El Rata - San Francisco

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Lets head to Downtown San Francisco we thought, after a 12 hour flight and a 3 hour sleep and quite bleary eyed…hopped on the bus that had conveniently arrived outside our hotel. What we didn’t realise was that it was going to take an hour and a half of rattling along, stop starting with everyone on the bus falling asleep around me.

But it was ok, Rich was up at the front with the driver for the full 90 mins putting him right on the fact that New Zealand indeed wasn’t part of Europe, that we came from an English speaking country and no, we weren’t part of England either….

We wandered along the waterfront and took a few tourist shots along the way. Bridges and one particular strange looking building that Rich got very excited about and took many photos of…still have no idea what that was about but I chose to keep quiet about that fact.

More to my taste was the Hard Rock café that we ventured into - burgers and fajitas.

Next, taxi to Palace of the Fine Arts which wasn’t really a palace or a place of fine arts but more a lovely lit building glistening on the lagoon. And then appeared El Rata…. Wasn’t so sure about that part. The El Rata (aka a large Rat) had also come also come along to enjoy the fine arts..and scaring tourists. One thought it was a squirrel but no…El Rata.

Next on the list was a walk around San Fran getting ourselves nice and lost on the hunt for a taxi. I managed to hail down a security car but the guard didn’t look overly impressed with my shenanigans and I think I was actually lucky not to get arrested.

All in all a lovely time in San Francisco, albeit a short visit this time…until next visit

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