Touch down in the US of A

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Well we have finally arrived in San Francisco after a marathon 16 hr flight - eek.

Stu survived the flight ok and I slept most of the way (surprise surprise) so by the time we arrived, managed to find where we were meant to be going (the organised PR person forgot to print out the address of the hostel!), caught the skytrain into the city and then lugged our luggage about 2km uphill to the hostel Stu was by all means absolutely shagged! 'Scuse the language but no other way to describe it. By the time we waited 45 mins for our room Stu collapsed onto the bed, but having slept for about 8 hours of our flights I was wide awake so I went adventuring on my own. Found Little Italy, The World's Crookedest Street (very cool!), Fisherman's Wharf, a jewellery store Debbie would die for and then headed back to the hostel to wake Stu.

We headed back to "Little Italy" for some dinner. Fantastic restaurant called "Rome in the City" with heaps of atmosphere fulfilled our grumbling bellies and then we walked down to Fishermans Wharf to help ease the load in our tummies, checked out the Golden Gate Bridge at night and then headed home on a tram (or a cable car as the locals call them).

We woke up this morning at about 5am, helped ourselves to all you can eat pancake breakfast in the hostel (which is brilliant) and have been out on the streets dealing with ridiculous amounts of confrontations from homeless people for money ever since. We've booked ourselves onto a sightseeing trip at 11.15am which takes in pretty much everything you need to see in San Fran if you have limited time like us, and we're going to do the Alcatraz tour tonite which will be very cool...albeit eery no doubt.

We're having a ball by the way. Stu is amazed at everything and we've decided that San Fran is a combination of Perth/Freo and St Kilda all rolled into one. We love it...except for the bloody hills! our hostel is located on the top of one and on day one our legs are already sore. Good job my calf was better by the time i got here because it's now aching...she'll be right though.

We're hiring a car tomorrow (still hoping for a Mustang convertible, Stu's just doing the homework now on the other computer) and heading down the coast to LA stopping overnight wherever we feel like it. God you've gotta love travelling don't you?

We are both missing Dexter insanely but we're comforted by the knowledge that Daddy P will now have him ensconsed in Greenough and be treating him to walks along the beach everyday.

Anyway, here's some photos of San Fran I took yesterday, plus the amazing sunset Phuket treated us to on our last night there...by the way....we miss the pool bar!

Love to you all,

The Grieves!
xox

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Photos

World's crookedest street
Cars need to turn 8 times in the space of 100 metres to navigate down this hill which is on a 40 degree angle! Very interesting to stand and watch and beautifully landscaped.

Alcatraz Island
Heading there today.