San Francisco

The infamous Grey Bridge :-),,,,now tell me you wouldnt have gotten confused also.....!!
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Day one:

After a long flight, we finally got here......We left Brisbane on the 15th of June at 12.35pm and got into San Francisco at midday on the 15th. We were in transit just over 16 hours....

The flight was long and uncomfortable. Jake ended up using the spare seat next to us to lay down most of the flight, so either his head or his legs were in my lap most of the time which made is pretty impossible for me to sleep...Once we arrived we made our way to downtown San Fran via the Bart train. Pretty painless and easy. We got off at Powell station (cable car turnaround) and made our way up the hill,,, and I mean "Hill" to our hostel.... We are staying at the Amsterdam Hostel. Its a very real backpackers, not many luxuries here but there is free breakfast, free internet and a comfy bed for $22 USD per night per person so I am not complaining... Jake and I missed out on our booked room and have ended up in a mixed dorm.....This is the first for me and I am the only girl in our room.....We are bunking in with 4 others, 3 from the UK, one from Germany. The British guys are great and each night we have chatted well past midnight.

The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge
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Day one: We just basically found our way around our local area, and spent a few hours in "Westfield" San Francisco.... Lots of people watching to do here... My first day here and I was approached my a African/American women who's opening statement was, "My bitch ass mother kicked me to the curb".........Jake was highly amused and all I could say was.... lets just keep walking Jake :-)

Day Two:

We got an early start to our touring day and headed off towards the bay at 8am. We walked from Union Square area through the financial district and came out at the bay area.....It was very cold today, around 13 degrees and the wind was icy and blowing at a fair pace. We had an amusing start to our day,,, when we got to the bay we found this almighty bridge,,,, now I was just thinking this must be the Golden Gate bridge,,, but its grey????? Jake piped up and commented saying..."Hey mum, check out the bridge,, it changes colour"??? What ,,, no it doesnt,,, I couldnt quite figure out why the Americans painted the Golden Gate Bridge grey,,,,, I was rather annoyed thinking I was ripped off and that I had come all this way to see a bridge that is no longer red but now a boring grey.... thank goodness I didnt ask anyone about the "Grey" issue,, after checking out a local map it seems we were no where near the Golden Gate Bridge but were on the opposite side of the bay at "The Bay Bridge" hmmmm... Well anyway,, if you ever get here,, the two are very similar however one is bright red and the other is grey....:-)

Fishermans Wharf
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We walked all the way around to Pier 39..(tourist trap) and continued to Fisherman’s Wharf....The city was overcast, freezing and the bay was heavy in fog so it wasnt the best day to be near the water so I am going to go down for a second look tomorrow to see if it all looks better in sunshine.....

From there we walked up to the "Coit Tower",,,, By the time I got up all the steps, my lungs were hurting and my legs were jelly..... The tower is an historic part of the city with views to die for and beautiful hand painted murals.... worth seeing, unfortunately the views were limited due to heavy fog so we couldnt see much from the top of the tower,,, but what we could see was pretty....

Cable Car Turn Around - This is a tourist tram
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We then hiked it up to Lomard Street to see the "Crooked Street" that was cool but the walking was not....This city is very hilly and you cant walk anywhere without having to take on a major hill or two and if I was to spend anymore time here in this city I would come home with legs and buns of steel....seriously!!!

After all that walking we treated ourselves to a cable car ride back to Powell street. Ahhh bliss!!

And at the end of day two we still havent seen the Golden Gate bridge!!! I am starting to think I am the only person in this city that cant find this bridge.....The British boys just laugh at me saying they dont know how I am missing it...........I am sure its all the fog boys :-)

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Day Three: My calves and butt muscles are on fire,,,, Its official,,, I am in muscle hell... No personal trainer has ever made my body ache like its achin today... Getting past that thought,,, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day....it was perfect weather,, not hot but not cold and NO FOG!!!! We just couldnt walk anymore today so we found a local bus and for two bucks, the two of us were driven down to the bay. I have changed my mind about fisherman’s wharf and its a much better place to visit with sunshine and warmth.......We slept in this morning till past 10 am so by the time we got started we were not down to the bay until closer to lunch time. We had planned on hiring bikes and cycling our way around to the Golden Gate Bridge and over to Sausalito and then back again but we were running out of time because our Alcatraz tour was at 4.00pm....We found a taxi driver and he became our driver for the next few hours. First stop was at the Golden Gate Bridge....Yay I finally found it,,, :-) How can I not have seen this thing,,, its massive, much bigger than I had expected and quite a sight. A few pictures later and a little walk around we headed off to the other side of the bridge to get views of the city. Even though there was no fog, it was rather hazy and none of my pictures were very clear but it was still nice to be sitting down and just taking in the view of the city and the view of the "RED" Golden Gate Bridge :-) ........Next stop was Sausalito........Quite a nice place, a little touch of Europe, loads of boutique shops and expensive houses, worth the drive and the views of the bay around this town are very beautiful. From there we headed back to Fishermans Wharf and for all for just 65 USD. It actually worked out better than hiring the bikes....My poor muscles would not have coped at all...

See how foggy it was,,, not much to see from up here
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At 4 pm we hoped on our tour boat and headed over to Alcatraz. The boat ride was only about 10 mins and the views of the city heading over were much better and alot clearer......Alcatraz was a lot better than I had expected....You get a self guided audio tour when you arrive.......The tour took about an hour and a half and I was totally captivated the whole time. This tour has been the highlight of San Francisco for me.... This is a must do!!

Tomorrow we pick up our hire car and head towards the Grand Canyon.... Must get to bed early as the drive is expected to take over 12 hours.