Firstly we must apologise for not updating this for two weeks!! But the truth is that we are just having so much fun!!

San Francisco really is a wonderful city with so so so much to do, but also a city which you can sit back and chill!!

In the last two weeks we have tried to do everything we can, but at the same time take time to soak up the fantastic vibe that the city of SF has!!

We have done all the tourist bits that we didn't fit in before going to Jackie's; Presidio Park, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, Muir Woods, China Town, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Science Museum but have also been lucky enough to see parts of San Fran that many others do not get a chance to see i.e. LucasArts and all of the amazing film and game memorabilia, artwork and photographs!

We have walked soooo much, and in San Francisco it's all about the hills! Looking at the map you think to yourself "hey that place that we really want to go and see is only a few blocks away!" but in reality it's a few blocks all the way up a really really steep hill, or it's a few blocks all the way down a really really steep hill, which means on the way back you are gonna have to walk all the way back up it to get home!!

We knew the day that we decided to head to Presidio Park would be a long day of walking but it almost killed us!! We traipsed all the way to the park, around a small portion of the park (it's huge!!), then along to Fort Mason, and to Fisherman's Wharf, grabbed some lunch and then headed on back to our hotel via the wiggly bit of Lombard Street, and the up and down, and up and down the roads! Once returned we worked out that we had walked 12 miles but it seriously felt like near on double that!!

Alcatraz was fantastic! It was such a brilliant trip, you get to pick up an audio tour of the prison facility where all the commentary is done by the prisoners that were incarcerated in Alcatraz, and the prison guards that tried to keep them under control.

Ollie's dreams just about all came true on our visit to LucasArts and lunch with one of his old work colleagues, Kellam. She has been working there for a couple of years now making the Lego Star Wars game for various consoles, as well as many others, and was kind enough to show us around the buildings with all the memorabilia, artwork and photographs! And so we of course got the opportunity to get some photos with various Star Wars characters!!

Muir Woods was definitely an experience! Not having a car we booked ourselves onto a trip that would take us to Muir Woods and a little town on the Bay called Sausalito! The little organised tour was us two and a bus full of Americans! Plus a very very camp bus driver!! A very camp bus driver who liked to recite poetry that he had written using a very theatric voice combined with all the hand movements required, One poem called A Tree, another called A Leaf, one about clouds and another about a bench!! It was quite obvious why he was a bus driver!! But this of course completely made the trip absolutely hilarious for us as all the other trip goers were so very enthused!!

Both Muir Woods and Sausalito were beautiful! The size of the Redwoods at Muir Woods leave you completely dumbfounded, but the place has unfortunately been turned a little too touristy with the majority of those visiting really not interested in soaking up the beauty!! But thankfully we were able to walk a little further than most and get to some quieter areas!!

Then came the day when Ollie did his back in!! Sasha decided a walk to China Town and Market Street was in order to get us out of the hotel and so an afternoon was spent trying to decipher the Chinglish menus and try to work out what may be in the dim-sum if we were to order some!! The deep fried chicken's feet we decided would definitely not be chosen!! Not quite hungry we moved onto Market Street before deciding to head on back to the hotel! On route while waiting to cross the road a gentleman in an electric wheelchair approached us to ask for some help! And of course the good samaritan that Ollie is, he obliged!

As we have already said the roads here are hills, and this poor old man resided at a property on one of these hilly roads! Access to his front door was up a step, a step that was just a inch high at one side and nearly a foot the other, and someone had removed his ramp!! All he needed in that case was a little help up the step!

So positioning the wheelchair in front of the step it was clear one side would have to be lifted at a time. Bending down at one side Ollie lifted with all his might to get the chair up onto the step but was unable to move the weight of the chair and the old man, and instead heard that dreaded pop sound in his back!!

Not wanting to leave this poor man stuck outside his apartment Sasha and Ollie both try and lift the other side to see if they can get it up the smaller side of the step when the man asked "would it be easier if I got out of the chair?" and proceeded to stand, and walk away out of the way of the chair!! WTF!!!! The man can walk!!!! And yes, unsurprisingly it was ALOT easier!!

So then Ollie spent the next couple of days in a fair amount of pain, but thankfully with beer and rest, the pain soon moved on!!

After moving on to our new hotel for our last week we came across a great website that tells you all the free things happening in the city each day and so spent a few days experiencing everything we could for as little money as possible!! Including free Tacos (yep, more meat for Ollie!!!), free cake, walking the Golden Gate Bridge, free entrance to the Science Museum and watching Captain "Sully" Sullenberger turning on the Christmas lights!

A few years ago we walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge which was amazing and so we were determined to walk the G. G. Bridge! The striking difference between the two bridges is the lack of high fencing on the Golden Gate meaning that you can lean right over the sides and get a fantastic view down below!! That is of course if you don't suffer from Vertigo!! Ollie stumbled his way across avoiding the edge as much as possible, while Sasha leaned over and pushed Ollie towards the edge as much as possible!!

The Christmas light turn on was a bit of a damp affair, with a storm bringing in torrential rain and wind and absolutely soaked us while we waited for pilot Sully to turn on the lights and fireworks!! We really should have stayed at home!! We could hardly see Sully as we tried to shelter, the lights only lit up the buildings behind us, and the fireworks just caused clouds of smoke due to the rain!! So off we headed home to peel off all our drenched clothes and drink wine in our pants!!

So now we come to the point were we need to move on! And tomorrow we will be catching a bus to Santa Cruz where we will be staying for four nights!

With any luck we may also find a computer that will allow us to upload our Yosemite and SF photos for you all to enjoy!!