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Published: September 26th 2010
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After a short delay at LAX we flew at 12.15PM on Saturday 18th September to San Francisco. Got talking to an antiques dealer from LA on the flight and before I knew it we had arrived! When we’d picked up our luggage we made our way to shuttle and transferred to the BART (Bay Area Railway Transport) towards Montgomery. When we arrived we made the short walk to Dani’s apartment where we dropped our stuff off and went out to explore the city. Our first impressions of SF were good, lot of tall buildings, restaurants, cafe’s and shops, Hayley said it reminded her of Gotham City! We looked around Chinatown and as it was Saturday it was market day so there were lots of little stalls and shops to accompany the large amount of Chinese restaurants and shops. It’s unlike any other Chinatown I’ve ever seen before, it’s very impressive. We went to look at Union Square before going hunting for a supermarket. After around an hour of searching we still hadn’t found one and even after asking and getting directions we still failed to find it! After asking for directions a second time I finally found it and surprise surprise
it was two minutes away from the apartment! After stocking up I went back to the apartment to unwind.
I woke early on Sunday morning and found a channel showing Chelsea vs Blackpool (at least they drew the second half Dan!). We then had a good breakfast before going to the tourist information centre and the library. There was a cheap farmer’s market outside the Civic Centre so we picked some stuff up before exploring a bit more of the city centre. We went to an nearby cafe for a snack and a couple of drinks, I do love the way Americans have happy hour at every pub and bar every single day! We then walked up the the ferry terminal and explored the Piers. We went up to Pier 39, there’s quite a few shops and eateries there including the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! We also caught our first sight of Alcatraz Island which looked quite eerie in the mist and fog that was setting in for the evening! We then set off back to the apartments and watched a couple of films before bed.
We got up Monday morning and went for a look around Bloomingdales,
a huge shop with five floors, Hayley got very excited as they had a lot of petite clothes (all of them unfortunately out of our price range!) We came back to the apartment and Dani and Charlie picked us up around 12 to take us on a sightseeing tour. They took us on a scenic route of the city where we went up to one of the national parks, saw the painted ladies (where Mrs Doubtfire was filmed!), a couple of celebs’ houses and down to the beach where we saw the Golden Gate for the first time, although at the time it was a little foggy. We then went over to Sausalito which included driving over the Golden Gate. Sausalito is very picturesque with a good harbour and there are some great views of the city over there. We went to a seafood restaurant imaginatively called fish and had a really good lunch before going up to the Marin Highlands. The fog had now completely cleared and the weather for the rest of the day was beautiful. We got some great views of the bridge and the city from up there. Charlie was hugely knowledgeable about the area and
we learnt a lot about SF’s history and looked at the NIKE missile camp. We also walked up to the lighthouse to get a different view. Afterwards we went back to the apartment for a couple of hours before meeting up again and going to a local chinese called spices which was really good. We got back to the apartment around 9.30 after having a fantastic day.
We got up fairly early Tuesday to get ready to go to Alcatraz. We walked down to Pier 33 and boarded the boat at 11. After about 20 minutes we arrived on the island where we listened to a short presentation from one of the national park rangers who now own Alcatraz and then went on a tour named ‘the 6 hats of Alcatraz’ which involved the park ranger wearing different hats and playing different characters to explain both the story and the history of Alcatraz. The tour last around an hour and was both funny and informative. After this we joined the audio tour which was narrated by ex prison guards and ex cons from the island and took us through the cells and around the prison telling us the stories
of the attempted breakouts and what life was like on the rock. Again, this was very interesting and for anyone who is going to Alcatraz I would recommend doing both the audio tour and a ranger tour as the ranger tour added personality and information about the island itself. We were lucky enough to have another sunny, clear day and the views of both the Golden Gate and the city from the island are stunning. We had a fantastic time and I’d highly recommend going if you get the chance, at $26 the tour offers great value for money. We got the boat back around 3.20PM. We got back, grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to Union Square at 5 to meet Fran and Ian. We went to a Mexican nearby for a drink but it was fairly busy so we headed to a Chinese near the apartment for drinks and we were pleasantly surprised when we found out happy hour went on until 10PM! We had a really good catch up swapping travel stories and just chatting in general, it was kind of surreal at the same time I half expected to look out the window and
see UK fried chicken! We said our goodbyes around 11 and went back to the apartment ending another great day.
On our last day in SF we went and had a look around the Giants baseball stadium in the morning before popping to shop to get some essentials, we went to whole foods and I’m glad Hayley only found this on our last day here. The food is great there but a little pricey to be a regular shopping place on a traveller’s budget! (She got a slice of pizza and a cupcake though!) We had lunch before setting off down to Pier 41 to hire a couple of bikes and set off on the cycle trail towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The cycle path runs mainly alongside the water so it gives you some of the best views of the bridge, it runs for 8 miles into Sausalito but you can go further. It’s great actually cycling across and when you get to the other side there’s a big downhill section into Sausalito which is great! The only downside was Hayley came off her bike as we came into Sausalito but thankfully it wasn’t too bad although it
hurt at the time and has left her with a couple of impressive bruises. We got the ferry back and dropped the bikes off before going into Union Square where there were a lot of couples dancing in the square! Apparently this is a regular thing and we had a little boogie whilst we watched! We had a quick look around Macy’s and got back to the apartment just after 8 where we sorted our things so we were ready to leave in the morning.
We woke around 6AM and had a quick breakfast before catching the BART around 7 to get to SFO. After checking in we took off at 9.30 for Vegas. We were both sad to leave SF it’s a wonderful city that I’d recommend to anyone, although it’s not huge there’s so much to see and do. One of the best places I’ve ever visited and I’d definately like to come back in the future. A special mention to Dani for letting us use her apartment during our stay and to both Dani and Charlie for taking us out on Monday as they showed us a side of SF we wouldn’t have seen without their
help so thank you guys!
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angela
non-member comment
hi
hi ,love following you both its better than big bother! oh i work with hayleys mum by the way,have loads of fun and take of each other love Angie x ps love the photos of the wax works x