Economy Inn Concord

... route, so when it arrived it was already getting well up to capacity hence when we climbed aboard instead of a nice seat to browse the view i was given a pole... literally hanging out into the street facing the oncoming traffic. Now as if this is not exhilerating enough, cruising through the streets of San Fran in the cable cars with the wind blowing in your face and trying to not lean out too far as the cars and other trams coming the other way down the hill are just ...

... were here, you would have been in heaven! Then took BART (their equivelant to Metro that pales in comparison) back to her area and went to dinner, then dessert. Corinne, guess where we went??? Yep, Dairy Queen! You were with me in spirit - Jessie got your favorite, Oreo! Today we went for a walk/hike on Mount Diablo. It was nice to get my body moving ...

... or indeed ourselves - could scale it. Luckily there was the easy excuse of needing to stop regularly to take photos of the view emerging behind us. Near the top, we came upon another of San Francisco's familiar spots: the "crookedest street". Another steep section of hill, someone had deemed this too treacherous for cars to descend in a straight line and had instead built a "crooked", winding road that zigzagged all the way down it. We walked down the steps ...

... Picture DVD's, old travel docs etc), thought FedEx would be a fairly cheap alternative only to find A) They couldn't find the address, nearest they had was Salford Manchester - Eh?, and B) They wanted $140 to send a tiny package home!! - Do me a favour. Word of warning, stay away from FedEx, stick with the good old fashioned Post Office, less than a quarter of the price and only took a few days to get home! We also booked flights from LA - Miami and Miami - Quito for the Galapagos trip.

Well, it is almost time for us to leave, just 3 days to go. My bag is packed, Aaron is still in the process. All my stuff is in a backpack that weighs 22lbs... I know its shocking but true (yes, I found a way to fit my straightening iron in there!!). I don't know about Aaron but I am starting to get a ...

... There were some really interesting escape attempts too. From there we joined a guide to hear about some of the infamous inmates, really crazy stories. We watched the sunset behind Golden Gate Bridge and got some great views of San Francisco shoreline after dark. There was another guide telling the story of a successful escape attempt. Three guys made it off the island and were never seen again, most assume they drowned but they may have made it. The guy who masterminded the ...

... dating for a good few months after this trip. This is weird. Please don't ever do this. Dating within your family is wrong. Anyway, he drove us out to his house in his *****in' purple minivan and we relaxed there for the day, we may have gone out for lunch or dinner or something but I can't remember. We stayed at his house that night and in the morning he took us around his hometown. We ventured over to the Fisherman's Wharf area and had breakfast there, saw the wax ...

... the most credit. He also deserves the most thanks for putting up with me, day-in, day-out, during the trip and not only tolerating me, but still remaining friends on good speaking terms. As with all adventures a lot of credit goes to those behind the scenes, family and friends that provided encouragement that fueled enthusiasm. Our adventure was no different, and would not have been possible without the outstanding support on the home front. My wife ...

... to get there about 1:00 in the afternoon and planned to do another blog launch and see if we could get discount tickets to "Stomp", which we did. After getting some internet stuff done (like launching the Paris part of our blog!), we walked down to the Jubilee bridge on the Thames river for a little while and then it was off to the show at 3:00 pm. Stomp was amazing!! 1 1/2 hours of non-stop rhythmic banging on an assortment of body parts, barrels, pans, match boxes, brooms ...

... he's too easily distracted by birds and squirrels, plus he's never mastered hanging on to the steering wheel without opposable thumbs). But seriously, don't all great adventures start this way? I just don't know how I'm gonna tell him that he can't go with me on this trip, he has to stay home and take care of momma. It's going to be strange not sharing my evenings, my food, or my bed with the 85-lb. furball. Slowly buy surely ...