Day 7 in San Francisco

Today we had a pretty uneventful day. We started the day by posting home a heap of stuff that we have bought in the last 2 weeks and also stuff we have realised we don't need. This cost a bucket load even though we picked the slowest shipping option. Maybe we are doing it wrong... We then did laundry and had lunch, and then booked a heap of flights and accommodation for the next few stops.

Feeling as though we should probably make the most of the sunny weather, and that it is our last day in San Fran, we walked down to Union Square and hopped on one of the historic cable cars. We rode it up one of San Fran's many hills and then walked back down and now here I sit, typing this for you.

We are both really tired which is a combination of not getting enough sleep, crappy food, and full on days. So to finish off San Fran, as promised, here are some fun photos of us with our crazy hats!

Day 6 in San Francisco

Yesterday, Tuesday 21st September, we visited Alcatraz. Our ferry boarding time wasn't until 12:40 though so we wandered around Pier 39. Apparently, when we went the other day, we bypassed a massive section of it, the main tourist side. We bought some nifty little hats here which you will see in tomorrows post! And so we fluffed around Pier 39 for a while until boarding time.

Once our tickets were checked, we had to stand in line before boarding the ferry and they take a photo of you with an Alcatraz background. It's a big tourist spin and costs you a bucket load. They photograph everyone and then print the photos and when you come back from the island, your photo will be on the wall if you want to purchase it. What a freaking waste of paper and money. Sure they say they recycle the photos that people don't buy (about 90%) but seriously, why not have it on a screen or something like with the London Eye. And the kicker? The reason they don't sell many is it costs $22 for two 5x7 photos. What a rip-off! Ok, end rant.

Alcatraz

So where was I? The ferry ride over to Alcatraz was really short, only 10 mins or something. Before I came to San Fran I was thinking Alcatraz would be a little further away, not quite as far as Rottnest but certainly not as close as it is. So Alcatraz was cold, sad and creepy. We did the audio tour which was really good and was complete with some chilling sound effects. Such a miserable place (duh Jess, it was a prison!).

The greeting at the wharf

Solitary Confinement rooms

General cells

The view of San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz

Day 5 in San Francisco

Today, Monday 20th Sept, was a busy day. We caught a bus out to Haight-Ashbury to spend some time in hippy-ville but none of the shops were open yet (it was 10:20am). We didn't want to waste time hanging around until they opened so we went on to our next stop of the day with the idea to come back at the end of our days adventures.

From Haight St. we walked down to Golden Gate Park which was 4 blocks away. We spent a little while getting lost (it's not very well sign-posted) before we found the California Academy of Sciences. It is a museum that I would describe as a cross between Scitech and AQUA. They had a planetarium where we saw 'Journey to the Stars' (I happened to fall asleep during this, it was interesting, I just didn't get any sleep the night before due to the noisy street below us and it was dark and comfy and calming!). We also got to see live turtles, penguins, sea life, bugs, a macaw, frogs, a rainforest eco-dome, their 'living' roof and their most famous 'exhibit', Claude, the albino alligator.

Em these are just for you :)

Just when I thought cockroaches couldn't get any worse - Hissing Cockroaches!

So mesmerising!

The rainforest eco-dome

The living roof

Claude

Our next stop was the Japanese Tea Gardens (also inside Golden Gate Park). This was very pretty and tranquil and we got really close to squirrels (Sarah do you remember our excitement in St. James Park with all the squirrels?!).

Since the weather was really good, we decided to jump on another bus and try our luck at the Golden Gate Bridge, where, fingers crossed, there would be no fog. Thankfully the weather held and we got stunning blue sky views of the bridge.

We then caught the bus back to Haight-Ashbury, wandered the main street, bought vegetables for dinner (this is worth mentioning because we have had so much trouble finding veggies, fruit is easy but veggies is so difficult!) and then headed back to the hostel.

Day 4 in San Francisco

Sunday was our designated day of shopping since we are sending a heap of stuff back to Australia before we leave San Fran on Thursday. Because we didn't see any sights, I don't really have any photos to put up or any interesting tales to tell you.

What I can tell you is that Christie and I both bought a Calvin Klein leather jacket. The silly thing is we both bought the same one because we both loved it so much. The exciting thing is that it was originally $400 but we got it reduced down to $250 as they had three day sale on at Macy's.


I also bought two pairs of shoes for $137 (together as they were 25% off).


Yay for bargains and being able to send shopping home!

Day 3 in San Francisco

Sorry about the delay in posts, we have been without internet because the wi-fi at our hostel stuffed up. ANYWAY...

Saturday we figured out how to use the buses and trams here and caught a tram down to Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39. Here we went to the famous Boudin Bakery where they specialise in Sourdough bread. Their lunch specialty is clam chowder inside a hollowed-out sourdough roll, which Christie had. Myself, not liking seafood, had the tomato soup inside a roll instead. So yummy (yes Mum, I actually liked eating soup!).

