Send my regards to San Francisco

Hello again!! Well its been a while since we've updated the blog but again a busy week or so, this time in California.

San Fran: 15th - 20th May
1st day - We arrived in San Francisco after a 6 hour flight from New York and just loved it straight away. The first afternoon we went straight to the coastline, walked along the seafront and went up to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was so hot that afternoon so we got a bit of colour. That night we were going to carry on exploring the city but as soon as we got back to the hotel we fell asleep so after a good nights sleep we were up bright and early the next morning.

2nd day- We had a mint breakfast on Pier 39 (the main place for restaurants and bars) and saw the sea lions that live on the dock, then we hired bikes, rode along the seaside and across the GG bridge (soz abbreviation) which was a fantastic experience and a great view of the city. We couldn't believe how high up it was!! We were lucky there was no fog that day covering the bridge as usually you can't see the top of the bridge. That afternoon we took the boat trip to Alcatraz!!! Here we spent about 3 hours listening to a ranger telling us stories about the prisoners/guards and listened to an audio tour as we walked around the cells.

3rd day - A pretty sunny day again so headed to the largest park in North America - Golden Gate Park, only thing is we didn't realise how high up it was and we ended up in the fog which was the same height as the Golden Gate Bridge so it got a bit cold! We walked through a Japanese tea garden, had some jasmine tea and fortune cookies, then we hired a pedal boat and went around the lake, there was waterfalls and even turtles/big fish in the lake. That night we went to Union Square in the heart of the city for something to eat and see what nightlife was like in San Fran.

4th day - Had a day of just sight seeing the city as we woke up late. We went gay watching in Castro and saw a few sights that shocked even us, we thought we were mature but we couldn't stop pointing them out and laughing ha ha lol!!! Next stop was the most photographed place in San Fran, a row of Victorian houses that they use on loads of postcards and that were saved from the earthquake in 1906. Later on that afternoon we walked through Japantown. That night we met up with Lou and Mark (Saunders sister+hubby), had a nice meal on the pier and a few drinks, it was a really nice night and really good to see them.

5th day - Went on a historic cable car right up all the hills of the city to Lombard Street. The cable cars were great, we were hanging off the edge of them and got chatting to the conductor who told us all about how they run off a cable underground and only have wooden brakes!! Lombard Street is called the crooked street, it has 8 40 degree turns going down a really steep hill, its also where Danielle Steel has a house, it was a gorgeous area, a cross between a nice Whitby and a really posh Viking Road in Stamford.

20/05 - packed our bags ready to leave San Fran and picked up our hire car that we'll have for the whole of California. We really wanted a camper wagon but it turned out too expensive so we settled for Toyota Corolla and set off on route 101, got a free upgrade from the 'egg on wheels' we were meant to have as the lady on the sales desk described it when she was trying to get us to upgrade (must be the English accent again). They wouldn't let us a hire a TomTom so we bought one ourselves, worth its weight in gold i tell thee - it has saved soooo many arguments we actually drive whistling and holding hands now lol!

Before getting to our next stop - San Jose, we stopped off at Muir Woods. It was great, full of redwood tree's with massive trunks, tallest trees we've ever seen. Then it all went a bit wrong. I left the camera in the ladies on our way out, when we realised about 10 minutes later and went back it'd gone - American Gypo's! Luckily we'd burnt all pictures up to Phili on disc and sent it home but we still lost us running up the rocky steps, all of San Fran, and Muir woods.....gutted. So after a very quiet journey to San Jose we decided to have a few days there and then seeing as though its only 45mins away we decided to go back to San Fran, re-visit our favourite places and take some more pictures.

San Jose 20th-22nd
1st day - Arrived a little late after the camera fiasco so just had enough time to get our bearings and buy a new camera. We ate in downtown San Jose and had a weird tea of mashed potatoes and chicken skewers

2nd day - The day of the big game....Headed straight for an Irish bar to have a few beers, a bit of lunch and watch the game. What a afternoon, it was such a mint atmosphere in there. After the game we took in San Jose, to be honest not that much to do here so 2 nights was definitely enough

3rd day - Back to San Fran, a whistlestop tour to retake pictures but really nice to be back, we decided this is definitely our favorite city so far.

At the moment we're in Santa Cruz and its great, we'll update you all when we've spent a bit more time here.

All our love
Team RA
xxxxx