San Jose, CA to San Francisco, CA

Sunday, January 18, 2008

Not a huge travel day today - 100 miles or so.

Left San Jose and arrived in San Fran around lunch time.

On the way we passed a big jetty full of sea lions.  Yesterday the elephant seals on the beach and this morning the sea lions... just awesome.  We got out of the RV and took some pics and marvelled for a bit.  What a great thing to see - hundreds of sea lions in their natural habitat.. what a noise they made.. and what a smell!

When we arrived at the RV park we just chilled for a few hours and then we grabbed the shuttle late afternoon and headed into downtown for a stroll around the city centre and dinner.

Dinner was  great little italian restaurant with a wacky irish waiter.  The city was bustling tonight - it's a public holiday tomorrow so everyone was out and about.  Shuttle came to pick us up around 9pm and we headed back to the RV.  Tomorrow we're doing Alcatraz and a city tour which should be great!

Monday, January 19, 2009 - Martin Luther King Day.

Caught a cab to Pier 33 and collected our Alcatraz tickets for our 1030 tour and then headed down to Taylor street to collect our tickets for the city tour.

Had breakfast at a place called Darren's cafe and had a divine breakfast.. the first breakfast we've really enjoyed!

Greg got a ham, cheese and tomato toasted sandwich - they were blown away by that combination.. the adding of tomato.. go figure !

Hopped on the ferry over to the rock and explored Alcatraz for a few hours. Man those cells were small.  This was a real punishment prison, not like the unit management system they have set up for the current prisoners.

An incredible place to walk through.  The views from the rock to San Francisco would have been a constant reminder of what these prisoners were missing during their term.

http://alcatrazcruises.com/

We left the island and got picked up by a tour bus and did a 3 hour tour of the city.  We thought it would be the easiest way to see the city in a condensed trip rather than do it ourselves.. parking the RV isn't always easy.

The tour was great. The driver and guide was really informative.

We went to City Hall (where Joe Dimaggio married Marilyn Monroe) and we went to the Golden Gate Park (in my opinion, more beautiful than Central Park in NYC), we drove the twin peaks (the most beautiful view of San Fran) and of course the (not) Golden Gate Bridge.  We saw the pink ladies (the half a dozen houses used in the opening credits for the sitcom 'Full House') and the street of Mrs Doubtfire, saw the high school Joe Dimaggion went to.. (OJ Simpson also went there.. we saw the basketball courts)  OJ played basketball and gridiron for the high school.

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and then back again.. apparently there's an average of 2 suicides per month off that bridge... Jumping off the bridge is said to be like jumping onto hard concrete.  Scary stuff !

The show finished around 5ish and we wandered Fishermans Wharf and did some shopping.  Bought a new suitcase. (We've got to get serious about packing.. this time next week, we'll be in Hawaii on our way home)/

Had dinner at Hard Rock on Fishermans Wharf, wandered down Pier 39, grabbed a cab and made him drive down Lombard Street and then back to the RV.

http://www.sftravel.com/lomabardcrookedstreet.html

We got back around 9ish.. I did some laundry, we all had showers and were asleep by 11pm or so.  Tomorrow, Yosemite to check out some tall trees !