Slept in til about 11am - so a decent 14 hrs sleep! (so really only a couple more than sleepy heads like us are used to). Stepped out the front door of the hostel ready to face our first full day in the US of A and the first thing we hear is Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know blaring from the speakers of a sports car driving past! Little did we know - it had just hit #1 in the US and had been on Glee that weekend. Quite bizarre.

When we rode the bus to our hotel last night we could see that Coit Tower - a tall cylinder shaped tower that sits on top of Telegraph Hill - wasn't too far away. We thought it would be a great start to the day - go up the top and get a get view of the city and work out where everything was. It looked like maybe 2 blocks up some of San Francisco's famous hills. WRONG. It was about 6. All of which were up steep hills and stairs. After huffing and puffing our way up, we were greeted with great views over the bay, out to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39, and all of Downtown.

At the top of the tower we found a machine that takes a penny (1c coin) and squishes it into an oval shape, stamping it with a touristy picture. Kim loved it and we got 3 or 4 different scenes of SF - the bridge, the tower, a cable car, etc. Took a heap of snaps and got our bearings to head down to the wharf for lunch. All downhill this time - thank god.

We checked out Pier 39 first and saw (and smelt) the Sea Lions. Not a huge number in at the moment as they tend to head south during winter, but some had stuck around to tough it out which was nice of them - must have known we were coming. Grabbed some lunch at a seafood diner on the wharf - of course we went the famous clam chowder in a sour dough bowl. So good.

Wandered around and had a look at the shops and stalls, and found another pressed penny machine so got a couple more - this time Pier 39 sealions and Fishermans Wharf.

Headed back to the hostel at around 4pm to get ready for the basketball tonight - Golden State Warriors v Dallas Mavericks. To get there we had to walk down to the BART station (around 12 blocks) then catch the train to Oakland and walk to the stadium (about 10 mins from the station). But worth it. Plus, it was 'Bollywood Night' at the game, so we got a free t-shirt (crap) and a free Steph Curry poster. We grabbed a beer and a hot dog and took our seats - top tier, but at centre court - we had a great view. Only disappointment was that the Warriors were in 'tank mode' and were resting Steph Curry and Bogut was injured. But they didn't put up much of a fight. Mavs were up by 20 early in the 2nd quarter. David Lee, Nate Robinson and Klay Thompson started a mini fightback to get it to single digits early in the 4th, but Dirk and the Mavs ended up winning by 16.

Got soaked on the way back to the train - rain pouring down and lightning lit up the sky. We heard the next day that there were over 750 lightning strikes in the Bay area tonight!

Luckily it had stopped raining by the time the train got us back into SF. We walked home and grabbed a pizza slice for supper. We stayed up a bit hoping to listen to the Blues v Pies game (2.30am SF time) but were too tired - plus had to be up early for pickup at 6am tomorrow for our tour of Yosemite National Park. Yikes!

Song for today: http://youtu.be/d9NF2edxy-M

(thought I might try and give you something different)