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Published: March 29th 2007
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We woke up nice and early ready for our monster 500 + mile trip across to San Francicsco. We set off at just before 8am and managed to make good progress on the oh so boring Interstate freeways. Apart from the odd pee and fuel stops there really was not much to report as it was really really dull drive - nothing around but desert and the odd hill! When we finally got closer to our destination things started to get a little more interesting and the sat nav finally had something to do! (Especially helpful in rush hour traffic - we hit the outskirts of San Francisco at 5pm). We first caught sight of the Golden Gate Bridge whilst we were driving into 'Frisco' on the Bay Bridge - on an 8 mile stretch incorporating 2 types of bridge - a cantilever and suspension, plus a tunnel all stretched across the bay! We were sat on the top deck of a 2 tier 8 lane highway. Its true what you see on the films, the streets are mental! Steeply stepped with stop signs everywhere. We found our motel with ease thanks to the sat nav and no sooner had
we checked in we were off to see if we could book a tour to Alcatraz - but typically with it being Spring Break they were fully booked for the next 4 days. So we decided to go for the 2nd best option, a trip around the bay, under the GG Bridge and around Alcatraz island with Audio commentary and plenty of photo opportunities. After we had taken in the sights and sounds of Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39 we decided it was tea time so we stopped in at one of 'Frisco's' best Mexican restaurants and enjoyed a couple of tasty fresh burritos! After this the tiredness got too much for us so we headed back for the bus home - but not before the infamous 'Bushman of Alcatraz' scared the living daylights out of Kez - for those who have not heard about him he is an old black homeless guy who sits on a box and hides behind 2 tree branches he carries around then when unsuspecting tourists pass by he pulls the bushes apart and growls at the top of his voice! It works every time...heart attack over, we got in and slept for England again.
Next day we had a bit of a lie in, took a stroll down the block to a really nice coffee shop and planned our day. We knew our time was short as were our funds now! So we thought we would keep in simple, do our cruise, take in a movie and a meal then try and get another early night in preparation for the last huge drive of our trip. The plan was going well, we made it to the pier just in time to embark our red and white ferry boat - the trip included an audio tour headset commentary which was really good! We went along past the shore of the city listening to all the different facts and figures about historical events the city has endured. The bridge was very impressive, as was the view of the prison. We also managed to take in some basking sealions who had got out of the water onto one of the floating pontoons around pier 39 - ahhhhhh. We took soooo many pictures of this trip - we can only really show you a few.
Next step of the plan was to go catch a movie
in a quaint little theatre just around the corner from our motel - we saw 'Reign over me' with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle - great film! We nearly missed it as the signs on the doors were a bit rubbish, we were sat in the wrong cinema! But we sorted it just in time , but it was the smallest cinema we had ever seen. It must have only been able to sit about 20 people max! We have seen home tv screens bigger.
Next up was the meal - guess what we found across the road from the cinema?! Yes thats right, a quaint little Japanese - Kerry had been craving sushi for quite a while and got what she wanted. it was only ok though, good job it was bloody cheap! :-)
With everything done and dusted we took a stroll back to the motel for our early night and realised that "Frisco" really is a very nice place indeed! If we had to choose a place to livein the USA it would be here - its sooooo cool! But a bit cold!
Next day, we left our motel and went along the
road we had been staying on - Lombard Street - if you have never heard of it it is the road thats always on films, its the most crooked street in the world! Or as Kez calls it - the wiggly road.
We really wanted to drive down it before we left so we did at 5mph (speed limit). One thing that really stood out was how clean this place is and how nice the people are!
We decided to take the fabled 'Highway 1' down the coast to get some amazing views of the pacific - little did we know how crazy they would get! At one point we came around the headland and looked along the coast - you could not see the see as it was coated with low lying cloud - it looked really eerie! (see pics). The drive was much more entertaining as there were corners and bends! Hence, the 450 plus miles to LA took a lot longer to complete. We had planned to stay at a motel on Hollywood Boulevard but with traffic being so bad and roadblocks popping up all over the place we didnt get to them until
about 9.45pm - only to be told 'sorry, no vacancy' they then told us to go their sister branch 7 miles away. We said okay, got back to our car, programmed the sat nav with the new address and set off only to hit a grid locked road with every turn! We were getting a little tired by this time and thought it might just be better to get a hotel nearer the airport and rental car place instead of messing around. Oh, what a mistake! 2 hours of no vacancy or extortionate rates and the fact that we were 'in d' hood' of Inglewood made us decide against the revised plan and go to try and find the sister hotel. 30 minutes later we rolled up - knackered. We got to our room which was overlooking the fire exit of a late night Latino club banging out hispanic beats...oh great. Thankfully they have a noise curfew here and the noise level soon abated from eardrum splitting to soothing base beats. We didnt want a repeat of the night's activities for the rest of our trip so we booked an airport hotel and one for our entire Vancouver stay! Job
done.
Next day we slept in a little again - with a few things in mind to do before we had to take the hire car back. We started by going to the closest street the Sat Nav could find to the Hollywood sign. Then we took a stroll along the Walk of Fame and finished by finding Rodeo Drive (Kez's idea - Pretty Woman and all that!).
We returned our car which was just around the corner from our hotel (not before unloading all our luggage first) and stopped off at a 'Sizzler' diner for our lunch - the place was full of what seemed like gospel singers and their families all dressed up in their Sunday best, having their Sunday lunches after a hefty morning of 'praising their lord' - AMEN! I think we were the only 2 white folk in there - dressed in vests and shorts too.
The rest of the evening we spent trying to catch up on the blog as it was the 1st chance we had in about 2 weeks to get to a computer that actually worked.
WOW - what a whistle stop tour we have had -
1500 miles in six days! - Next stop Vancouver!
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AMAZING
FUCKIN HELL NO WAY....................................................................... CANT BELIEVE WHER YOU ARE......... MARK SAYS YOUR BOTH DOING A NIEL ARMSRTONG AND ITS ALL JUST A PHOTO BACK DROP???