If you're going to San Francisco...

Sarah's Thoughts:

The flight over from OZ to San Fran was great, Qantas certainly is the way to go on these long-haul flights as the food was actually edible (and to Adam’s delight the huge range of booze was free!) and we had no-one sitting next to us so we could stretch out and catch some z’s. Qantas is indeed fabulous and makes United look like an airborne tin can with even worse service than maccas.

Frisco was great, we were very active for the week that we were there, following the order of “cram as much stuff as you can in, coz who knows when you’ll be back” we managed to fit in:

• a Stanford College football game
  
• a Baseball game
  
• cycling around the bay and across the Golden Gate bridge
  
• dragging ourselves up the ‘crookedest’ street in the world (Lombard)
  
• riding the cable cars
  
• the standard mandatory visit to Alcatraz (Adam was convinced he could leave me there, he was disappointed to find out it has ceased being a prison in 1968)
  

The weather has been weird, cloudy and windy, then hot and sunny - no idea what to expect each day! Our hotel is an amazing original victorian hotel in the middle of the city, with a lift that makes you imagine the scary plumetting lift ride at Disney-land.

The day of riding the golden gate bridge: It was a beautiful day, and will be remembered forever as the day Sarah felt pain in her leg and ass muscles that are never to be repeated again. We rode about 20km and probably walked a total of 10 today, so I was sore indeed. Adam thought it would perk me up to take me to hooters for lunch after the bike ride. And then he bought me a hooters singlet - thoughtful isn't he...?

Walking is really the only way to get around the city and truly experience it, eg lombard street and coit tower, unfortunately the hills average a 16-18 degree incline and most of the ones we have visited have been walking up, not down... ouch. Well, thats not entirely true - the cable cars are a unique way to navigate the hills!

Adam's Thoughts:

Great city, laid back with a 'smaller' city feel to it, nice climate, above average transport system, diverse attractions - ranging from the sporting (baseball, football) to the iconic (Alcatraz, Golden Gate et al). Good good pubs too, and plenty of micro brews. For all the bagging US mainstream beer gets (and deservedly so) the local brews are bloody fantastic! For example, if ever the opportunity arises to sample Fat Tire or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale do so - that's quality beer!

San Fran is, well I don't know what I was expecting specifically, but it is pretty cool - plenty of history (cable cars, golden gate, alcatraz, earthquakes of 1906 etc), good public transport system and lots of hills - so many hills... If you want to get fit quick, live in San Fran and walk..... We hired bikes and rode over the golden gate bridge which was an awesome experience. Alcatraz was definitely worth the time investment, would not have been a fun place to be in its heyday. Basically we spent most of our time just wandering around, including stops at Lombard St (the 'crookedest' street in the world), Haight St (hippy street in the 70's circa janis joplin etc) and of course the cable cars.

The sporting odyssey of America began with a College football game - Stanford v Oregon - and it was everything I expected it to be - plenty of action up and down the field, the college band playing non-stop and a very parochial home crowd and continued with a SF Giants v San Diego Padres baseball game - great stuff, so much more fluid live.

Verdict:

All in all, a great city that is quite chilled and laid back. Quite look forward to returning one day when we are back on that side of the globe. And just a short 15 1/2 hour ride from Sydney, but hey, who's counting...

---

---

---