Leaving On A Jet Plane...6 Months & We'll Be Back Again!

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So...we've arrived!! And this must be at least the tenth time i've tried writing this...using the Ipad to blog is proving to be a bit tricky..but we're getting there! And much better than stopping at internet cafe's every 5 minutes! May I just ask you excuse the occasional spelling mistake & punction errors, but no doubt understand we have more exciting stuff to be getting on with rather than spellchecking! The week leading up to our departure was quite hectic to say the least.. I had the week off and imagined i would be able to have at least one lie in, swanny around and do what I liked, but leaving everything to the last minute meant early starts and busy days...although busy with catching up with friends, shopping & beauty appointments...I couldn't complain too much, but it just flew by! My main priorities before we left were not currency exchange or adaptor shopping, no no no, so long as my pedicure, nails & hair was sorted I was ready to take on the world! My nail lady Lucy sorted me out with a wicked pedicure which lasts over a month and sparkles in the sun, a full head of highlights and set of eyelash extensions & was ready! (At least I can leave the UK looking decent, I know it's going to deteriorate & i'll revert to being very unmanicured & unwaxed v soon!) I also managed to fit in a spa day with my mum & we had a lovely suprise party thrown for us as a leaving do, from both our mum's!! It was very sweet, we had blow up kangaroo decorations, flags from every country, food from around the world & fireworks to end the night!

Mitch bless him had to work almost up until the day before, so when he turned up the night before we left I can i imagine he thought i would be packed up, ready to go and waiting by the door...no no no, i am my moher's daughter after all, so I found myself surrounded by the entire contents of Topshop to cram into one, incredibly large 'suitcase' which could also double up as a room for the night incase we get desperate! At one point I did question the teeth whitening strips, as we are 'backpacking' but deemed them as a neccesity! The 3am wake up call was very unwelcome after spending the night cramming our cases (Mitch donated half of his to me bless him!) but we were super excited & all bundled into my mum's car en route to meet a very sleepy Michaela & Rebecca for our airport drive.

The drive seemed to last forever, but both excited & sleepy we were soon at Heathrow. Once at check in it flashed up there was an issue with my visa. Long story short our agent hadnt processed it properly, so we were held up for about an hour or so, which was a bit of a pain but the girl at STA paid for the amendments and fixed everything in no time! We just had time to have a farewell breakfast together & grabbed some magazines for the plane journey...not enough time for duty free but I think that was a sign I needed to curb the shopping a little! Waving goodbye was sad & there were few tears...luckily I'd held it together more than i thought i would, i think it was the excitement or i would have been crying buckets! And that was that, it was Mitch & I with a round the world ticket & a plane to catch & we couldnt wait!

The plane journey was long and we both dozed inbetween films (The Hangover 2 & Bridesmaids kept me awake!) only waking up for food (reminding us we were on the way to America!) along with several booze intervals then nodding off again! The little boy infront of us was adorable and kept giving us his toys and sticking his feet through the gap for us to tickle!...My feet on the oher hand had swollen ridiculously!! I do not know why and i looked as though i had club foot!! Mitch was very proud to be with me at that point..I could tell! After a few more games and films, plus our 6th feeding & booze hit we landed in San Francisco!

After clearing customs with ease we arrived to sunshine and smiles everywhere! From the airport lounge we agreed San Fran would be a happy home for the next few days. After a few drinks and a toilet stop (One thing i do not understand about America is their toilet doors...I'd forgotten about this since my last visit, but they have large gaps either side of the door so you can clearly see the person in the cubicle, although i guess you'd have to want to, why is this!?!) Anyways...so we lugged the cases to the taxi rank (our biceps will be insane when we come back!!) and hopped into a cab. Well hopped probably isnt the right word, our taxi driver had a few problems fitting the cases in! I swear it took him 10 minutes huffing and sighing and shuffling seats before we were off!! As soon as we set off and headed cityside we were in love with San Fran! The hills are crazy & we kept excitedly mistaking Bay Bridge for the Golden Gate! The people are so friendly, very much 'have a nice day' all the time, well yes i will thank you very much! And we arrived in a freak October heat wave, just perfect! The Inn At The Opera was our first stop & it was lovely, just what we needed to start it off & with our jet lag. I'd arranged for a bottle of champagne to be in the room when we arrived so as soon as we got there we sank half a bottle each and headed out for a typical American dinner! A typical burger and chips & some more booze later and we were set to sleep off the jet lag and start the next day waking up in sunny California!



Waking up early for our first day was easy as we'd slept off our jet lag, plus the thought of seeing the seals at Fishermans Wharf was too much to warrant a lie in on a big scale! The hotel and staff were just lovely all round and we made the most of it as we knew until we got to Fiji it would be the best hotel stay we would get whilst in the States! We took our seats for breakfast which consisted of fruit, bagels & muffins...just because! The amount of convos we've had about their eating habits are endless yet we succumb to it every meal time, never have we had muffins sat next to our fruit or toast at breakfast! Well when in Rome I guess!!

