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We are fortunate to have a midday flight to San Francisco which means a sleep-in for the girls. a leisurely hotel breakfast for Nige and Clare and time to calmly fill the car with gas and return our trusty Chevy Suburban to the Alamo rentals with plenty of time to make our flight. This is a short 1.5 hr flight and we get the chance again to see Las Vegas from the air-this time during the day - a perfect ring of bustling humanity surrounded by desert. We land in San Francisco and negotiate the task of getting to our hotel - this time Nige has found a hotel about 50 metres from the subway exit - so well within walking distance, and the subway has a line that leaves from the airport terminal. All goes smoothly (apart from Elise's subway ticket not allowing her through the turnstyles) until the last hurdle when the escalator to the street from three flights down is broken, so we have to carry our heavy bags up by hand into the sunlight! Puffing a little, we check into this historical landmark hotel - hotel Whitcomb which with it's sumptuous marble and crystal chandellier lobby looks gorgeous, only to realise the drawbacks of an older building - excruciatingly slow lifts and lack of power points to recharge multiple gadgets each night! A little cramped with our family of five always arranged, along with a rollaway bed, into a room designed for 4, we dump our bags and head across the road to Burger King for yet another hamburger! Girls keen to chill in hotel, so Nige and Clare head out for a spell of sightseeing around the streets of SF. We find ourselves quietly suprised at the numbers of homeless standing around, along the streets and corners. We explore for a couple of hours, head back to the hotel and then later, to avoid the inevitable fast food, and due to the family still recovering from lunch, we decide to grab some 'healthy' food from a local supermarket - fruit, youghurts and some pastries! Roll on breakfast!!
Day two involves catching a trolley street car down to the waterfront to enjoy the sights and sounds of Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf. We enjoy a delicious breakfast on the wharf and spend the next few hours wandering amongst the large variety of shops and market stalls, looking at the various local mechandise and tourist trinkets on offer. Favourites include a sports and music memorabilia shop with souvenirs signed by the famous respective artists, Gheradelli chocolate shop, and a puzzle shop that captured our attention (and wallets) for almost an hour. We ended up competing against each other in a game that measures your brain waves which in turn drives a ball on a track. The idea is to relax your mind and calm yourself - more than your opponent. This causes the ball to roll along a track - the winner being the one who is most calm, the ball being driven by your brainwaves to the opponents end. The best way to do this is close your eyes and calm your mind. Great hilarity broke out when Nige beat Clare after about 30 seconds! Her look was priceless when the buzzer sounded, she opened her eyes, and realised she hadn't won. Concensus decided that Niges normal mental state is almost permanently flat-lining :)
We continue on along the waterfront watching various street artists and looking in tourist shops. Lunch at a burger chain recommended by Rebecca in LA - 'In and Out Burgers' and we meet our first Kiwis of the trip - a family travelling here from Hamilton! So nice and yet strange to hear Kiwi accents! A walk up the steep streets of San Fran to visit Lombard Street - The girls decide they have walked far enough and catch the trolley car back while Nige and Clare walk to Gheradelli Chocolate factory and on to the beach area where brave swimmers are doing training laps along the bay! Back to the hotel, meet up with the girls and head back out to a newly spotted Westfield mall for dinner in the foodcourt before going home with full tummies and tired feet.
Last full day in this old city, We wake early and with our online tickets clutched firmly in our hands we catch a trolley bus back down to the wharves ready to board the boat at 8.45. Incredibly popular the queue stretches for miles. Beautiful day, calm water and the first boat to arrive on the Island makes our trip there especially enjoyable. We all take the audio tour through the cell house block and find it fascinating walking through the cells of some of Americas most notorious criminals to date. We spend around 3 1/2 hours on the Island exploring the grounds before heading back to the mainland for some lunch at Johnny Rockets. We then took the tram for a short while until we were interrupted by a road accident and had to transfer to a bus. We finished the day with some shopping at Westfield mall then walked back to our hotel exhausted (mum especially) for some supermarket dinner. Seeya San Fran, Hawaii here we come! :)
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