San Francisco & Santa Cruz

Down the mountain, through a tunnel and there before us was the brilliant orange of the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove across it then followed our not so great GPS through a bit of a spaghetti junction before eventually finding the vista point for the bridge, which was jammed up with buses and tourists like ourselves.

Finding a park down the road a bit, we took advantage of our bikes on board and went for a wee self guided pedal across the bridge, navigating our way through hundreds of people and fellow cyclists (most of whom struggled at riding slowly and wiggled all over the path in an unpredictable pattern and hence causing slight chaos).

Looking out across San Fran bay, overlooking Alcatras Island, we decided to leave the van where it was and bike into the city instead, following the waterfront the whole way.

There are still strong remnants of the America's Cup, I was hoping that we would be able to see the boats still docked, however they were long gone, with our boat probably sunk to the bottom of the bay.
Getting a taste of the city, grabbing a bite to eat surrounded by English cruise boat passengers, we decided to continue on our journey south to Santa Cruz and try and find some waves.

The Californian sun was delivering a stunner of a day, but we stayed away from the coastal route for the hour long journey as the beach side HWY-1 is quite similar to the back road to Kaiteriteri, and after travelling that path for way too many hours in the days before we just wanted to get to our destination.

Santa Cruz is very much like other surf towns I've been too, like Byron Bay in Australia and Tarifa in Spain, they all have the same feel about them. The amount of surfers in the water was crazy, looking out it looked like a large seal colony playing in the water.
The waves were great and I could feel Kellys excitement building at the thought of getting out there, however with no surfboard or wetsuit handy, plus rolling into town late, it was going to have to wait one more day.
We got chatting to a dude called Matt, who was a local, and filled us in on good places to find a good break to surf, Kelly & Matt exchanged numbers as Matt was gonna go for a surf and he was willing to show us where.

Delighted to come across a gorgeous whippet, the dog I have my heart set on getting some day soon, look at her skinny little face, awwwww......

We then met up with some of Kellys riding buddies, and they rode the last hour of daylight at some dirt jumps.

Both desperate for a shower, to the point where when Kelly asked me 'Do I smell?' my response was 'I just don't know anymore'.
Back to Kellys mate A.T's place, a hot shower awaited us, and delighted with our fresh scents we went out for a mean feed and called it a night.

Surfing was the goal of the following day, there was crazy thick fog though and it was pretty chilly so I wasn't so keen, but we met up with Matt and they headed out, I lost sight of them pretty quick so got myself a coffee and tried to make a plan of how I'm going to take over the world in 2014.
When the boys came back out, the sun was beginning to break through and things started to warm up so my inclination to get out there amongst the seaweed forest was increasing.
After another coffee, I got up the guts to suit up and get amongst it!!

The initial icicles to the ankles turned numb and my focus was now on avoiding touching the gross seaweed and also keeping out of the way of the other seal looking humans out in the ocean.
The amount of wildlife out with us was awesome, there were dolphins, seals, sea-birds & fish, think I was more excited about seeing them pop up than catching waves!

With so many people in the water trying to catch the same waves, and with me being right on the outside it was tough for me to find a wave to have a go at but i'm pleased to say that I caught one and rode it for ages.
Things got really quiet after that bit of excitement, so it wasn't long before I headed back into shore.

4 of the local pro-riders, Cam & Tyler McCaul, R-Dogg & Greg Watts along with Kelly went for a pre-rampage ride on a local DH trail and I got job of shuttle driver, and along with that I unintentionally fell in love with the Toyota Tundra ute I was driving, they just don't make utes this big in NZ and I would love one if the petrol wasn't so expensive back home.
After 5 or 6 runs, we headed back to the ranch, so another hot shower (making the most of the opportunities), and planning our next move for our travels.

Originally we had planned on going to LA, but we are enjoying our time in Santa Cruz, we need to be in the desert by Saturday night, so we might just cruise down to Santa Barbara to see some friends then head straight over.

We're just taking it as it comes now that we are here in Cali, which is fine by me, I'm very much looking forward to getting my heels dug in to Zion National Park in a few days, I only cracked the surface of it last year and there is so much more to explore.
Plus I just got word that Libby is now coming to watch Rampage, so will not only have the wonderful Traharn to hang with but also Libby, and that means conversations and interaction with human beings (bonus being of the female kind) with something other than mountain biking, yussss!!!