We had such an amazing holiday and saw some of the countries most wonderful places, I will try to keep going with a litte every few days, but I have said that before so you know not to hold your breath. Enjoy!!
Day 1 - Arrival in San Francisco....YEAH!
W our adventurous one badly wanted to have a go at this trampoline, he LOVED it and managed to do a few back flips too. J was in a skirt so declined, M was flipped out by the flips, so also declined.
Wondering around the Warf area and Pier 39 on our first Afternoon. SF is 3 hours behind NY, so at 3pm we were all really hungry, I think we managed to get to 4.30 before we went to dinner and managed to stay up until about 8pm, funny how 3 hours time difference can effect you, it took us a few days to get used to it.
Bay Bridge
Why a big noodle...I should ask, really when one can do a tour of Australia from big thing to big thing....why not a big noodle.
First views of SF on our walk around.
Children on Pier 39 - crab and carosel
Pier 39 - Most visited place in San Francisco, a bit touristy, but quite nice.
Dinner at Buba Gumps. These restaurants are all over the place here but we have never been to one, trying to avoid chains when possible but this time we decided to give it a go. The food was actually pretty good and everyone found something they liked. The number of really BIG people in the restaurant is always a bit off putting at these feed lot places but they put us in the corner with windows on two sides and we had a nice view of the bay.
The funnest part about Bubba Gump's is that they have a sign on the table it says "Run Forrest Run" and when you want the waiter to stop at your table you flip the sigh over and it says "Stop Forrest Stop". The other fun thing is they do a bit of Forrest Gump Trivia when they take your order, good to see how much we remembered, or noticed, of the movie.
Day Two - Bus Tour One - The Streets of San Francisco - Down Town
We took the first tour of the morning on out first full day in SF. It was pretty cold straight up but the sun was shining and it was quite pleasant later on. SF is a lovely city and we were all really impressed, it is not very big in comparison to other US cities so you can see a good bit of it is a short time. As usual the guides on the bus tour where fabulous.
Just recently after being inspired by this tour D and I watched Milk, it is always nice to see a movie of a place you have been too. It was a pretty good story too and Sean Penn is an amazing actor. Any way, we saw the building where Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone were assasinated by Dan White. In hindsight I wish I had seen the movie first and then actively saught out the Castro and his camera shop. He was quite a man. Yet one more who we 'met' during this adventure who changed the world in some way....one man!
The very famous Lonbard street, originally streets like this were made in SF becasue it was so steep.
THE Hotel California, that the Eagles Sing about - pretty cool. We also passed the Dock, where Dock on the Bay was written....'sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the world roll away....super cool.
Bus Tour Two - Golden Gate Bridge - Sausalito - Alcatraz
Our second Bus tour took us across the Golden Gate Bridge to the little town of Sausalito on the other side, it was very cold and the famous SF Fog which began rolling in the previous afternoon was well and truely in place as we crossed the bridge. Of course it is ironic that the bus trip coincided with the Fog but we try to look at the positive side. Imagine going all the way to SF and NOT seeing the fog, what a dissapointment that would have been, really.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in the FOG
Sausalito - very nice little town.
The famous SF fog from another angle- the Sausalito side of the GG Bridge
GUM TREES! Can you belive it, felt like we were home for a second and the smell!! amazing. Gum trees were the last thing we expected to see here.
Alcatraz Tour
A highlight of our time in SF was the boat trip out to Alcatraz Island and tour of the prison. It is quite a place. Aparently no one ever managed to escape, many tried and some were never seen again. They believe the fellows who did get off the island prbably perished in the waters between the island and the mainland - tides,cold cold water and sharks (so they say) add to the excitement of the Alcatraz swim. I expect the prisoners were not particularly skilled swimmers in any event.
Showers
'Q' Store
Our Darlings...did not manage to leave them behind in one of the cells.
Cells
Wax Guard and still no one ever escaped!!
Guard tower, SF and the Fog Rolling in.
San Francisco skyline
Golden Gate Bridge
Day 3 4th September - Bus Tour Three - China Town - walking around
Today we completed the last of our planned bus tours,if only we had another day to actually enjoy the sights we covered during this tour, but alas not and we had fully planned our last day already. It was really cold heading out in the bus this AM, of course the best place to be really is on the top.
Peace Plaza - gift from Japan
Japanese Tea Gardens
Botanical Garden
SF is full of these lovely victorian houses, they are all the same and were mass produced in factories and assembled on site. Many of them are painted beautifully - they are nicknamed 'The Painted Ladies'. Check out the last photo of houses, recognise it?
Yep, it is from the TV show Full House - when Mary Kate and Ashley were just tiny babies.
China Town.
I was really excited to visit China Town SF. The third US China town we have been too, I think it is the oldest and a reasonable size, though not as big as NYC much bigger than DC. I had planned a little walking tour which took us to a fortune cookie factory, an apothocary, some famous streets (Waverly place from 'The Joy Luck Club') a restaurant for lunch and a play ground for a play and a little sit down for D and Me.
The Gate
Fortune Cookie Factory
Street views.
We thought this was a funny name for a business....
A bit of wakling around.
There was this really cool huge fountain across the road from the ferry building, we had walked back towards the warf area from China town and found a market (lots of trickets way to expensive for we savy locals!!) and this fountain.
M finally decided he would have a go on the Trampoline afterall, he loved it but did not atempt a back flip like W had.
Time at the pool - I am not sure how many times the children went to the Pool in SF, probably at least 3 times. For D and I it was way too cold for swimming despite the heated water. So, we rugged up and sat hunched in the wind whilst they played.
Day 4 5th September - Transport/boats and walking around.
Cable Car Ride. The trick is to get to the begining of the line early in the morning, take the cable car as far as you can go and then either wait in line for two hours to go back, or walk!! We choose to walk, not enough time to be staning inlines for hours. On the way back towards the warf area we caught an electric bus. So, by now we had used almost all forms of transport available in SF.
It was very fun and a little exciting for the 'standees' when we passed another Cable Car traveling in the oposite direction.
We visited a WWII Liberty Ship and the USS Pompatino (I think - check the photos) which was a sub moored next door. Subs are always fun to explore and imagine living in such cramped accommodations for months at a time. The libery ship has an iteresting story, they managed to build them realy fast - in 30 days which is amazing beacsue they are pretty big. The idea was to build them quicker than the UBoats could sink them, they lost lots of them, but of course they did manage to get many through to England due to the numbers.
One more form of transport to test out. The Street Cars or for us Tram's. They have trams from all over the world, Italy, Germany, New Orleans and Melbourne.
This is the Melbourne Tram, aparently it is one of the most difficult to drive...of course!!
Day 5 6th September - Leaving SF for Yosemite NP.
Some views out of the city...we drove across The Bay Bridge - huge.
Row upon Row of houses.
Our lunch stop - where we saw some green grass - was at the Cowboy Museum in Oakdale California. It was fortuitous that the Museum was open...they had a loo!!
My favourite thing about the stop is W's journal entry for the day:
"We drove to Yosemity. We stopped at the cowboy museum. I thru up."
In actual fact he threw up about an hour out of SF (1 hour into 3 weeks of driving) and it made quite a mess and a stink in the car which we spent some time on the side of the road trying to clear up and then scrutinised avery servo in the town for items to remove such matter and it aroma.
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