San Francisco

Trip Start Jan 25, 2008
1
9
17
Trip End Jan 25, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of New Zealand  ,
Friday, March 28, 2008

So we arrived in san Francisco at around 8.30pm and were picked up by our next host, Christine at the bus stop. We arrived back at there house and met her husband Ben and kids Alistaire and Tabitha. After the long journey and early start the day before we tried to be sociable as long as possible but had to succumb to the sleep and hit the hay. After a pretty long and good sleep we got up and headed for the golden gate bridge which was only five minutes on the bus from their house. Very big bridge and very red but I still don't get why loads of people flock to see it as it is not much different to the Forth road bridge other than its colour, I did ask Ben and Christine one night why it was such a big thing (hopefully not insulting one of their towns landmarks) and they weren't too sure either? You do get good views out over the bay though so maybe that's why . Anyway after this we got a bus into town a bit and walked along the shore to Fishermans Wharf which is a very touristy part of San Fran and then kept walking along and headed up into financial district A funky fruit sculpture at the De Young
A funky fruit sculpture at the De Young
 . I didn't realise before hand how hilly it was until you start walking up and down them all day and it was a pretty warm day so not the best for trekking around so many hills. After something to eat and more walking around downtown and various other areas like china town and little italy we stopped for a rest and then decided to find a street which we only knew as the crooked street and this wasn't helpful when trying to find it on the map. We eventually asked a guy but as I didn't know the name of it I felt like a total stupid tourist like im sure he thought I was asking him is he new were the "crooked street was?" he was very nice though and informed me its real name is Lombard and showed us it on the map so that ment more walking and we eventually found it·very strange? I had actually seen it before think it was on a postcard in the toilet at home but didn't actually think it was a real street used by cars but it is and its very busy to as loads of tourists drive down it. Anyway we got something to eat at eventually got back to the house, once we got back we were both pretty knackered and once we had told Christine how much we had walked she was pretty shocked and so were we thinking back on it, especially with all the hills!
The next day we had booked a trip to Alcatraz in late morning. This was one of the things I wanted to do before we got to the states and it wasn't a disappointment. The best bit was wandering around the cells and you get an audio tour which has some of the ex-inmates talking to you and the put all these creepy noises in the back round and give you all the old stories of inmates trying to escape and you see were it happened·very cool! Once we got the boat back to the shore it decided to rain, the first time since we had been in the US that we had experienced rain and we got pretty soaked. We found a restaurant anyway and tried to dry off in there and got to have more very good seafood Inside alcatraz
Inside alcatraz
 . After that we decided to get one of the famous cable cars and we ended up in a bad bit of the que so ended up not being at the window or the bits you can stand and sort of hang out which is pretty much why people seem to get on it. So we didn't actually get to do that at first so it just basically a expensive, slow bus but we got a space at the side and it was a lot better. We ended up doing a lot more wandering around to, in san fran it has a lot of homeless people and we seen a guy who had one of the best signs, for a homeless guy anyway, it said "My wifes been kidnapped and I only need 99c to pay the ransom·please help" don't know how it was working out for him though.
The next day the weather was still a bit damp but first thing we headed to an irish pub around the corner to watch the rugby and caught the Ireland, England game and the wales, france game. Also they had a lot of football on to. In the afternoon we went to Golden Gate park which is near there house and its really huge so didn't have time to see it all but went to the museum which was there called the De Young which had a Gilbert and George exhibition on at that time, very strange guys. Anyway at night we were offered a trip over the bridge from Ben and Christine and there other daughter Mairi to see the city from the other side of the bay at night and got some great views of the bridge and over the bay.
The next day we had an early start and had to get bus to Oakland at 7.50am so we got a ride into town and headed off to get our train at 8.30 in Oakland Kev and the Golden Gate Bridge
Kev and the Golden Gate Bridge
 . It was a long trip about 12 hours but very scenic right down the coast to LA. Also our conductor on the way thought himself of a bit of a comedian and kept cracking jokes over the speakers one time on warning people about drinking too much alcohol on the the train he said "and remember folks drinking bud won't make you and wiser" and when we went past the San Andreas fault he said "and on your left is the San Andreas fault so if the ride gets a bit bumpy it's not Amtraks fault it's the San Andreas Fault" My favourite was we were going along normal and he came on saying "I just got news from the Amtrak HQ that we are about to experience a total lunar eclipse at about 12.28 which is·well now?" at that moment we went through a tunnel, meanwhile I was on my feet looking out the window trying to see the sun looking like an idiot probably! Don't know if he was actually that funny but due to the lack of sleep he had me cracking up a few times.

Anyway will leave it there and probably get another one of these done soon as still not caught up yet. Cheers px
Slideshow Print this entry Auckland hotels