"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard"

Our train journey from Vancouver to San Francisco was supposed to last 24 hours however, due to delays and us nipping to the pub for a pint, 24 hours became a mammoth 40 hours.  You see, with around two hours of the journey left, the PA system on the train announced that, due to a bush fire, we would be further delayed for an hour and a half.  It was suggested that we should get off the train and stretch our legs.  Trying to make the best of a bad situation we decided to take a walk around Sacramento town centre and, funnily enough, ended up in a pub.  Along, apparently, with every other British person on the train!  Exactly one hour later we strolled into the station just in time to watch our train pull off into the sunset with our luggage, passports and train tickets on board.  The manager on duty could not believe that we had left the train station (we decided not to tell him about our trip to the pub) and told us that our decision to leave the train was "the dumbest thing I ever heard" which, coming from an American, was pretty insulting.  He then, in a performance reminiscent of Basil Faulty, put his head in his hands and cried "Why?  Why would you do that?  Why?".  After a few verbal exchanges and us accepting the fact that it was, in fact, quite dumb to leave the station, a mini bus was arranged for us all to try and race the train to the nearest station.  We lost the race but arrived in San Francisco dazed, tired and confused but very happy to be reunited with all of our lugagge.

The following day we met our friends Claire and Mike who'd flown in from Tamworth (via NYC and Yosemete National Park) to see us.  We all headed to Fisherman's Wharf where we were met by dozens of wild sea lions basking in the sun, barking noisily at each other.  Fisherman's Wharf has nearly as many street performers as sea lions including a fire eating man who needed a volunteer to help shove a flaming pole down his throat.  For those of you have seen Charlotte around fire will know of her passion for pyromania and, unsurprisingly she was only too happy to help the performer with his show.  Shortly after the show we bumped into another performer known as 'The Bush Man'.  Now, we can't tell you what the Bush Man does just in case you ever visit San Francisco but he managed to make Charlotte scream, and Claire jump off the curb into the road. 

Claire and Mike kindly treated us to some tickets to Alcatraz, the most notorious prison in the USA.  After a rather windy ferry crossing we arrived to find out that, by pure chance, we had turned up on the 72nd anniversary of the opening of 'The Rock'.  We did the usual audio tour of the prioson where Kieren just couldn't resist going into one of the cells and sitting on the toilet.  In addition we got to meet and ask questions to people who experienced daily life on Alcatraz first hand including Darwin Coon, convicted multiple bank robber.  Darwin robbed five banks and escaped from four prisons before getting sent to Alcatraz.  Darwin was surprisingly open and frank about his life of crime and his time in Alcatraz.  He answered every question, even the stupid ones, including Kieren asking him if he had ever shot a gun.  Whilst in Alcatraz he met the infamous Birdman of Alcatraz who was, according to Darwin, 'a crazy anti-social old fart'.  He also played a minor role (supplier) in the only succesful escapes from Alcatraz to have happened.  We also found out that, contrary to popular belief, the tidal currents around Alcatraz did very little to keep the convicts in.  As if to prove the point, over 2000 people swam the bay last year as part of a charity event.

On our way back into town we hauled ourselves up one of the many, many hills in San Francisco to see Lombard Street, 'the world's most crooked street' (unless you count the ones Kieren often walks down after one too many drinks).

We all ventured into Chinatown for a meal one evening.  The streets were lined with food markets, herb shops, temples and restaurants.  Kieren and Mike managed to find a Chinese Restaurant with live chickens in the window, Charlotte and Claire unsurprisingly refused to go in.  We finally found a restaurant that had no livestock in the windows where Kieren and Mike ordered Ants on a Tree.  To their relief (although they wouldn't admit it) they were not quite what it said on the tin.  We'll leave you to try and guess what it was. 

Later on during our visit we took a trip on the famous cable cars and had fun hanging off the side going up and down some of the city's steepest hills.  We hiked through Golden Gate park (where the summer of Love started) and drank tea at the Japanese Tea Gardens (How civilized eh?).  We toured around Haight and Ashbury (the old hippy hang out) where there were loads of very original, funky little shops selling anything and everything.  The neighbourhood definitely had a... cool (I can't believe I just said that) feel to it.

Once Claire and Mike left San Francisco we used our last three days to relax a while and take a tandem bike ride accross San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge.  Tandem bike riding is much harder than it looks, especially when Charlotte conveniently got the giggles going up hill leaving all the hard work to Kieren.  Kieren managed to get his revenge later when he drove Charlotte into the side of the bridge to avoid a collision with another bike. 

San Francisco's been fantastic.  We got to catch up with friends, had plenty to do and the city had a good feel about it.  We would both consider moving here if it wasn't for the fact that it is in America. 

We're off on a road trip to Vegas next; to gamble all of our savings and get married by Elvis.