"San Francisco has only one drawback - 'tis hard to leave". Rudyard Kipling

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In 2005 we travelled to New Zealand for my friend's wedding and I bought my first Lonely Planet travel guide. It was such a success that I now buy one wherever we go - I even bought one when we first moved to WA and many of the restaurants we tried became firm favourites. So last night with the girls snuggled together watching Pretty Little Liars, feeling posh ordering their room service, we put our fate in the hands of our trusty Lonely Planet to find us somewhere good to eat. It certainly didn't disappoint, Bruce and I both saying it was probably in the top 5 meals we have ever eaten. The chosen restaurant was in the Castro district, the gay capital of the world. The Korean restaurant, Namu Gaji consisted of several wooden tables with counter-style benches around the edge. The restaurant has its own farm which produces most of the food they cook and our waiter was extremely knowledgeable about all the ingredients. He advised us on what to order as some of the dishes are tapas style while some are larger plates. We started with a pickle tray consisting of leeks, sauerkraut and Japanese radishes. We followed this with a salad of squash flowers stuffed with eggplant puree with cucumber and basil oil. Dumplings with seaweed and shitake mushrooms were up next with a dish of kimchi (Korean fermented vegetables). The main event was a rice dish with vegetables, egg and wagyu beef. It arrived on a sizzling platter which we were advised to leave sizzling for a few minutes until the rice had started to crisp on the bottom and then mix it all together to cook the beef. Every course was absolutely delicious so we asked our waiter to choose our dessert. What came was a most weird but wonderful Black Sesame Pudding. With a chocolate ganache on the bottom and then a kind of greyish looking panna cotta made from blackened sesame seeds topped with cream. I have never tasted anything like it but it was strangely appetising!

After our meal we decided to try a cocktail bar in the area and AVB in the neighbouring Mission district was our destination. A trendy but classy bar complete with well known and highly respected bartenders (Tom Cruise has nothing on these guys), it won Best American Cocktail Bar at the annual Spirited awards last week. We gave our bartender free reign to make us cocktails of his choice and after four very different selections we called it a night. Waking up this morning to a minor hangover and a full blown cold was not favourable for a day of shopping so a hearty breakfast was first on the agenda!

Lily has been saving her money to splash out here and after a good start in the Nike store to replace my old runners that I can feel the pavement through, she was off, splurging on everything she could find! Izzy had very specific goals of what she wanted to buy and managed to get the aqua coloured Converse she has been dreaming about. After a full on day, we returned to the hotel to pack before riding the cable car one last time down to Pier 39 for a cheap and cheerful dinner on the wharf. Lily ordered a hamburger with cheese, to which the waitress replied, "That would be a cheeseburger!" and looked at Lily as though she had completely lost the plot!

It has been an enjoyable few days in San Francisco, other than the rude folk! I'd love to come back one day and explore the surrounding areas, especially the Napa Valley. We are heading off down the coast tomorrow to start our road trip to LA on the last leg of our journey. We all feel sad and don't want this amazing trip to end. It's going to be so hard coming back to reality.

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