7 day road trip: SF to LA

Once we settled in our temporarily home we went out to get something to eat (we were starving!!). We walked over to Chestnut st which has several food establishments, bars, and shops. This is definitely a high energy area where you could easily spend half a day walking and shopping, but since we only had a couple of hours left in our day we decided to just get something to eat at Super Duper Burgers. After eating we headed over to the Palace of fine Arts to take a couple of pictures before ending our day.

Day 2:

Took a bus over to Lombard street- famous for its curves and steepness-

walked to Chinatown- in here you can find several souvenir shops and authentic Chinese restaurants, you can easily spend a few hours wondering around. Also, be on the look out for the many murals and quotes written on the floor!

From Chinatown we took a bus uphill to Coit tower. You can also take a bus that leaves you on the edge of the hill and you can walk up, but we do not recommend it, specially if you visit during the hot summer season. Coit tower is a must if you want to see amazing views of the city! the ticket costs $8 and only a limited amount of people can be at the top, so be ready to wait in line.

For a late lunch we headed over to Pier39. This is a popular tourist location that you can't miss. Here you can find a shopping center, souvenir stores, and several restaurants. We recommend trying theCrab House, it can get crowded but its definitely worth the wait, specially if you like crab legs or if you are hungry enough to eat an entire 2lb crab! if you want to try something less expensive then we suggest you walk west towards the Fishermans Wharfat pier 45. Here you will find several walk up stands that sell crab sandwiches and other comfort foods. In this same pier you will find the Musee Mecanique, a penny arcade from the 20th century.

To end our day we walked over to the Original Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop. O.M.G, if you have a sweet tooth like us then please go here! and indulge yourself in ice cream, shakes, and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!!

After stuffing our faces at Ghirardelli and getting a sugar rush, we needed to walk it off, so we walked over to one of the piers to contemplate the sunset over at Hyde street Pier.

Day 3:

We started our third day visiting the famous painted ladies, for those of you that watched Full house, theses are the houses featured in the show's intro song. A visit to SF is not complete without visiting this landmark, however we recommend being extra careful in this area. We decided to drive and parked right next to the park in front of the painted ladies, once we finished taking pictures and walked back to the car we found that the car has been broken into. We had to file a police report and go to the airport to exchange the car.

After getting a new car we headed back to Pier 39 where we decided to go in a boat tour that took us around the  Golden bridge and Alcatraz. You can also choose tours that dock in Alcatraz for you to go inside the former prison.

To finish our day we drove to Sausalito which is about 10 miles from Pier 39. Sausalito is the perfect place if you are trying to unwind from the city. In this town you can find several restaurants and stores, you can also rent bikes and spend the afternoon exploring the town and riding along the waterfront.

Day 4:

We left our Airbnb really early in the morning and drove to the Big Basin Red Woods. This is a state park where you can find some of the tallest and oldest trees on earth. we just stopped for a few hours but you can also rent cabins, hike or camp. After indulging ourselves with nature, we started our road trip to LA via hwy 1 / Big Sur.

Our first stop was for a picture at the Bixby bridge, this is one of the most photographed bridges down in Big Sur. Our second picture stop was at McWay falls, you can't miss this spot as you will see cars parked on the side of the hwy. This waterfall is famous for being one of few to empty directly into a beach. Even though there are stairs to go down to the beach, it is not allowed to climb down.

Day 5:

Drove straight to Malibu, here we stopped to walk along side the beach and to just unwind from driving. After Malibu we headed to Santa Monica where we ate and spend some time at the pier before driving to our airbnb in LA, which by the way took us 2hrs to drive 15miles (damn LA traffic!). For dinner we had reservations Boxwood café, but because of traffic we could not make it, instead we spend time walking part of the Walk of fame.

Day 6:

We started our 6th day at Universal Studios Hollywood, but we didn't spend much time here because our airbnb host invited us to take a tour of her work place, at Disney's Hollywood Studios! we had lunch at the studios cafeteria, walked past Stan Lee's office, saw the set of Code Black (we weren't to take pictures as it was an active filming location). Being the nerds that we are this was probably one of the highlight of this trip haha. At night we went back to the stroll the walk of fame, Sunset Strip, and visited the Urban Lights for photos.

Day 7:

We started our last day visiting the Griffith Observatory. From here you can see the Hollywood sign and amazing views of the city! Entrance to the observatory is $7 and you don't need to buy tickets in advance. Later we drove by Beverly hills looking for celebrity houses haha, and stopped at Rodeo Drive for lunch before heading to the airport.