Pacifica to Novato

Jill's Journal: Our time in Pacifica has been lovely – it’s a cute area literally 10-15 minutes from downtown San Francisco – but today was time to move. We’re not totally leaving the area yet, but we did head north of the city instead of south of it. Our new “home” is in Novato, about 20 miles above San Francisco. There are quite a few really interesting things to see north of the city, so we’re excited to be here. The RV sites here are still quite petite, but not nearly as tight as in Pacifica. Thank goodness. I don’t think anything could be quite as tight as Pacifica.

The downside to our move? We’re no longer on the ocean. The upside? There’s sunshine, glorious sunshine! In Pacifica, it’s so foggy the power lines sometimes drip like it’s raining. The temperature went up by about 15 degrees just by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge to the other side. Between the fog and the claustrophobic quarters in Pacifica, a week was plenty of time. It feels great to be above the city.

We do have one more day we’re planning to spend in San Francisco, so that will come soon. Surprisingly, we have found San Francisco to be the most difficult of the big cities for us so far on this trip. Between the ridiculous scarcity of parking, the very steep streets which make walking with little ones almost impossible, and the absolute mobs of people, we have found San Francisco to be incredibly non-family-friendly, at least for our kids’ ages (babies we could carry would be fine; older kids would probably also be fine). There’s a ton to see here, of course, and a lot of cultural opportunities for families who live here. It’s a wonderful city and we’ve had a great time, but it will be somewhat of a relief when this area is behind us. Novato already feels like a whole different world (in a very good way).