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We arrived in San Francisco, via Houston at around 5pm, tired but excited to be there! After a surprisingly friendly and painless trip through immigration control we located the Bart train system and made our way to Union Square and the heart of San Francisco.
The city was bustling and immediately we loved it! We got an early night, after our 2 very early mornings and some much needed rest for our weekend ahead.
We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and started exploring the city. visited Union Square and saw an outdoor art exhibition and then hit the shops!!!! 5 months of no retail therapy can take its' toll!! We walked for miles and explored every inch of downtown...and replenished our clothes....5 t-shirts for the last 5 months can get kind of boring!! We found an amazing thai restaurant, with the best beef penang we have tasted since Amaranth! So overall, it was a great first day!
Sunday was spent going to an outdoor store..which involved a long walk, and then the Museum of Modern Art...which had some great displays of Matisse and Andy Warhole. After US itinerary planning we went to the movies to see Rush Hour 3...good humour!
Early the next morning, armed with our City Passes, we caught the historic cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. The scenery on the way was great...especially seeing the steep hills and wealthy neighbourhoods that San Fran is so famous for. At Fisherman's Wharf we walked along the piers...seeing some hilarious street folk. The people that live on the streets here are so courteous and often come up with some innovative ways of earning a bit of cash..one guy hid behind big branches and jumped out at unsuspecting passers-by, a man with a sign around his neck, saying that all meat had 'poop' in it, an evangelist's sign read: 'Stop your Whoring Now!', a little Black boy doing some seriously impressive break dance moves and my all time favourite: a man with a sign around his neck: 'Why Lie, it's for Beer...'.
Our next stop was the aquarium and then a cruise around the bay, seeing Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge and Angel's Island. It was a great feeling to know that we had seen and read about all these sights and now we were here!
We were picked up from our hotel at 8.30am on Tuesday morning for a tour of the wine country and the Muir Woods. The Muir Woods is the only surviving area of the city to still have an abundance of Red Wood Trees..these trees are up to 300 feet tall and 30 feet wide, we were completely dwarfed! They can live for 6000 or 7000 years. We had a beautiful day and the walk through the woods was beautiful. Our next stop, the wine country....Sonoma Valley is stunning, and the surrounding towns are beautifully maintained. We tasted some great wines, the weather was boiling, so we were loving the crisp, ice cold whites on offer! We visited a total of 4 wineries, one being the Jacuzzi Family Vineyard...owned by the people who invented the jacuzzi....unfortunately the wine tasting does not take place in one!
The next morning we were collected at 6am for our Yosemite National Park Tour. We had both been looking forward to visiting the park and it did not disappoint. We had a wonderful guide called Frank, who was enthusiastic and informative and made our trip so enjoyable.
John Muir, the 19th century naturalist said " No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite" and he was right. It was breathtaking and the Half Dome and El Capitain Rocks are awesome. We drove around the park, visiting various sights and then we had our lunch at a river in the park...the weather was perfect, the river was like a mirror and I can honestly say that it was one of the most amazing sights that we have seen on our travels so far..I hope the pictures do it justice! After lunch we hiked to see the Giant Sequoia trees and then made our way back to San Francisco. Frank stopped at Treasure Island along the way for us to see the sunset over the bay...a great end to a great day!
After a lie in on Friday morning, we caught a bus up Haight Street - the street which was home to much of the Hippie activity in the 60s/70s. Then to the Palace of Fine Arts, which housed the Exploratorium...a fun way to spend the morning!
We walked to Chinatown in the evening and enjoyed some of the local culinary delights for dinner!
On Saturday, after doing some laundry and admin, we made our way to the Embarcadero and met my friend Caroline, who was in the city on business, for some drinks at a great bar overlooking the harbour.
Sunday was one of the hottest days of the week and the weather was perfect. We met up with our friend, Luke, in Union Square and headed to Fishermans Wharf, where we hired bicycles for the day. What an awesome way to spend the day...we cycled along the piers until we got to the bridge and then cycled over it, stopping along the way to admire the views. We made it to a little town called Sausolito for lunch and a much needed drink and then decided to cycle to Golden Gate National Park...which was uphill!! We reached the park, where they were having a concert to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 'summer of love' - we saw an interesting bunch of people from current hippies to middle aged couples enjoying the atmosphere! We made our way to the Mission District for dinner and a well-earned beer...we had cycled nearly 40km but it was a perfect way to see the city...San Francisco has bike routes everywhere and driver's are so courteous...made a change from the World's Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia!
Monday was Labour Day and we caught the train down to Stanford University to meet up with our friend, Jordan, who we had met on our Peru. He gave us a tour of the University and the town of Palo Alto..and we even saw the Facebook Offices! We had lunch with Jordan and his roommate from France and then headed back to the city for the evening.
Our final day in San Fran was Tuesday and we travelled to Berkeley University Campus to visit Luke and see the university. We saw International House, where Luke is living and then he took us on a tour of the campus. It was really impressive and a great place to study! We ended off with lunch in a student beer garden to soak up the atmosphere!
Then back to San Fran and the Greyhound Bus station to begin the 16 hour bus journey to Vegas.
Our impressions of San Francisco: a great city - it reminded us a lot of Cape Town, weather is mild, with a bit of fog at times but that usually cleared by the afternoon, the traffic was incredibly courteous...being a pedestrian was so easy! Great food, the people were friendly and the air was the cleanest we had smelled in years! Overall we loved it, would recommend it to anyone and will definitely be back one day if we can!
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