span and double-decker design made it California's most complex and longest steel structure.

Richmond-San Rafael Bridge

We continued to drive towards Sacramento, stopping for Thursday’s Walmart shop and a haircut for Simon as he wanted to scrub up to meet my friend for the first time!  I’ve been having problems with my credit card again.  Halifax are clearly twitchy about transactions when not using the chip in my card.  However, most places here don’t have chip-readers yet, they swipe your card instead and ask you for a signature still.  I keep having my card rejected every time it is swiped, which was working before.  Very frustrating!  To confirm this theory, I managed to withdraw cash with the credit card and pay for our goods in Walmart, who use chip-readers, with no issue but then it was declined as soon as it was next swiped.  Basically, we need to always have enough cash on our person to cover situations when it is declined now we don’t have Becky as a back-up!

Onwards to Granite Bay which is just past Sacramento.  The traffic was pretty bad as it was about rush-hour so we didn’t arrive at our destination until just after 6pm.  Leah had the misfortune of living in a multi-share flat with me at Exeter University for one year between 1997 and 1998.  There were 12 of us.  Each of us had a small box-room containing only a bed and a sink which meant that we all had to share two bathrooms, two toilets and a communal kitchen.  Six of us in the flat were Brits, six were international students.  Leah also drew the short-straw of being my next door neighbour!  We haven’t seen each other since 1998 but thanks to the joys of Facebook we have kept in touch with each other’s lives and Leah messaged me to invite us over if we were passing.  She lives in what we Brits would refer to as a secluded Cul-de-sac, but here is called a court, with her husband Nate and two sons, Silas and Nelson.  Their house is amazing.  One of those beautiful open-plan sprawling modern homes with a picturesque garden and pool:

Leah and I in the beautiful back garden

The drive was big enough to park Harvey on so that also says a lot!  Leah’s husband was out of town on business until later that evening but having hugged and agreed how random but delightful it was to see each other again after so long, Leah showed us around and we discussed the plan for the evening.  We headed over to Leah’s neighbours who are their very good friends Bryan and Jenny with whom they do meal shares twice a week.  What a great idea!  And everyone could not have been more welcoming.  Their house was incredible too, we especially liked the beer taps in the outside dining area and the fire table (though we missed a demonstration as it is currently out of order!).  Leah had cooked some deliciously tender pork and we had a Mexican buffet of tacos and burritos with all of the trimmings, whilst we caught up on what the last 19 years have held for each of us and our current trip.  We were well and truly spoilt, even getting homemade cookies for dessert.

The kids bed-times took us back over to Leah’s house where we were introduced to Silas‘s pet, Boomerang the crested gecko and we gave everyone a tour of the RV. 

Simon and I chatted away to Leah whilst even getting some laundry done – what a service!  I really enjoyed reminiscing with Leah about our Uni days and any concerns I may have had about meeting up with someone after so long evaporated away.  Leah was as friendly and easy to talk to as I remember.