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Published: July 21st 2006
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We have arrived in California and have already met the psycho taxi drivers!!!
We woke up early on Sunday the 16th of July and headed to the airport for our flight to San Francisco. The plane left at 7am and was due to arrive at 14.30pm after the time change (which is 3 hours later in Hawaii).
Chris and I (in the interest of saving money) decided to skip the apparently very popular bacon and egg roll and wait for the in-flight breakkie. Much to our dismay when we got on we were advised that there would be no free food served... : (
We then had to make the difficult decision as to which snackbox we disliked the least and forked over our $5.
We arrived safely a few hours later (and starving... as usual) and caught a taxi which was an experince in itself. Shane's snowboard was wedged inside the cab from one corner to another and allowed very little visibility for Shane in the front seat except for the car in front which on many occasions, it looked as though we were about to hit.
$37 (which involved about 2% tip, woopsie) and a
various number of close encounters later we arrived at 'The Grant Hotel' and checked into our room. We both agreed the room was really nice except for the fact it doesn't have a fridge. We headed out to get our first meal for the day and found 'The House of Nanking' which was a favourite of Lonely Planet's. The head chef greeted us at our table (after we waited a few minutes for one to clear) and asked if it was our first visit. When we both responded yes, he asked us what sort of food we like and took the liberty of making us a dish each. We both thought this was a very unusual but interesting way to order. The food was quite nice and we figured the reason they didn't use menus was because they resembled an artifact from the 15th century that no one could decipher.
We headed back to the hotel for an early night.
On Monday the 17th of July we woke up and helped ourselves to the complimentary pastries provided in the foyer. Chris had a bite or two of the apple strudel and Shane devoured the other 4 1/2 items
Chocolate Covered Chips
Didn't try them but they sort of looked nice (claiming that the carbs would give him energy for the day). We headed down to the Visitors Centre and got some brochures and maps to help us get around. We opted not to catch the famous cable cars at this stage due to the line being 100m long (what is that in feet I wonder?). We caught the F-Line (which is a electric form of bus) around the piers and got off at Fisherman's Wharf. Chris managed to keep her composure the entire bus trip despite being surrounded by smelly, dirty and very shonky looking characters.
Once there we looked around the shops, which included a number of various chocolate and lolly shops (and for the record no Shane didn't spend all his money in there) and checked out the local views which included:
- Alcatraz (more about that later)
- Sea Lions sunbaking on the piers
- An art gallery (where Shane was told not to take photos of the art work)
We did however purchase one item each from the chocolate shop which can be seen in the photos.
We had lunch, consisting of chicken and chips and headed over to pier 41 to book
Alcatraz. We booked in for Friday and made sure we had the audio tour included. We then walked up to Lombard St (the world's crookedest street) and on the way had a few funny encounters.
A guy on the side of the road was sitting behind tree branches and then scaring people as they walked past (it also consisted of over 200 people then laughing at the scared person that we were all standing around watching). Shane nearly struck up a deal on a new camera when he was offered the $799 camera for $199 but was too worried about getting mugged or the credit card imprint being stolen so he decided to leave the shop instead (of course this was followed by being laughed at by the shop assistants).
Shane dragged Chris up a few more hills and we were finally at Lombard St. We took heaps of photos and watched as the cars managed to drive down the street. We continued the walk up to Coit Tower, where we paid $3.75 to catch possibly the oldest lift in the USA (and no we were unable to use the stairs, we had to catch the lift). Once
at the top we were both extremely dissapointed by the view and felt ripped off as we once again waited for the lift. Chris managed to get a few snaps of the tower though as you can see. We opted for the bus trip on the way back (seeing as though we had a 7 day pass) and changed half way back to the hotel.
On the second bus we witnessed what we thought would be a fight as one local wanted another guy (who looked quite slow) to move over and share the seat. A few verbals and profanities were exchanged and they both settled down with one leaving the bus and the other sitting on another seat.
We headed to Lori's Diner for dinner, a cute 50's style restaurant which even had a car inside.
The next day was spent hunting for out motorhome. This involved visiting the Visitor's Centre again (and speaking with the lovely Brenda). We went on a wild goose chase being sent all over Mission (a very dodgy part of San Fran) and ended up on a BART (local train system) heading to San Leandro. We found a place on the
net that may be able to rent, yes rent us a motorhome.
We had originally wanted to buy a motorhome which would then involve registering it, getting insurance, keeping up maintainence and worrying about it braking down, but mainly we had to find the vehicle and then sell it down the track.
After much frustration and speaking with a number of companies that then buy the vehicle back from us we decided it would be more financially viable to rent the motorhome. We got a few quotes from Lorenz at Moturis, and spoke to him about availability and looked inside the 21 foot vehicle. We ended by wanting to speak with a few other companies.
The following afternoon after travelling to the middle of no-where, we were back at Moturis doing deals with Lorenz. After prices going backwards and forwards for over an hour (which involved Shane telling Lorenz that ideally we want it for free when he asked how much we wanted to pay) we finally came to an agreement. Shane was able to get the expected 9 free days and then managed another discount on that as well as 2 mountain bikes, tow bar and
the preparation fees being waived. We paid for the motorhome (which we are now to pick up in Los Angeles) and managed to scam a lift back to the BART from there.
We are both extremely relieved that the motorhome has been organised. It has been a pain organising it, but we are both very happy with the way that it has worked out. We changed some of our travel plans to best suit the budget (and the hire company) but we think that what we have changed will still give us plenty of time to see what we want to and allow some extra days somewhere in the trip.
Much to Christine's relief (and Shane's concern about fixing the motorhome if it broke down) we are now able to get on with San Francisco sightseeing...
Shane and Chris xoxoxo
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Dad
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Piggy
Chris...fancy letting Shane loose in a lolly shop...caramel covered marshmellows yuk, looks like your having a ball now I wish I was there. I feel better that you've hired a motorhome instead of buying, Shane you have as much mechanical knowhow as me...none...but at least if it breaks down its up to them to get fixed