(This post was originally scheduled for Monday, July 7, as in a week ago. I have been ridiculously busy over the past two weeks due to critical deadlines at work and on top of that, moving to a new place. After a weekend of renovations and moving I feel like one of the walking dead. Oh, and I started a new job this week.)

I’m not alone in thinking that Americans don’t get enough days off. It’s true: on average, Americans get two weeks of vacation compared to four weeks for Australians and (gasp!) five weeks for the French – on top of public and religious holidays. The paltry number of public holidays is probably why the concept of a mini-break is so foreign to Americans: we can count them off with our fingers. The Fourth of July weekend couldn’t come soon enough.

Our plans for the 4^th came together quickly. I got an e-mail from Cristina, an old high school friend, who graciously invited us to spend the long weekend in San Francisco. We love visiting San Francisco (I lived here in the late 80s/early 90s) so we took her offer and made plans to head north on Thursday after lunch. Our plan was to take the scenic route to San Simeon on Thursday afternoon (and camp near the beach) and visit Hearst Castle first thing Friday. We made no plans for Saturday and were driving back to LA on Sunday.

I was planning to get off work by 1 pm on Thursday but ended up getting off at 4. It was more of a mad dash to the door at 4 because leaving any later meant that we would be on the road during rush hour here in LA. Add to that the fires in Goleta (near Santa Barbara) and Big Sur and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Thankfully we were past all that traffic and the Goleta fire by 6 pm.

We made a stop at Pismo Beach two hours later, just in time to see the sun set. We went to eat award-winning clam chowder (served in a bread bowl) at Splash Café after the sun went down, then stopped by Mon Ami Creperie for dessert. The lady making crepes wore a fancy chef’s hat, the kind only I’ve only seen on the Swedish Chef (of Muppets fame). We really liked the strawberry and Nutella crepes served with whipped cream and raspberry compote.

We arrived at the San Simeon campground two hours later. We had planned to reach it before nightfall, to avoid pitching our tent in the dark, but that’s exactly what happened. Thankfully it was easy to find our spot, and our neighbors didn’t seem to mind that we used our car’s headlights to set up the tent. (We forgot our big flashlight at home. Hee.) The bathroom situation wasn’t ideal (no lights or flushing toilets!) but since we were only there for one night it didn’t really matter.

The next day we visited Hearst Castle and signed up for the garden tour. There are four tours that operate in the Castle, and tour #1 is recommended for first-time visitors. Given Rene’s interest in plants, we signed up for the garden tour (#4) instead. We saw most of the grounds, including two guest houses, the tennis courts, the pool, and the cellar. I found most of the interiors to be gaudy but appreciated the chance to experience them. Next time I’d like to take a tour of the main house interior and see how it compares to Citizen Kane.

We wanted to take PCH all the way up to SF but ended up backtracking and taking the 101 freeway due to the fire in Big Sur. On our way to SF we passed several Missions and decided to visit one called San Juan Bautista. (I’ve been visiting California Missions since last summer and made it a goal to visit all 21 of them. This was #6 for us.) The last scene in Hitchcock’s Vertigo was filmed there. The bell tower used for the scene doesn’t exist – it was built in the studio and superimposed on the Mission. The real bell tower is on the right side of the church, and is comprised of three small bells that aren’t accessible by stairs. From the Mission you can also see the San Andreas fault line, which caused the Loma-Prieto earthquake back in 1989.

We made it to SF two hours later, with the Bay Area fog coming to meet us as soon as we entered the city limits. It was a cool 60 degrees when we arrived, which was a welcome change from the 100-plus degree heat we had in LA. We took an hour break before heading out for dinner and fireworks.

We had burritos in the Mission district, in a place called Pancho Villa’s. I had the prawn and steak burrito with black bean paste, which I recommend. Afterwards we walked to Dolores Park to see fireworks. We waited for an hour for some kind of fireworks to appear – we did see a few in the distance, ones that made it through the fog – and when none appeared above the park, we asked one of the many SF policemen there when the fireworks would begin. Apparently, fireworks were not scheduled to go off at the park but there was a heavy police presence due to a man losing his nose and a girl losing her finger to illegal fireworks at the park last year. There weren’t any “incidents” at the park this year save for people lighting sparklers and/or being asked to leave because they were drunk. We left at 10 pm, as SFPD was closing down Dolores Park.

(Click here for more pictures)