If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some fog proof layers

San Francisco baby!!! Got here last night across a Golden Gate Bridge that had a ten foot visibility hahaha. London fog lives here as well. It was sunny in Sausalito and then WA BAM, the clouds rolled in and you'd never know you came from such a sunny place.
Following route 1 all the way down into the city has been an adventure and a half, with steep windy switchback roads that continue around every corner, beaches that have become warm enough to swim in (!!!), beach acrobatics, unique camping spots, way too much coffee, and the formation of a team name- Scuttlebutt. Why we decided on Scuttlebutt, i must admit i can't quite remember. While eating some cheddar goldfish we picked out our identities based on the goldfish names on the box. Lauri = Extreme, Paul = Brooke, Andrea = Finn, and I am Gilbert. Again, a somewhat inexplicable occurrence hahaha.
We've been meeting a lot of really cool people too; bike tourists seem to have people magnets attached to them because we are kind of a curiosity. There are LOADS of bike tourists though, we are certainly not the only ones. Hikers and other vagabonds as well. The Pacific coast is one hoppin highway, for those with cars and without.
So we got put up for free in this really cool hostel in downtown San Francisco, called Pacific Headwinds. They play really good music all the time, Radiohead right now, and it is reminding us how much we missed listening to music haha. They have 36 people staying in a really small area right now but it is alive and buzzing with hungry foreigners who communicate with whoever else speaks their language. Besides the people who work at the hostel and therefore live here, we're pretty much the only Americans. The reason we get to stay in a room for free is because the guy who runs the hostel likes bike touring and put the hostel on the warmshowers website, only it doesn't say it's a hostel, it just says it's where he lives hahaha.
so during the day we'll explore the city and then our friend Marianne will pick us up in the afternoon and take us to her house about 30 miles south, for an outdoor school reunion with her and her husband Marcus, our friends Maya Sean and Allison, and ourselves. We just stayed with Allison in Arcata a week ago but her family lives in this area so we'll get to meet up with her again! I'm really excited for the fiesta that awaits us =0)
Reading two books right now. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard... good if you want to spend a lot of time exploring outside, it will give you lots of kooky ideas and excitement. Off the Map by Mark Jenkins, about a cycling expedition across Siberia that makes our trip seem like a life of absolute luxury.
Signing off for now, hope to talk to y'all soon,
love,
laura