Baseball Road Trip 2011: Day 5 (San Rafael to San Luis Obispo)

Day 5

June 9^th

Got up around 7:30 to shower and pack up the van, then ate a delicious breakfast with Lindy out in the back yard, before setting out to explore the city of San Francisco. Drove across the bridge to Haight Street, where we definitely “got our hippie on”. It seemed like every other store was a tobacco shop. I’ve never seen so many pipes in my life. All in all, it was a pretty fascinating part of town with some intriguing shops, colorful characters, and great deals. We stacked up on some cheap DVDs at a used electronics store and are in good shape for the rest of the trip. After spending over an hour on Haight Street, we headed over to China Town. We didn’t get very far. A Chinese retail store had an abundance of cheap, bizarre knick-knacks and that kept our attention for most of our time in China Town. Alex insisted on getting an authentic samurai sword, and he and Micah both picked out sets of nun chucks. I’m not sure why these were must haves, but I guess we won’t have to worry about being attacked any time soon. We grabbed lunch at an Americanized Chinese Food restaurant, the kind of place where Americans who are a little weirded out by the authentic Chinese food, go to eat. Tasted pretty good to me. We left the city around 2, deciding that we didn’t have enough time to go down to pier 39 and walk around Ghirardelli Square, because we had to reach Alex’s Grandparents in San Luis Obispo by evening. We intended to take Hwy 1 (the scenic route) but were informed that it was closed in some parts due to rain and mudslides, and were forced to take 101, a quicker but less beautiful drive. It was about a four-hour drive to Avila Beach, where the Feldstein’s (Terri’s parents) live. Along the way, we fulfilled one of Riley’s road trip goals in buying fresh fruit from a roadside fruit stand. We also drove through the Salinas Valley, where the majority of Steinbeck’s books take place. We arrived at the Feldstein’s house around 6 and got settled. Shortly after, they took us out to dinner at a restaurant called Alex’s bar-bbq. Dinner was great. After the meal, the five of us headed down to the Thursday night market place festival, in San Luis Obispo, a weekly gathering in the farmer’s market area. After walking around for about an hour, we returned to the house and settled in to watch a little Sportcenter. Tomorrow, our only plan is to stick around San Luis Obispo, hit the beach, possibly play some golf, and hopefully enjoy the sun.