Sunny San Francisco

San Diego navy band
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We were incredibly lucky again with the days we chose to visit this fabulous city. It was Columbus Day, Fleet week and great weather.

Highlights

• Hundreds of sailors roaming the city all weekend
• Hanging off the side of a traditional old trolley
• Seeing 'The Rock' for real
• Cycling over Golden Gate bridge
• Passing a naked (and I mean completely naked) lady in the streets making what could only be a low budget film

Traditional trolley
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Lowlights

• We were living at the edge of China town and it was very easy to forget that we were in fact in America. It's not a real 'lowlight' and I would definitely recommend the location but when Shawn said to me - "we shouldn't have coffee in Starbucks cause it's not Asian", it was time for a reality check.
• Having to stop at the corner where we saw the naked lady every time we passed it, just so Shawn could double check that there wasn't another one.

Inside Alcatraz
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Details

We were a few hours early for our flight to San Fran as our travel itinerary happened to be incorrect (I now know why you need to confirm your flights 72 hours beforehand). Despite that, Shawn and I were still separated for the flight. Somehow he managed to get the window and the ipod while I caught up on the diary for the 6 hour flight (and sleep).

From when we landed in San Francisco on day 5 we knew it was a great city. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a sunny Saturday or perhaps that it was Fleet week and hundreds of sailors in uniform and the accompaning crowds were roaming the streets, or that the Red Bull international racing show happened to be on that same day ....... anyway no matter what it was the city was incredibly alive.

Cycling The Golden Gate bridge
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We strolled through Chinatown and little Italy and on towards Pier 39. There we caught sight for the first time of Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge and the Pier 39 sea lions. The San Diego Navy band was playing on the boardwalk so we grabbed a coffee and watched for a little while before heading into little Italy for a garlicy seafood meal.

Day 6 - started the day wondering around Union Square. It was a Sunday and the square was filled with artwork on display. Again the sun was shining and it was great to be out. Then we queued up to catch a trolley (cable car) up San Fran's infamous hills. Both of us managed to get a spot hanging off the sides and like typical tourists we had our cameras and camcorders hanging out with us.

The next 4 or so hours we sat along the side of the Bay watching an airshow and tried our first (and possibly last) corndog. From there we wondered through Jackson Square and Portsmouth Square and it was just after that we encountered the naked lady that Shawn has been trying to spot ever since !!

Again we found ourselves in the Italian district for supper and followed in up with coffee and cheesecake (also at an Italian shop).

Monday morning (day 7) we headed to pier 33 to visit Alcatraz. The whole tour, including an introduction from Ranger John, a talk on escape attempts from a volunteer ranger, the audio tour of the cell block and a 15 minute history video were all very good. On our return we hired bicycles and cycled to and across the Golden Gate bridge - all in all probably about a 7 mile cycle. The mist had started to roll in and although it was slightly chilly it was great to see (or not see).

The Chinese supper that we followed in up with was well deserved and well worth it for $6 a head !!! (although not very pretty to look at). We strolled the street for about an hour or so, grabbed a coffee and headed back to the hotel to pack for our drive down Highway 1.

Sorry that we can't add pics at this stage but very few places will actually let us connect a device to the computer to upload them. Hopefully we'll be able to do that soon.