San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Forty - Afternoon (7 March)

After lunch at Boudin café (where they make their own bread, including one in the shape of a teddy bear), we walked the rest of the way to Pier 39. Miss Robb and her mummy bought coats as our next - and final :-( - stop is New York where it will be much colder.

There was such a long queue to get the cable car back from Pier 39 we walked a few blocks and joined a different line. That turned out to be ideal as it dropped us right at Geary (where we’d caught the bus this morning) and there was a bus already there. It was just as well as we were meeting the rest of the family for dinner and it was getting a bit late.



Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Forty - Morning (7 March)

Our cousin was busy today so we took the bus to Union Square and joined the queue for the cable car. (Going to San Francisco and not riding on a cable car would be a bit like going to Venice and not riding on a gondola). We rode all the way to Fishermen’s Wharf (past the famous curving road that features in all the films – Lombard Street).

We had a great time looking at the old ships moored at the wharf before taking an hour’s cruise on the Lovely Martha, which gave us great views of the bay, bridge and Alcatraz. (You can look round now it’s no longer a prison but that didn’t appeal to us).

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Nine (6 March)

More girly stuff again today – all the ladies had manicures!

Then we headed into the city, to the more central part this time. San Francisco is famous for its Chinatown and also has an Italian area known as North Beach. We walked through both these into the main business district, including looking into the beautiful St Francis Hotel. We also saw where the cable cars between here and the shore turn around.

My heart sank a little when we went into another shopping centre but it was only to take the curvy escalator to the café at the top (Nordstroms Bistro), which has wonderful views of where we’d just walked. The winding escalator was a bit unnerving so we took the lift back down.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Eight (5 March)

More shopping this morning (Miss Robb needed shoes) :-( but least we drove through Golden Gate Park first and past the beach. We also stopped at a cheesecake shop on the way home :-).

When we got back we had a walk round Golden Gate Park as one of the entrances isn’t far from where our cousin lives. It is huge so we couldn’t explore all of it but it’s lovely,

We had dinner in an Italian restaurant back on Sacramento Street.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven (4 March)

First stop this morning was the famous Pier 39, which was looking lovely in the Spring sunshine. The daffodils and tulips planted everywhere in pots were out already.

We had lunch at the Swiss Louis Restaurant, from which we could see the Golden Gate Bridge and the sea lions. (We would have known the sea lions were there even if we couldn’t see them because they make lots of noise.)

Afterwards we toured more of San Francisco and tried to find a bear museum but we didn’t manage to. We had a quiet evening back at our cousin’s.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Six (3 March)

Although we were now in the Northern Hemisphere, the weather in San Francisco was lovely and Spring-like, especially in the sun.

This morning we went shopping on Sacramento Street and then had lunch at the marina. We had brilliant views of the bay and the famous former prison, Alcatraz. Our cousin also drove us round some more of the city to show us where other relatives and friends live.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Five (2 March)

All our travelling had caught up with us so we had a lazy day today, getting up late and not venturing out except for a short walk round the block. (That expression comes from America because their cities are built on grid systems whereas ours tend to be more higgledy piggledy).

Two of our relatives had just celebrated their birthdays so in the evening we went out to the country club they belong to for a sumptuous celebration buffet.

Barnaby

San Francisco: Day One Hundred and Thirty-Four (1 March)

Yes, you have read that right! En route from Fiji to Los Angeles, we flew over the International Date Line so we got to experience 1 March 2008 twice. The two days were rather different though.

The nice people at LA International Airport stamped my passport but we didn’t see any of the city because we just collected our bags and checked in for our next flight.

That journey only took an hour – Americans use flights to commute rather like we use buses and trains – and we arrived in San Francisco at 6pm local time.

We were going to stay with relatives and they met us at the airport and took us for a tasty but huge dinner. (It was so big we needed several doggy bags to take the leftover food home). Then we went back to their house for an early night.

Barnaby