San Franciscan Summary

  San Francisco, California, United States
Thursday, April 12, 2007

There's something a bit odd about San Francisco, you think it'll be a BIG city but it feels very small and homely!  The locals were pretty friendly and shocked to find 2 British people with a tan! 'Isn't it always cold over there!' exclaimed the girl from the Quicksilver shop ... or it might have been Billabong, I don't know one of those surf shops anyway.

Here's our top 5 list of things we wanted to do:
1) Drive down Lombard Street ("The crookedest street") - Didn't think that I would be driving down this almost vertical, narrow, bendy street in an SUV!  I managed it and only almost hit a wall once.  We considered the merits of trying it on a skateboard and conceded that the landing probably wouldn't be very soft.

Lombard Street - The Crookedest Street

Now sorry to burst peoples bubble, but this is in fact NOT the crookedest street in the area.  The actual crookedest street is outside San Fran somewhere and isn't at all pretty so they don't bother to mention it!

2) Drive really fast up one of those huge vertical streets and launch off the top Starsky and Hutch style - Hhhmmmm kind of did it, perhaps not with such volume as those guys - we didn't take out the extra insurance on the rental car and figured we'd rather spend our money on our trip than a driving violation fine!

3) Ride the tram - we managed this a couple of times .. for free!  It's supposed to be about $5 each, but when you're hanging off the side of the tram it's hard to get to your wallet!  We took the something and Hyde tram all the way from the turning circle in the middle of town to Fisherman's Wharf end of town. This is supposed to be the most scenic journey.  It was great fun ... although the council should look into cutting a few trees back on that route!

Tram ride

  
4) Cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge - We thought it might be nice to try this on a tandem, however after about 3 seconds into our practice lap the guy kindly suggested we might find it easier to go on 2 separate bikes.  So off we trundle through Fisherman's Wharf in the general direction of the bridge.  It was a nice day for it.  Warmer than it had been for a while.  We decided to take a detour and watch the surfers just under the bridge.  These guys were mad, not only was the water freezing but the waves were enormous!  All I could think was 'I hope they don't get washed into the quayside wall!' . 

So we carried on up the very steep hill to the bridge and took a moment before we rode over it ...mostly because 1000 tourists suddenly appeared and blocked the path.  It's a freaky feeling riding across the bridge, as you cycle along you can see the water down below you out of the corner of your eye.  It makes you a bit wobbly to start with.  Donovan was none to impressed at this, but good on him he carried on and made it to the other side.

Cycling the Bridge

After a quick photo stop we carried on down the hill in Sacramento.  This was a really lovely little town.  After a quick wander around we grabbed some lunch at a bar on the water and had a couple of pineapple martini's on the deck.  Very civilized!  We only just made it back in time for the last boat back to San Fran!

5) Visit Alcatraz - We only got as far as the boat ride around 'The Rock'.

The Rock

Unfortunately it was Spring Break and the tour into Alcatraz was booked up with Schoolies.  Never mind we had a lovely boat ride around the harbor and spent a good deal of time dodging the kamikaze seagull who was slip streaming the boat!!  We also sailed right up to the bridge.  It's seriously Orange.

We also visited this science place (sounds very geeky) but it was actually a lot of fun.  I spent most of my time blowing giant bubbles and Donovan did a battle with his will and drank out of water fountain that looked like a toilet!  The idea being all your senses will stop you from drinking out of the bowl because it looks like a toilet, even though it is perfectly clean!  There was a whole heap of things there that kept us amused for hours.

I'm forever blowing bubbles

I'm Thirsty

The aquarium was quite good, but I'm starting to get a bit over aquariums.  The best bit was the touch pools.  You could touch the rays, guitar fish, sea cucumbers, star fish and various other creatures ..... in case you were wondering, they were all slimy !

I got to dress up in fireman's gear when we ran into the San Francisco fire department.  I'm still not sure of they were actually on a call!!  I am very bummed that we 'somehow' lost those photo's :-(  ... Donovan?

Neither of us were particularly impressed with Fisherman's Wharf.  It looked like a seafood market ... oh it was a seafood market!  The most impressive thing we found was curved escalators in the mall near our hotel.... very first world! 

All in all it was a very nice city and we're very glad to have seen it, but I don't think either of us will be visiting again......

Next stop Hawaii