The Ascent of Slackers Hill

Having had a week in the Yosemite Valley, today was a real change of scene as we became full on tourists! It started off with a splendid brunch in the funky little town of Mountain View. There didn't seem to be much of a mountain view, but to be honest we were more interested in the mountain of eggs, bacon, syrup and hash browns that we were presented  with! It was both delicious and well recieved after a week of camp life in the valley. Then to wash it down, stopped off for a frappachino on the way to the next stop on our Silicon Valley/San Fran tour. 

We were heading to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but first we stopped off to check out the Google offices. There were loads of Google bikes on every corner (brightly coloured and free to borrow) and the offices looked super modern. We span past Pinterest, then joined the traffic on the way to San Francisco and eventually 'the bridge'.

We parked up underneath to get a view of the city and the bridges. It really is pretty impressively big. 

Then to get a better view, Jonathon suggested that we hike a trail up one of the nearby hills. Having been active all week, we were in 'rest day' tourist mode, so though it appropriate that we should only hike the shortest possible trail up the aptly name 'Slacker's Hill'! This turned out to be a great idea. Near the bridge there were hundreds of tourists all crowding to get photos - we drove half a mile further, parked up, then walked about 20 minutes to the top of Slacker's Hill. Here there were only a couple of other walkers and the most fantastic and far reaching views of the bay and all the way down the coast.

The viewpoint was unique in that there were so many contrasting views. In one direction you had the city skyscraper skyline; then the island of Alcatraz; then the bridge; then behind us was the coast with undeveloped rolling green hills with an almost wilderness feel.

Later that afternoon, we drive down the coast to Pacifica to see Anna's new 'beach house'. It's got amazing views and is one bay north of the famous 'Mavericks' surf spot. Before heading home, we also got to test out their new local surf spot cafe, which is only a minute drive from the beach house and serves up good burgers!