The walk into the city was beautiful. I think we must hve taken photos of everything 'American' the cop cars, street signs, even UPS delivery trucks! Our hotel was just up the road from City Hall which was stunning, all the buildings were and everywhere was so clean & beautiful. We continued our walk until we wandered into a rough street, Market street, which wasnt very 'San Francisco'! There were quite a few homeless or mad people with shopping trolleys muttering to themselves & they seem to congregate around that area. We asked the Sherrif (resisting the urge to ask for a photo!) for directions & straight away he said we were in a bad area, so we turned off sharpish! Although our hotel was in a spiff area, Market Street ran paralell on our route in and was inevitable on our journey. Hey a brisk walk was probably needed after the muffin/toast/fruit combo! We wandered though the main city centre & through a few shops...the shopping is amaze & so much cheaper!

Fishermans Wharf was our destination for the day, we were both dying to see the seals, book up Alcatraz and tick a few things off the bucket list. To get there we had to encounter sooo many steep hills, some of them where almost on a 90 degree angle! I can imagine residents have thighs of steel & it made the workouts prior to leaving worth it! I think we were the only tourists walking as everyone else seemed to be on buses or trams but we decided to Jane Fonda it up! I think that was mostly my influence on Mitch 'I will not let my workouts slip Mitchell James!' became the standard! The houses on the way were stunning, so pretty & had amazing views. We picked out our dream home & our 'if we win the lottery' house!

The Wharf was beautiful (how many times have i used the terms beautiful, pretty stunning etc but it really is, its hard to describe, especially as we cant load photos at the moment, so you'll have to bear with!) we stopped for lunch at a seafood place (we'd earned it after the hills!) and had clam chowder & oysters which was another tick off the bucket list! (We saw Dungeness crab on the menu & Mitch thought i was silly as i thought it was all the way from Dungeness in Kent! Brain has clearly stopped since leaving work!) lunch was lovely & we had a few chmpagne cocktails (me) and beers (Mitch) I think we had many pinch ourselves moments.

After we strolled to the seafront to scout for seals. We soon found them and they are sooo cute!! About 20 seals were swimming around or laying next to each other at the end of the pier weighing it down & rolling over knocking each other off! One was huge & kept telling the others off & pushing them in...I didnt like him! There was a big charm shop on the pier with charms of everything, literally and I had to buy a seal charm for my charm bracelet as my San Fran memento! They had charms of every American state, which I may have to do when we do our USA road trip (This charm business is already getting expensive!)

Using the ipad earlier in the day, which has been a godsend, we scouted a dinner in the dark/blind restaurant much like the one in London, so we booked in for that evening as its on both our bucket lists! The walk back to the hotel was nice, walking through China Town, the Italian district and up and down the hills in the afternoon sun was lovely. Those moments alone are what this is all about. I think we both fell in love with San Fran within a matter of hours, everyone we have spoken to just adores the place and I can see why. It's hard to describe what it's selling point is, obviously it has many, but it really is an overall amazing city to be in. We cannot wait for the next few days here and the rest of America alone, let alone the next few months!

Back at the room we were worn out & the next thing we knew it was silly o'clock in the morning and we'd slept through till the early hours, missing our dinner reservation! Regardless, we both felt pretty great and had overcome the jet lag so we stayed lounging in bed chatting, planning & dozing off..all of a sudden the bed shook, it felt as if there was someone at the end of the bed pulling and pushing it...I thought Mitch was being silly, then my second guess was of course..it's a ghost!! But common sense soon crept in and we realised it was an earthquake!! I dont think the ghost idea had ever entered mitch's head to be honest, as his is far more developed than mine it seems! We had a little after tremor & after watching early morning tv realised we had lived though a 3.9 earhquake!!! Ok so it's not big but still a tick on the box and we felt pleased with ourselves we had lived through ready to see another day!

Thursday morning after our shaky earthquake start, we hit Louis diner for a standard american breakfast. The diner was your typical 50's style, neon lights, signs, duke boxes, the works, it was very cool! And our breakfast was enorm!! It was good but huge...pancakes bigger than our heads, sausages, eggs, bacon..the works! We couldnt finish it & anyone who knows Mitch knows that it would take a killer meal to defeat him! After we had abused our bodies we decided on some retail therapy & where else to start but Macy's, Barney's, Bloomingdales & Victoria Secret! I hit the Estee lauder counter for some night repair - cheaper in the states - & managed to get lots of free samples, which will sort all the wrinkles out when i get to the sunnier climates! We got chatting to the guy behind the counter at Jo Malone & when he found out we were travelling he gave us lots of free samples of different perfumes...perfect for travelling 'light'.

