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Santa Cruz
The beach and the many volleyball courts. Day 103 - San Francisco
So this was our second Saturday 16th May! We were staying with Pat and Robert (some of my parents friends who moved out to America about 13 years ago) for the first four nights in San Fransisco and they were waiting for us at the airport to take us back to there house in Los Altos Hills (a sunny suburb outside of foggy San Fransisco!). It was very nice to go back to a nice house after such a mammoth day of traveling and there was a big fat sun awaiting us when we arrived.
We settled ourselves in, had some lunch and chilled out for a few hours but decided that we had to do something otherwise we would not manage to stay awake until the evening. We took a walk into Los Altos Hills as there was an Art's show on in town. I think we accidentally took the long route into town but it was certainly worth it as the Art's show was really good and it was nice to stretch my swollen legs. There was some really good photography of some of the places that we will be visiting
during our travels around America so I have high hopes of the next few weeks.
We had a BBQ in the evening and it was so nice to be able to sit outside and for it to be warm and light enough. I have definitely missed the long days of sunlight.
Day 104 - San Francisco
We felt very jet-lagged today but forced ourselves out of bed as we we knew we would regret it otherwise. We decided not to go into San Francisco today as there was huge fun run going on in town so we did not think finding our way around would be much fun. Instead, once we had picked up our hire car, we went to The Mystery Spot, a tourist trap just outside of Santa Cruz. It is basically an area of land that seems to behave differently to anywhere else (for example balls do not roll with gravity and people look shorter that they actually are) and physicians cannot seem to work out why. Well that is what they say anyway! We were both very skeptical and in hind-sight we should have taken our own spirit level as we were
relying on the fact that their spirit level was not fixed. However, if it is not fixed it is very weird and unexplainable (although of course there are the usual alien theories).
From here we drove into Santa Cruz and took a walk along the sea-front "Boardwalk" which turned out to be more of a permanent theme park/junk food extravaganza. It was good for people watching though and we saw our first selection of fine American cuisine. I think the best was deep fried cheesecake in a tortilla wrap! The beach was also packed with people and Rob was very envious of the 12 beach volleyball courts being used on the beach. We had a drink and watched the volleyball before heading back to the car.
We then decided to visit The Big Basin Redwoods State Park on the way back up to Los Altos. We ended up staying here for a couple of hours, doing two walks amongst the beautiful, huge trees. I think the biggest was more than 100m tall! Time was getting on so we set off back to Pat and Roberts house along a very windy road (with very good views) through the Big Basin.
We
San Francisco
The Cell House. were treated with a yummy take-away curry when we arrived back and again it was warm enough to sit outside.
Day 105 - San Francisco
We had our Alcatraz trip booked for 11am and left the house at about 8.30am to get there in time. The traffic wasn’t too bad and we had all day parking sorted for 10 bucks by 9.45am so we had time to explore Pier 39 at the Fisherman’s Warf and we saw the crazy amount of Sea Lions. It was freezing and I was in shorts as I didn’t realize than San Fran got so cold!
It was then time to head over on the ferry to “The Rock.” We explored the grounds but the best bit was the amazing audio tour of the Cell House which was narrated by former guards and inmates. It also detailed a few of the famous escape attempts, having you walk back and fourth to various spots in the building where the key events had occurred, which was really interesting. When we were in the solitary confinement section Sarah was actually too scared to go in the dark cells and apparently they locked people up
San Francisco
Just before our trip over the bridge. in those for up to 2 weeks at a time!
Once we arrived back on land we decided to walk all the way south to Union Square, the main shopping district. On the way we climbed up the hill of the Coit Tower and continued through North Beach (no beach, but a huge Italian population) and Chinatown (which is huge and actually makes you feel like you are in China - especially the smell!). It was quite a long walk but we saw a lot of the city and it took the whole afternoon to explore. It is a really nice city but the hills are quite inconvenient!
Day 106 - San Francisco
We went back in to the city first thing and wanted to hire bikes to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to the suburb of Sausalito. We started from Fisherman’s Warf and rode west to the bridge, over the bridge and then down into the suburb. The bridge was shrouded in mist and we could even see our breath as we were riding over it! We did not manage to get a glimpse of the whole bridge due to the fog that engulfs
San Francisco
Biking the bridge. the city.
Once we arrived in the beautiful town of Sausalito it was sunny again (I do not understand why you would want to live in foggy San Francisco when just 10 miles outside of the city is beautiful sunshine). We did not have long to explore the little town for long as the ferry arrived to take us back to the city but I think it was for the best as the restaurants and shops all looked very appealing!
When we arrived back in the city, we returned our bikes and Rob had some Clam Chowder (because you're supposed to). We then decided to go and take a look at the famous windy street of Lombard Street. From here we headed back out of the city and back to Los Altos where we had to do some shopping for a sleeping bag and other such things for our camping tour so we had our first experience of the huge American shopping outlets.
In the evening we had another yummy BBQ enjoying the evening sun.
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anonymous
non-member comment
have to say that is the best tree ever rob. and deep fried cheesecake i dont think i can even imagine the kcal in that LOL! hope ur still having an amazing time. much love