San Francisco from the car: Goodwill stores, wind at the fort, and the Golden Gate Bridge

In June 2017 we were driving to San Francisco, checking out all sorts of cheap stores along the way, and passed lots of Goodwill stores. They are something like thrift shops, except they sell everything there: clothes, home appliances, dishes, electronics, and even furniture.

We had left our mugs back in Los Angeles, so we bought a travel mug at Goodwill — $2 in 2017, while in regular stores one like it cost from $10. We also picked up a cute cooker there: a ceramic pot that sits in an electric base. Something like a small slow cooker, only without any settings.

We stopped for the night in the car, at a rest area twenty minutes from San Francisco.

A city on hills

The first city views — small, colorful houses that look like dollhouses. San Francisco stands on hills, so its streets are hilly: you drive down, then up.

We also saw Lombard Street. Its block with eight sharp turns is called the crookedest street in the world. And then came downtown.

The fort under the bridge

The symbol of San Francisco is the famous red Golden Gate Bridge. And far off in the bay you can see Alcatraz: from 1934 to 1963 there was a federal prison on this island.

Right under the bridge stands Fort Point. It was built to defend the bay shortly before the Civil War: construction began in 1853, and the first cannon was mounted in the fort in 1861. Today it is a museum. For some reason we never took a picture of the fort from the outside.

But from the fort you can see the bridge — from below.

The sun was shining brightly, but a strong, cold wind was blowing. At the fort it was simply terrible: we could barely stay on our feet.

There is a pier there too: lots of people fishing on it, and seagulls circling above them. In the evening we went back to the same rest area where we had spent the previous night.

Across the Golden Gate

The next day we headed to Lake Tahoe — through San Francisco and Sacramento — and finally drove across the bridge itself.

Further on, the road ran past the vineyards of Napa Valley.

Sacramento turned out to be a nice, small, very green and cozy city. In the evening we sat in a Burger King in Woodland, not far from Sacramento, until they kicked us out: it was time for them to close. We didn't go to the lake that evening — it was already late and we hadn't found a place to stay, so we spent the night at a rest area near Sacramento.

Pavel wrote back then that traveling by car is great: the States are simply made for cars, it's more comfortable and safer than on a scooter, and you can sleep in it too.