We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco!
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2008
1
44
48
Trip End
May 04, 2008
San Francisco,
California,
United States
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
So Fiji is over - we had a wicked time lazing in the sun, lazing in hammocks, lazing in the sun, lazing....etc etc, but we are now in the land of fast food, shopping & celebrities.......USA!
Tuesday 15th April
So up early to check out of our dorm at Beachcomber & had planned to relax on the beach for a few hours before catching our boat back to the Mainland. However, as always things didn't work out like that.......ended up spending 4 hours fighting at Reception because they charged our bill twice!! Ahhhhh......we were ready to scream!! And of course, Fiji Time meant that they were not concerned at all!
San Fran
! We ended up just making it to the boat in the nick of time! So our last memories of island life are not that relaxing....but we won't let it spoil our memories of Heavenly Fiji life!So today was travelling day - totalled it up and it's going to be 24 hours before we get settled in San Fran!!! So it's not all fun and games for us!
Jumped on 10 hour flight to LA - and with the whole time difference we get to relive the 15th April twice - Groundhog day!! Luckily for us we slept on and off through most of the flight so it passed quickly enough. So we had to go through the whole carry on of American customs and security before more waiting, queuing and then boarding our other flight to San Franciso.........think we will be sick of planes by the time this trip finished!! Landed in the beautiful city of San Fran late in the afternoon, checked into our hostel and grabbed a bite to eat, before calling an end to our very long day!! Boy is it a change after Fiji - it's cold!!! So jeans and jumpers from now on!
Wednesday 16th April
First of all San Francisco is a great city with a great vibe, kind of boho hippy and downright weird feel to it with wonderful, downright weird, laid back stylish people. Well today we decided to pound the sidewalks (how American of us) of this city and check out what it had to offer. By the end of the day our feet and calves were definitely feeling it!
Well, getting to the main shopping district we were like 2 kiddies in a sweet shop & quickly found ourselves going slighly over budget in the excitiment of seeing shops again!
Cable Car U turn
! (Do you know how long it has been since we bought clothes?? Feels like years.......so don't judge us!! ha ha) Deciding we had better see some other sights apart from the inside of clothes shops we ventured down to Union Square (which has all the posh shops we cant afford...yet!!). We got stopped by the 'Fun Police' on the way for not smiling enough......very cute! Basically they work for a charity & its a great way to stop & explain their work for the homeless.........& there are some amount of homeless people in San Fran. Every street corner & area, quite sad to see them lying in cardboard boxes.
Some of the residents here seem like complete loonies!! The one that made us laugh the most was this 70 year old granny in a electric wheelchair - dressed in wacky clothes with a flourescent green hairband on, flying past us yelling 'Lets fly charlie, Lets fly!!' (She was on her own! But what a sight!)
So dragging out tired legs home (we are still on Fiji time!) we stopped off for dinner & drinks & to admire our lovely new clothes!! (Don't know how we are going to fit them in our suitcases!)
Thursday 17th April
Today we hopped on a bus & decided to visit The Golden Gate Bridge, when we eventually got there, after a few wrong bus journeys, we stood for ages wondering where the feck it was
Have a heart...
! The fog was that thick there was no chance of seeing the magnifent bridge! Lucky us....lol. We did however bail out of actually walking across the whole bridge, as it was 2miles and we had a lot planned for today!! Next up we visited the Alcatraz Prison on the Rock which you have to get the ferry over to. Our tour started with some history and tales of escape attempts, before we climbed the hill to the prison grounds. We were each given headsets through which a commentary from an ex-warden and several prisoners describing the different areas of the jail and some of the things that went down there complete with sound effects. It was pretty cool & definately worth the visit!
From there we walked back down to the waterfront to explore Fisherman's Wharf and find some of the "locals" that lived there that we had heard about. Pier 39 is home to a family of sea lions that have lived there for a number of years and become a tourist attraction in their right. (Although they stink!)
We jumped on one of the famous cable cars to get a last view of the city - & boy is it hilly!! If we were here a few more days we would be so fit, but luckily for us our walking was very limited thanks to the great transport
Cable girl
!So that was our hectic sightseeing day nearly over - stopped in at an Irish Pub (don't like to break with tradition) & spent a few more dollars (we still amazed at how therapeutic it is to shop!) before packing up yet again & tomorrow we hit the skies again to go to LA to stay with Sherry!
We have loved San Fran - although stay away from the Tenderloin area (we accidently walked into this area, and it's the most dangerous area in the city according to our taxi driver!!)
Hugs & Kisses
J & L (loving the luxury of US!)
xoxo
Comments
Miss you girls
When I got home from Vegas the house was so empty without you two here. I hope you are enjoying New York. I talked to May and Robert and they said it was raining, so I hope it has stopped raining by now and you are enjoying yourself....See you in August.