Prison breaks and disco in Frisco.

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After the corruption of Las Vegas, albeit enjoyed corruption, San Francisco was a welcome change of pace. We'd rented a 2 bedroom apartment, plenty of space for all 3 of us, using Airbnb in the suburb of Inner Sunset. It was everything you expect from a San Francisco suburb, steep hills, trendy deli's, cool apartments and trams. An ideal base to plan our time in San Fran, recharge our batteries and just 'hang out'. We arrived early evening so the first nights agenda was a Chinese takeaway and a movie. The food even came in those paper boxes you see on TV, god bless America!

Twenty to thirty minutes maximum we could be at most of the major attractions, the public transport system in the city is very good, cheap and easy to get to grips with. First off we wanted to explore the city and get our bearings, we got the tram into town explored China Town, walked to Coit Tower and enjoyed the delights the Fisherman's Wharf had to offer us. San Francisco's China Town is the oldest and biggest outside Asia, you could almost feel like you were in China if it weren't for the street signs, American roads, American cars, Americans, San Fransico tat shops, views of the bridges etc etc. It was still a cool little area was a mix of restaurants, souvenir shops and supermarkets, big Chinese gates, lanterns and the food was amazing and we did end up having a couple of meals here. The walk up to Coit Tower was tough after spending 5 nights in Vegas, it's set upon a high hill, but the panoramic view of the city was well worth it. A must do. A 30 minute walk down the other side of the tower via Filbert Steps (a great little area set on the side of the hill with cool little gardens and unique buildings), we were in the Fisherman's Wharf suburb. A very lively area with lots of restaurants, bars, street performers, shops, art galleries, multiple piers, Christmas decorations, sea-lions , great views of the actual harbour with its bridges and Alcatraz. All 3 of us decided a drink was in order so we found an Irish bar that had about 40 different draft beers, lagers and ciders to try. We spent a couple of hours 'researching' the various flavours on offer. Another great thing about this area is the seafood, restaurants literally spill out on to the street with stands selling freshly caught crab served in any way you can imagine, clam chowder served in bowls made from hollowed out sourdough buns. The clam chowder was so nice I had to have it on more than one occasion. There's also a colony of sea lions here, all fighting for position on the man made floating docks. It was noisy and smelly but great fun to just stand and watch, I could of watch them all day. There must have been a low rider convention that day, we saw lots of cars passing us driving at jaunty angles. Snoop Dog or Dr Dre were nowhere to be seen. The aquarium was cool as it contained life from the surrounding areas, although we were advised by an over-enthusiastic sales women that there would definitely be a Tiger Shark, which we believed, only to be disappointed when it wasn't there! The underwater tunnels were my favourite where you got to see Rays, Sharks and Penguins and gliding about just by your face.

Our friend back in the UK, Moray, was kind enough to treat us and organise a tour of Alcatraz. Mental note, must take Moray out for some food when we return. It's well organised and it only takes 15 minutes to fill up the boat then you are on your way to the Island. You're greeted at the island by an enthusiastic employee who gives you a formal introduction to the island, a short walk around the perimeter of the island, seeing interesting old outbuildings and you reach the innards of the prison. From here it's a very good audio tour around the actual prisoner block. Stories of escapes, attempted escapes, riots, prisoner back stories, hostage situations and prison politics kept us all enthralled throughout. A particular highlight for myself was the mark left on the floor by a grenade dropped into the prison whilst trying to stop a riot, I guess things were done differently back then. The view of the city scape you get from the island is really pretty, the hills and folds just adds this different texture you don't usually get when you look at a flat city.

Before we started the trip we'd saw that there was a theme park nearby, Six Flags is the name. We thought we'd hire a car for the day, which in America is an absolute hassle if you don't use a credit card. Beware. James volunteered to drive, good lad. Six Flags wasn't a huge place but the rides were. It was quiet too so we managed to spend most of our time on the rides. The Superman ride was probably the most hair raising (Jen didnt make it onto that one) but it was quite short, but the Medusa was the best value for time spent. It had 7 loops and half the time you didn't need to get off the ride when it finished! The theme park also has a zoo within it so all those with a nervous disposition can be spared some anxious waits queuing for rides, or if you are Jen you still have that anxious wait, still go on the rides and then visit the zoo! Fair play. James did a lot of sitting and waiting, I think he mentioned something about going green after one of the rides. The zoo was at the back end of the park and the Siberian tiger they had was huge, I've never anything like it. You could feed the giraffes, much to Jen's pleasure. A great day out for 'children'.

