San Francisco

We woke up in San Fran to a cracker of a day. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We walked down to pier 39 and checked out some of the eateries and shops.

Unfortunately Alcatraz was closed due to American Government shutdown, so this was as close as we got. 

 We then hired bikes to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. I have been in love with this bridge since I was a little tacker and watched Full House. It was so much fun riding along the coast to the bridge entrance and to see this beautiful thing up close. It had been a while since I had ridden a bike, so was a little tricky at first, navigating through traffic, pedestrians and other cyclists. But got the hang of it quickly and loved ringing my bell at tourists who stupidly stood in the (well-marked) bike lane to take photos. Riding across the bridge and taking in all it's history and beauty was one of my highlights. You can see from the photos I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Had an absolute ball. 

    

    

We rode around for about 4 hours and stumbled across this beauty. 

   

Then feeling very tired and hungry we grabbed a bite to eat and explored the streets of San Fran, including the famous crooked street, which was chockers with cars/tourists. Felt sorry for the people who actually live there. 

The steepness of the streets is crazy. Photos don't really do it justice. It is ssssoooooo steep!

That night we checked out 'off the grid' which is held at Fort Mason every Friday night 5-10. There are lots of food trucks specialising in different cuisines from around the world, live music, cocktails & beer and little stalls. Such a cool vibe. We loved it!!!! Definitely something we'd recommend if you visit San Fran on a weekend. 

The next day we ventured out to Union Square to check out what it had to offer. We caught the famous cable car which was a bit of a novelty. It was pretty cool, although it was fairly scary when they had to get a run up the steep streets, which meant flying down the street backwards, jolting to a stop the powering up again to make it up the street. Crazy stuff. Nothing like the old trams I used to ride to Glenelg.

Union Square was ok. It had all the shops and centres you could ask for, everything was fairly expensive and we were just waiting to get to the outlets in Vegas. We found some cool shops...loved Anthropologie and Urban Oufitters, both stores stock some pretty cool and funky stuff...and of course I had to bring some little treasures back with me, to Wade's delight :)

We cruised back to pier 39 bought some little souvenirs and Wade finally got to try san Fran's famous Clam Chowder.... Yuk!!! 

We then strolled home and enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset. 

This was our roof top view...

That night we dined at our favourite restaurant Delarosa....amazing! And had a fairly early night in preparation for a big day cruising around Napa Valley. 

Walshy xx

California Dreamin'

After an amazing week in New York and dealing with 'PMTD' (post Mark and Terri depression) we flew to LA to continue our US adventures. We wanted to make the most of our road trip up Highway 1 so we picked up our sweet Mustang first thing and hit the road north. 

With Loz's driving advice ringing in our ears (righty tighty, lefty loosey), Wade negotiated the roads of LA like a local. The weather was terrible at first which meant we didn't see Venice Beach or Santa Monica at their best. We stayed that night in beautiful Morro Bay and hiked up to Black Hill Lokout where a dozen or so locals were raving about their amazing sunsets. Unfortunately, a low flying cloud killed our sunset but our stay in Morro Bay was lovely. 

We did find some road signs difficult to read over here. Even the maps weren't great. 

The next day was a cracker. The sun was shining and we were like 'Mark who?' We headed north again through what could be described as the jewel in the crown of the Pacific Coast Highway. Some notable stops included a bay full of sealions which Wade loved ('any wildlife is a bonus Rhi'), Hearst Castle (lowlight of the trip - don't bother stopping here), Big Sur - where you can find the tallest trees in the world at over 100m tall and Point Lobos. As well as these stops we enjoyed beautiful scenery along the entire stretch of road. 

My 'hangry' face... Wade became quit familiar with this if I hadn't eaten in a while... It's tough on the road. 

As we got closer to San Francisco, and traffic got busier, we suddenly found ourselves on a 10 lane freeway at 70mph (120 kmph for the Aussies playing at home). Even my amazing navigational skills didn't prepare Wade for this one. As always, he was cool under pressure and got us to our airbnb apartment in the marina area safely. 

Although we were pretty knackered we strolled down to Chestnut St where we were extremely lucky to hit the food jackpot at an Italian restaurant called Delarosa. This was our favourite dining experience of the trip (except for the NY Lamb burger which rocked Wade's world in Chelsea). 

Walshy xo 

(and Wade, as he wrote this post...as you may have guessed)