The second part of the journey was California. Cousin Barry lives in San Francisco, and cousin Lisa lives south of The City, in Salinas. Unbeknownst to the girls, we headed for San Fran. Leisa, Brittany, and I spent several days there in 2003, and wanted to touch base there for a few hours on this trip. The atlas wasn't very detailed, and we had a scary excursion through the ghetto of Richmond, before we got back on the highway to cross The Bridge. Sarah phoned home: "I'm on the Golden Gate Bridge." After crossing The Bridge, I drove around The City for a few minutes before we went back to the observation point for a few [still set for tungsten light] photos.

It's been a while since they've eaten. Cousin Barry is waiting to hit the deli and procure sandwiches and other foodstuffs. They don't care about having their picture taken. They want food, hence the "get this over with" faces.

We ended up down at the Embarcadero, at the Maritime Park. As I was waiting for Barry, a lady and her dog wandered by. Sparky! introduced himself.

The lady was weird, and just kept hanging around talking, first to me, then to Leisa. Fortunately, Barry arrived with food and we excused ourselves. After eating fabulous sandwiches, we headed down the coast to Marina. Barry picked up Lisa, and dropped by crapshack 3, our first Motel 6 of the trip, which was actually a very nice motel, just a block from the beach in Marina. We wandered in to Monterey to have dinner, only to find by the time we got there that everything was closed. Barry began working the phone, and found a nearby English restaurant that was still serving. We bopped in there and had a very nice dinner with a couple of bottles of very nice wine.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get two nights in the motel in Marina, so we retired to our room after dinner, with visions of Salinas dancing in our heads.