We strolled back to our hotel to check out as we were moving to a hotel closer to the city center. We got chatting to the guy behind the desk in the hotel who was buzzing & full of it! He was really friendly and recommended a few bars in town, along with places for our stay in Asia. After a few issues with our massive cases fitting in the taxi we were on our way to our new hotel, all the while chatting to another friendly american, genuinely wanting to help us..i actually love America at this point and want him to adopt us for residency! Our new hotel was slap bang in the centre and we got a great deal and it was very sweet inside. They had a movie theme and each room was named after films filmed in San Francisco & they had a movie theatre room which was very cute, showing old vhs films with hot chocolate and popcorn. We were set on Thursday night happy hour, so we changed & headed out to the Irish bar down the road for a few to kick the night off. It wasnt really that busy or happy enough for happy hour so we went to Goldies which was recommended by the staff as a cheap and fun place..just what we wanted! It was a very old fashioned 50's themed place, with mismatched chairs and tables and the same type of people...all walks of life! Cocktails were $3.50 each, including the champers, so we worked our way down the cocktail list and got chatting to a guy called Carlo who ran a party bus in San Francisco! He recommended going to a few bars for happy hour in a square on the other side of town, so after many cocktails we took his advice and jumped in a cab. About 10 minutes later (that's a long time during happy hour!) we arrived and it was beautiful! Fairy lights everywhere, very pretty and it looked quite family orientated...not quite what we were looking for at that moment but it was stunning! We couldn't see any bars but came across a wine tasting place so thought...why not!! It was very funny, all we were looking for was a cheap place to booze and we found ourselves pretending to be wine connessours paying $10 each for about an eighth of a glass of wine each go! Giving it the big I am in the wine community, talking about hollyhocks and gargling...we drew the line at spitting it out & made sure we drank it ALL, then made excuses not to buy cases of the stuff! After we had finished our full half glass of wine, we went to a restaurant and set up camp at the bar. The restaurant was lovely and right on the seafront...but thats irrelevant....the cocktails were lovely and I was gone after one made especially by the barman. I could not tell you about the journey back even if you paid me & chances are you dont care...but we were soon back in town again and ended up in a sports bar boozing it up. We got chatting to an American couple, the guy was a typical jock & I think his sports team were winning as mid convo he got up and started shouting and high fived everyone around him...he was very excited...I thought he may have been fitting but I think it was purely excitement about the game. By this point I was quite merry & apparently requested some bread to sober up! From that point both our recollections are quite hazy, but i think we stumbled back and just remember waking up fully clothed with hangovers the next morning.

The next morning i felt fine but mitch was feeling a bit ropey so our morning was quite slow to start but needed & full of hangover induced lay ins, food and tv. We headed into town to try and get a trip to alcatraz but it was fully booked, so we booked for the next few days and spent the day shopping and wandering san fran! We walked up china town which was cool, although going in the shops put us off some food for life! Stopping by a sushi for 99 cents place we thought 'why not?' so took our seats in front of a moving sushi platform! You took the plates off these little boats running on a water track around the table (it was quite tacky but fun!) and the design on the plates equalled the cost. We were taking plate after plate thinking we were living like kings and only paying 99 cents each dish but we got it wrong and it was more than we thought but still very reasonable! (We have decided we really aren't massive sushi fans and prefer heat when preparing our food!) Still it was good fun though and who else can say they had Japanese Sushi in China Town in San Francisco?! A trip back to Fishermans Wharf was on the cards as we just needed to see the seals again. We grabbed lunch in the best seafront crab restaurant in San Francisco and watched the seals play whilst cracking crabs legs with a bottle of wine and the best garlic fries ever! It was such gorgeous weather we had a fabulous time and Mitch says it was one of the best dinners he's ever had! I somehow found myself volunteering to recreate the dinner for him one day...wish me luck with that one, I think I need your help with that one Mum!

There was a Starbucks in the roof of Macys which had great views, so we headed up there for a few drinks at night and looked out over Union Square which was lit up with fairy lights at night and really pretty. They had a model of a heart in the square and it was donated by the guy who sang i left my heart in San Francisco! It was the perfect chill out spot. Whilst wandering San Fran early evening at a very slow pace... We were feeling the effects of the night before at this point!...all of a sudden hundreds of bikes went passed with people dressed up in Halloween theme! It was brilliant and if we'd have known about it would have been right in there! Although some of the men where totally naked!! We watched that go passed agreed to take part in it one day (not naked though!!) walked up a fair few more hills and had a hotel night in watching trashy american TV and a few films, even San Fran couldn't get us out of the room at night when hungover!!

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