Day 9: The Road to San Francisco

Well we left back onto the coastal road to San Francisco after a really rather uninspiring breakfast (which to be fair was included in the cheap overnight price).
We did not get far before our first stop, at the local Elephant Seal viewing area. Aside from a multitude of these large animals there were a huge amount of over fed squirrels, quite a few ravens, pelicans and various other birds similar to yesterday's. And to top it all off, out in the Pacific Ocean there were whales spouting!
A long drive followed until we stopped for lunch at a very nice roadside Cafe: The Coast Gallery.
Following this we once again drove further up the rugged but very picturesque coast for a long period of time.
Further up we spotted a National park that claimed to have Sea-Otters, but unfortunately a walk to the mentioned beach proved to only hold divers and kelp, so we hopped back on the road again.
Finally, we could almost see San Francisco, but unfortunately we also found rush hour and so spent an awfully long time stuck in that (luckily there were still interesting views out the windows - Including strawberry pickers - and plenty of good books to read in the car.
Upon finally arriving in the city itself we became utterly perplexed with the one way streets of the city center and went round the block a few times before finding our motel. The motel manager suggested we just forget about driving while we were here, and we found that advice sensible.
Finding ourselves with a little spare time on our hands, we set off downtown for dinner and of course another famous bookshop: City Lights Bookshop, where strangely enough we bought some more books! For dinner we found a terrific Vietnamese Restaurant, better priced than the American equivalent and considerably nicer.
After dinner we walked through the world famous China Town of San Francisco, finding all manner of interesting shops.
By the time we had found our way to the end of this area however night had fallen and so we spent a little time lost walking back to the motel in the dark.
It was great to get some activities out of the way though as it appears our only full day in San Francisco will be busy: tomorrow.