We had a booking for Alcatraz at 1:45pm, so after breakfast at Denny's downstairs, we decided to fill the morning in on the Golden Gate bus trip for a second time hoping to get a clearer view. Betsy was driving again...we thought we put her off her commentary a bit because we already knew all her lines and she had nothing new to say! The foggy bridge was much the same... maybe it was just a little better. After that we took a ferry trip from Pier 33 to Alcat...

Today we walked a few blocks to Leavenworth Street, where we picked up tickets and took a bus tour to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Our driver was a bit of a character called Betsy who gave a lively commentary but she had a particularly raspy voice. Unfortunately, the bridge was shrouded by fog which is apparently the normal situation. San Francisco is noted for its fog. However the bridge still looked beautiful, even with the fog. On the other side of the bri...

We had to get up at 2am today to be ready for our 3am shuttle to Dulles Airport. The bag check-in at the airport seemed to be a bit of a rabble. When you check-in the bags, they give them back to you! We had to wheel the bags around the corner and an unofficial looking TSA guy finally took them off us. Must make sense to them I suppose. We flew across from Washington DC to San Francisco on United Airlines flight 567.Had the only real hiccup of the trip so f...

Today we hired a small Chevrolet Aveo and drove about 30 miles west to Chantilly, Virginia to see a separate part of the Air and Space Museum which houses a huge collection of much larger aircraft featuring the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay and the Space Shuttle Discovery.Just about to retire before we get up at 2am tomorrow to catch the flight to San Francisco.

On the 4th, I listened to Queensland’s win in the State of Origin on the (internet) radio before we headed off to witness the reading of the Declaration of Independence. That was followed by the big parade along Constitution Avenue after which we visited the National Archives and saw the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We then went for a tour inside the rotunda of the Capitol Building and finished the day by viewing the firework...