Day 6, Costanoa KOA/Santa Cruz

So, time to leave Manchester Beach. Tons of fun there, really. We enjoyed our third lighthouse on the Pacific Coast while at Manchester Beach called Point Arena Lighthouse. On the advice of the locals, we decided to backtrack a few miles in order to avoid more emesis basins and Curlicue Highways. So back we went, over hill and dale, and finally made it back to Highway 101. Oh Sweet Deliverance!!


The kids weren’t so much into looking at stuff – they just wanted to get the heck down the road. We made no stops and looked at nothing tourist-trappy until we got to the Golden Gate Bridge. We made a short stop at Fort Baker at the foot of the western side of the bridge to take a few pics, and off we went. Three minutes tops. Then we had a nice drive over the bridge and a look at Alcatraz.

Highway 101 winds through some really nifty parts of San Francisco. I got a peek at one of the trolleys as it was coasting down the cross street. Besides that, we really didn’t do much in town. The boys saw some fancy cars for sale and tons of them on the road, so they were in testosterone nirvana.

After getting through town, we had an impossible decision to make. The campgrounds we liked were along the coast, which was on Highway 1. The dreaded Highway 1. But that’s where the campsites were. We decided to give it a go, and fortunately the drive was awesome and the campground had an empty spot! (and a lighthouse, Pigeon Point Lighthouse)