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I think this was the point of the trip where our luck ran out and we pushed too hard to see everything.
We arrived in San Francisco in our hire car and drove to the hostel. Oh how I don't miss hostels. This particular one is an old army barracks called Fort Mason right on fisherman's wharf. On first inspection the place looks old and nostalgic but as you start to unpack, you realise that it hasn't actually been touched since WWII. There are no power points in our 10bed dorm, which also accommodated the San Francisco snoring team. There was also this constant smell of urine throughout the whole hostel. On the plus side, it made us more motivated to get out and about. The first afternoon/evening we walked along the wharf and had dinner (clam chowder included) in a restaurant that overlooked the bay with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After dinner we wandered some more and soaked up the atmosphere a bit.
It was on the first day we realised that because we had sacrificed a day in San Fran to stay longer in Yosemite, we now didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted to do. The next day Sav had booked a hot air balloon sunrise tour with Georgia (possibly to propose?) in Napa Valley. That meant they had to be up there by 5:30am but because Anita and I wanted to see Napa Valley and had no other way up there, we all piled into our SUV at 4am and headed to Napa Valley. We left them to their romantic morning and we just pulled up next to a vineyard and had a picnic breakfast and counted coyotes until around 8:30am. When we met up with Georgia and Sav (no ring), they had found another winery that we thought was worth checking out. So we drove up to the vineyard and found that it was also a castle. Now a quick flick through your memory will tell you that there aren't any real Castle's in America. This guy was just so rich he wanted to build one on the estate. The materials alone cost $40mil and it took 30 years to build. It's only been open 6 years and not a single drop of blood spilt on its pavers. So we took the guided tour around Castello di Amorosa and learnt all about their wine making process. Each room of the castle is used in making the wine. They even have a dungeon and torture room. The tour finished with wine tasting and now we are full of knowledge on wine we can't afford to drink.
The tour finished just after midday and then we realised we were short on time and we had to see a much as possible. So we burned it back to San Fran and booked 2 bus tours of the city that would cover everything we wanted to see. As the tour kicked off, the weather turned bad. The temperature dropped, it started to rain and the fog almost swallowed the whole Golden Gate Bridge. I should also mention that the tour was an open top double-decker bus. But we were determined to see everything. Highlights included driving across the bridge, the amazing view from different points of the city and we also saw the top secret buildings where George Lucas works on the effects for all the Star Wars films.
We managed to see almost all of San Fran in that few hours and were quite proud we knocked it all over. Then came the sad discovery that Alcatraz was all booked out the next day. That was a bit of a downer on the trip but means we have to come back to San Fran at some point in our lives.
So the next day we now had the morning free so we bought a loaf of sourdough bread. Why? Because that's where it was invented/created. We took that loaf with us up to Alamo Square Park. Why? Because that is where the opening scene from Full House is shot. It also has the best view of San Francisco and it was also where we messed around doing some filming with the gro-pro. (stay tuned for that). At about 1pm we drove to the airport, said goodbye to our faithful FJ Cruiser and headed for our flight to Chicago.
Sorry San Fran, we pushed too hard but thanks for the seafood. I wasn't there long enough to leave my heart in San Francisco but I did wear flowers in my hair.
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