Pain at the pump: Gas costs nearly $10 a gallon at this California station

Each week, the price of gas across the country – but especially in California – gets impossibly higher.

Just before Memorial Day, the Chevron on Alameda de las Pulgas in Menlo Park hit $7.25 a gallon.

Then, this week, one Chevron in Los Angeles was selling gas for more than $8 a gallon. 

And now, we've spotted gasoline costing $9.50 a gallon at a gas station in Mendocino, along the northern California coast not too far from Fort Bragg. 

These prices are well over the average price of gas in the Golden State, which last weekend surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time ever, according to the AAA. This is an all-time high for the state.

Breaking it down by cities, on Friday, the average price in Oakland is $6.37 a gallon, San Jose is $6.38 a gallon and San Francisco is $6.50 a gallon. 

The prices are curbing drivers' plans. 

Laura Dena and her sons would have typically go to Southern California around Memorial Day weekend to escape Arizona’s scorching heat. But this year, because it takes at least $100 to fill up her truck, they stayed home. 

"It’s really frustrating," Dena said. "It’s upsetting, but there’s not much we can do. We have to pay the price."

Compare California's pain at the pump to other states: The national average is nearly $4.76 a gallon. 

While that's less expensive than California, that price is also a record.

"The price of gas is ridiculous," said Joel Baxter, a nurse, who was filling up his car at a BP station in Brooklyn, New York, so that he could commute 26 miles  to work. "The money, your salary, is practically the same, and everything is going up, so they should do something about it."

The high price of oil is the main cause of the biting gasoline prices, largely because many buyers are refusing to purchase Russian oil because of its invasion of Ukraine. 

The European Union is considering an embargo on oil from Russia, which is a major supplier. Those pressures leave less oil to go around.

For more fuel saving tips click here.

KTVU'S Roberta Gonzalez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.