I swear it tastes so much better than it looks!

We then went and had a look at the sea lions out on the pier who spend their days sunning themselves. It was funny watching them as they were all crowded onto a couple of floats and some of them were pushing the others out of the way.


Alcatraz was also visible from here which is a major improvement from the day before as you couldn't see any of it through the fog. We are really looking forward to going out there on Tuesday.

Yes that is Alcatraz. It is so close to the mainland!

We decided to take a walk around the marina to visit one of the famous Ghiradelli chocolate stores. This chocolate is sooooo tasty, especially their limited edition Halloween flavour, spiced pumpkin and caramel. As the day seemed to have cleared up, we then caught a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge but by the time we got there the fog had set in again so we didn't bother stopping and stayed on the bus to head back to the hostel. Unfortunately, half an hour later it was sunny and without fog again but we couldn't be bothered going back again!


Something I find strange in San Fran: The fire engine sirens here are so pitiful and weak. They sound like they can't be bothered. They really piss us off and it is something we have to hear a lot of because they go past our hostel window at least 6 times a day, and that is only when we are even in the damn room! Either people here are really careless with fire or there are a lot of cats stuck up trees!

Day 2 in San Francisco

Today, Friday, was our first full day in San Fran and we thought we would be highly productive and set out and do a tour on the first day. This turned out to be good and bad. Firstly, many people had warned us about San Fran fog, but we didn't quite understand the nature of this warning until today.

The view from Lombard Street. You can just see the top of Coit Tower on the right.

Our tour started with our guide Elie picking us up and driving us through the different areas of the city. We then went to see Lombard Street which is known as 'The Crookedest Street in the World'. Fun fact, SF actually as another street even worse but this one is prettier! It has a grade of 16% and there are 8 turns in the space of 412 feet. We also had to walk up a few blocks to get to the main part of the street which was a killer introduction to SF hills!

Lombard Street

Now generally there would be a whole heap of other photo stops and little bits I could tell you from the tour but a massive amount of it was disrupted by the fog. Elie said the fog was some of the worst he had seen in the 20 years he has lived in SF and that usually by the afternoon, it clears up, well today it didn't. In fact, it seemed to get thicker. We couldn't see things that were 50ft in front of us. Christie and I didn't even realise we were on the Golden Gate Bridge until Elie told us we were driving over it. Nothing was visible today; Coit tower, the Transamerica building, Alcatraz, the views over the bay, or the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is the view directly out of my bus window on the way to Muir Woods

We were however, able to continue on our tour into Muir Woods to see the Redwood Trees. This was beautiful and while the drive there was covered in fog, once in Muir woods we had clear visibility. Muir woods was beautiful, so peaceful and calming and the trees were massive. our photos can't do it justice. We even got to see a deer!

Can you see me? I'm a bit camouflaged!

A deer!

The next area we were able to see/visit was The Castro, which is San Fran's massive gay community area. There are rainbow flags everywhere and apparently 15% of the SF population is gay. The whole area was so vibrant and cheerful :D

See all the rainbow flags hanging from each building

We then made a quick stop at Haight-Ashbury which is the hippy area and was the centre for 'The Summer of Love' in 1967. Christie and I will go back here later in the week to check out the shops and soak up some of the atmosphere.

The main corner of Haight-Ashbury and the shop on the corner is Ben and Jerry's proudly pronouncing 'Peace, Love and Ice Cream'

Our last notable stop was Alamo Square which is where the 'Painted ladies' can be found. These are a row of seven Victorian homes that can usually be found on postcards and are also well known from Full House. The area itself wasn't all the special and we found far prettier Victorians elsewhere. i guess these are special as they are all in a row but up close, some of them are a little run down (kind of reminded me of the Mona Lisa - not that great up close!)

Alamo Square

The gorgeous Victorian house I found

There were quite a few other areas around SF that we drove through and it was a real pity about the fog. Elie was amazing with his knowledge of all things SF and, had there been no fog, we would have done /seen everything we wanted to in SF. Unfortunately, the weather here is extremely unpredictable so we are going to have to keep trying with some locations. Elie's tour, "Green Dream Tours," I would definitely recommend and it was one of the best I have done during all my travelling over the last few years.

Last Day in Vegas, First Day in San Francisco

Thursday 16th September. This morning we had to say goodbye to Vegas. We did this by visiting the 'Welcome To Las Vegas' sign on the way to the airport.

Unfortunately our flight was delayed, and since travelling already means quite a bit of waiting around in airports, most of our day was lost as we didn't get to our San Fran hostel until after 4pm. Tired and hungry we went across the road to Pearl's Deluxe Burgers and grabbed a yummy, you guessed it, burger. We then booked a tour for Friday and spent the night catching up on emails and blog posts, and also booking accommodation for Vancouver using the free wi-fi in our room (yay!).