Advertisement
Published: November 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
So i’m writing this blog on the way down highway 1 while Gareth is driving. We left San Fran yesterday morning (Monday) on our way down the coast towards San Diego. San Fran was so cool. Had a fab time staying with Lynne and Ken and they were way too nice to us! Great Irish community there so we really felt at home propping up the bar at the Shannon Arms. We arrived on the Tuesday into the bar to meet Lynne and were greeted by the land lady Theresa who made us feel very welcome. :-)
On our first day we took a leisurely stroll down to the beach .... just 24 blocks But it was all downhill so it wasn't until the way back that we realised quite how far 24 blocks was Uphill at about a 40 degree angle!!! We also did some shopping and noticed things were SO MUCH cheaper than NYC and Chicago But strangely enough bread and chocolate are comparatively quite expensive in the US. So you can imagine how upset we are about no sambos and chocolate ha ha.
Day 2 began with our tour of Alcatraz which was awesome.... A bit
freaky when you are walking around and looking into the cells and the audio has the sound effects in the background of what it would have sounded like when the inmates were there. And it’s no wonder there are no known escapees. We certainly wouldn’t have fancied the swim to San Fran, rocks everywhere and really strong twisting currents. Gareth reckons he would have made it though…. Hmmmm…. Anyway then we walked pier 39, Really tourist territory but nice to see it. The seals at the wharf (of which there are about 150) really are very smelly and noisy and they love knocking each other off the jetties. Very funny!
Then it was a visit to ‘In n Out Burger’ which is a Californian chain with the yummiest home made fresh and did I mention yummy burgers and proper chips or sorry “french fries” made from actual potato. It was a good recommendation from Lynne on this one! 😊 Next we were off to the Crookedest Street on Lombard Street. And if we thought the walk back from the beach was steep, this was like walking up the side of a 100ft wall Ouch!!! but the pics were worth
it - I’m sure you’ll agree. A short visit to little Italy and China town followed and that was certainly enough for one day.
On the Friday we got a fab clear sunny day to walk the Golden Gate Bridge and we got some really cool pics of the Bay from up there. The rest of the day we took it easy…. Just an 8 K walk along the sea front.…..In the evening the famous Fog arrived and we watched it envelope the Bridge almost entirely. Really cool! And it explained the fog horn type noises we had been hearing all afternoon and took no notice of ….. :-P
Friday night the four of us went for a couple of “quiet” drinks in the Shannon Arms and again we noticed it had a great homely feel with the mishmash of Irish accents floating around. A light midnight snack of Seniore’s Pizza was enjoyed by all.
Saturday was our first day of bad weather in San Fran. Until then it was around 22ish I think--- still not good with Fahrenheit conversions…. Now not bad like Dublin rain Oh No…. Just a bit of drizzle as the fog cleared.
We went downtown for some shopping on our lovely 71 bus, which had become our favourite mode of transport during the preceding few days in our attempt to cope with the hills. It was back to the Shannon for some even quieter drinks in the evening.
Sunday was by far the busiest day of all. Mainly because Ken and Lynne kindly offered to bring us around in the truck to show us a few more of the sights. Wow it was just great to have the freedom of our own transport again and not be limited by the bus/train routes available. So we went to Sausalito first or Sausagito as I liked to call it, which meant driving over the Golden Gate Bridge -much faster than walking, I can tell you! We drove up to Marin Headland and the view of the Bay was amazing. Then we drove down the Crookedest Street on our way to Coit Tower for some more fab views and next was the Golden Gate Park.
Earlier in the week we had considered walking through it, but were glad we didn’t because you would really need a whole day or a car to get around
it and see everything. It certainly has a lot more going on than the Phoenix Park. Lovely gardens, a museum, a lake with rowing boats and pedalos. It’s a really great use of the space and you could spend days there and still not see it all. We wrapped up our last night with a visit to Twin Peaks for a panoramic view of the city at night.
Next morning, bright and early, we collected our rental car to begin the drive down the famous Highway 1. (Which will be our next blog entry)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.221s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0488s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Elvira
non-member comment
A man on the bed in Alcatraz????
Is there a way on the bed of the cell??? Or am I seeing things? I can't believe the hills in San Fco!!!! wow! Love the blog! Will Gareth do all the driving? or will you give it a go? BIG KISSES GUYS!