San Francisco
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2008
1
16
22
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
San Francisco,
California,
United States
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday 15th December
Well I'm back in California! Although you've got to realise how huge this state is... it's bigger than the UK and I'm still roughly 300 miles away from Lake Forest... but I'll be back there ina couple of days.
Yesterday was such a looooong day. I had to get my bus out of Vancouver at 8am, so when I left my hotel it was still dark... and it was snowing! Thick snow lining the ground, flakes still falling down... normally I hate snow as it's a pain to walk and drive in, but being near Christmas it felt so festive, especially after spending the last month in the sunshine among palm trees.
The bus was scheduled to take 4 and a half hours to get back to Seattle but it arrived an hour early as the border control went very quickly. Although the Canidian officials had asked loads of questions on my way in, the US officials were really nice and friendly and let me straight through.Once in Seattle, I had a few hours to kill so I walked around chinatown (treading carefully so I didn't slip in what was left of the snow!) and had some lunch and some green tea, before heading to the airport. I took some photos of the snowy streets, including one of a snow covered I-5 freeway... the I-5 runs the length of the West coast from San Diego all the way to the Canadian border, I drive it with Paul all the time through Orange County so it was weird seeing it covered in snow rather than lined with palm trees.
I got through the airport security quickly and had a while to wait so I read some magazines and got more green tea, then discovered flinghts were being delayed due to bad weather and mine was an hour late. The actually flight went pretty well - I flew with Virgin America and they had good onboard entertainment as well as an interactive Google map showing you were you were flying. It was gone 11pm by the time I landed at San Francisco airport. I got my luggage pretty fast then went out to the rainy street to get a cab. I checked into my hotel and went to bed feeling exhausted form a long day travelling!
This morning I went out to blue skies and a much milder temperature than it had been in Seattle and Vancouver... I felt glad to be back in California! I walked up Lombard St where my hotel is located, towards Fishermans Wharf. Lomabrd St is known for being very hilly, so by the time I got to the seafront I was exhausted from climbing up and down so many hills! Fishermans Wharf is a seafront area with lots of little shops, cafes, seafood restaurants and boats lining the front. I took pictures and admired the view of the Bay. I then walked along to the piers, looking in lots of gifts shops and eating some lunch. Just off the pier there is a platform where local sea-lions congregate, you can hear then barking away from the pier, they are sooo cute!
I then got a travelpass and got in one of the famous cablecars to go downtown. They are sooo cool... you sit sideways almost hanging out of the cabin (there's no doors!) or if you hop on halfway you can stand on the ledge hanging on to the side... it looked scary! A grip man stands in the middle of the cablecar operating the grips that make the car stop and go, they have to have strong arms for that job as it's all manualy done.
I hopped off the cablecar at Union Square where there are tonnes of shops. I've just been in good old Forever 21 to get some new jeans and about to go in Vicoria's Secret and Borders which are both close by, then I think a trip to Starbucks is needed as this shopping and sightseeing it thirsty work! It's has rained off and on a couple of times but it's pretty mild and sunny otherwise. I have all day tomorrow to continue to explore, then Wednesday afternoon I head back to Orange County in time for the build up to Christmas... not long now!