San Fran has a rich heritage when it comes everything LGBT and has the biggest gay village in the US. We had a couple of nights out in the Castro area and we had a good laugh, there's lots of bars, restaurants, clubs, book shops, cinemas - all gay friendly - imagine Lower Briggate in Leeds, but on Steroids. A highlight for me was an Italian restaurant called The Sausage Factory. The pizza's were amazing. I didn't get to find out about the sausages though.

It was time for James to leave and we were sad to see him go, probably not as sad as James was though. It meant our next leg in San Fran. This involved moving to a new apartment in a suburb called Bernal Heights, it was a bit further south from the centre but you got a nice elevated view of the whole city when you got the tram in. Note to self, using public transport whilst severely hungover, carrying all our luggage is not a good experience. But we did give James a good send off so it was worth it.

We got to experience Thanks Giving while in San Fran, rather than eating out we decided to make it ourselves. We definitely gave the Americans a good run for their money and after gorging ourselves on a lovely roast we retired to the couch to watch some good old family movies. Sometimes I miss days like these.

No trip to San Fran is complete without seeing the Golden Gate Bridge. It's great to see such an icon up close but we didn't spend much time there, there's only so many pictures you can take. There is a cross section of the suspension cable on display, which gave you a good sense of scale and how big it actually is. We took plenty of photos then left. It's easy to get to and from with regular buses.

Some of Jen's extended family live in Sacramento which is only an hour and a half away from San Fran so it was a good opportunity to go visit them. Jen's Auntie Wendy and Uncle Wayne. Good people and great hosts. As soon as we got there they took us to this amazing little roadside restaurant / farm shop which had the most amazing burgers (a family favourite by all accounts). Next stop was a college they were both involved with, helping out on the musical side of things, there we met up with their youngest daughter and Jen's cousin Catherine who attends it. It was nice to say hi. Wendy was supposed to be in a meeting but she was missing it to see us, but we still crashed the meeting to say hi. They were a very nice group of people who were very interested to hear about our adventure. That night we were treated to a steak and crab dinner and learnt the etiquette of eating a full crab properly. What a treat! We got to sample some really good wine, we were told of the delights of the Napa valley and had our route planned home via Napa the next day. It's a shame we couldn't stay for longer! Napa Valley was very pretty with wine orchards where ever you looked, most places offered wine tasting but as we were driving we didn't try any. Instead we just enjoyed the scenic drive home, well when I say home I mean back to San Fran. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back too which was great, a definite recommendation and do it so you are driving back into the city. Much better to see it this way.

One thing we noticed about San Fran is the amount of homeless people. Don't get me wrong, we didn't feel threatened or intimidated, it's just something you notice. There's a lot of a type of homeless we'd never seen before, for what ever reason people have been forced out of their homes, probably down to economic reasons, are now living in a makeshift tent next to all their worldly possessions. Which in this case is a lot of stuff. It just made me wonder what sort of support there is for homeless people in the US. We did learn that there are charities set up which provide short term support for people who genuinely wanted to get back on their feet, that's something that Jen's Uncle Wayne was involved in. That made me feel better about the situation.

Part of Jen's 'finding herself' on this trip was to learn to play the Ukulele. So a quick trip down to guitar world and we were plus 1 musical instrument. Jen managed to learn happy birthday which was handy as it was our friend, Alex, birthday back home. So we left him a musical message, what a treat, Jen's novice Ukulele skills and my tone deaf singing.

Another San Fran 'must do' is Lombart Street which a block of hair pin turns. It's unique and has featured in a lot of media and it's design was to reduce the gradient, that at the time, most cars were unable to drive up. But it's not as sexy as I'm making it sound.

We both loved San Francisco and would definitely come back. It's so easy to navigate and so many things to do and see, this is what makes it such a great city. But we were both looking forward to our next destination....... Hawaii...... Aloha!

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Comments

[Momma Toni]

I love love San Fransisco!
What an amazing place! i would so love to go there, i love the twists and turns and the thrift shops and the left hand shops! where else would you find such delights and such detail? the fish and crab restruants, yummy chinese food and an incredible landscape, i read all the tales of the city books by Armistead Maupin brilliant! glad your having a good trip, lots of love xxxxxxx