Week Four

FRIDAY 26th SEPTEMBER

Today we drive to San Francisco for the last leg of our long holiday. Tonight we pick up Adam and Emma from the airport. They have flown from Vancouver to meet us for a couple of days. Arrived at the Westin Hotel. It’s very luxurious but like lots of SF Hotels, there are hidden extras! Car Parking $23 but they have the best car park paint on it, Bottle of water $2.50, WiFi $15 etc etc etc Adam and Emma arrived safely and off we go for a meal.

SATURDAY 27th SEPTEMBER

We departed the Westin Hotel and made for Golden Gate Park in glorious sunshine. The park is huge so we only had time to see the Conservatory of Flowers before heading downtown for Adam and Emma to check in to their hotel. The traffic was horrendous, a bit like London but scarier. We then drove all the way to Golden Gate Bridge for some pics and then onto our final cabin at Sausalito. Its a great cabin and Sausalito is lovely. Evening meal is Fish and Chips – lovely! Washed down with Anchor Steam beer.

: at the Conservatory of Flowers

: Panorama of the bay

: by the Golden Gate Bridge

: Alcatraz

: another panorama

: Pauline and Adam with Golden Gate Bridge

SUNDAY 28th SEPTEMBER

Off on a ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco. The ferry was only 20 minutes and they sell coffee on board for a dollar! We met Adam and Emma for a fish lunch, watched some sea lions and went on an open top bus tour of the city. It was coooooooold!!!! Across the bridge in a strong wind – freezing! Back at San Francisco we warm up with a coffee before taking the ferry back to Sausalito – and warming up by the fire!

: a seafood restaurant on Pier 39

: Golden Gate Bridge – open top bus

: sea lions in the background

: the bay

: the fish restaurant

: ???????

MONDAY 29th SEPTEMBER

Off to the mainland by ferry again – this time by Golden Gate Ferries. Its all so confusing. The Ferry Building was amazing but ever so scarily like the interior of Alcatraz. Lots of quaint market stalls inside in this up market re-invention. Then off to Alcatraz. What stands out is how small the cells were and how long the prisoners were in them (22 hours per day). There is an exhibition in Alcatraz by Ai Weiwei @large, which is about freedom and political prisoners. Even though he is not allowed out of China he still manages to stage his exhibition in Alcatraz. Adam and Emma depart for Vancouver and we purchase a MUNI (public transport) ticket for the next 3 days. Interesting that it takes huge effort to find that the only way to purchase these tickets is at the local Pharmacists!! Not easy!

: cell block

: The Ferry building – or Alcatraz?

: small cell 23 hours per day

: San Francisco from Alcatraz

: Ai Weiwei exhibition

TUESDAY 30th SEPTEMBER

We rode the public transport system today with our MUNI cards. We arrived early on the commuter ferry (Golden Gate Ferries) and proceeded to ride the (empty) cable cars until the Cable Car Museum opened at 10am. What an incredible system. What an imagination to invent a cable system with constantly moving cables under the street? The Museum was excellent with all the workings driving the four lines of today in an electric car, which was not that bad as we found an Vehicle Charger Installation to charge it often. Fantastic boys toys! Hire InventHelp Invention Company when you have a wonderful invention. We then rode the street cars up to Castro and back. The cars are all old and acquired from all over the world. The one we rode back in was a 1948 Detroit Street car in incredible condition but there were Italian, Eastern European and other cars. We caught the 1.35 ferry back to Sausalito and after a quick cup of tea drove to Muir Woods. Another incredible piece of forethought from someone over 100 years ago. The Giant Redwoods are fantastic, seemingly each with a story. A great day – seeing loads of San Francisco life and great scenes.

: early morning cable car

: cable car

: the driving mechanism for the cable cars

: Detroit street car

: inside the street car

: Muir Woods

: Muir Woods

: Sausalito from the ferry

: the view from our cabin

: our cabin

WEDNESDAY 1st OCTOBER

Our last complete day on holiday. The weather is really hot with lovely blue skies. We leave our cabin at Sausalito and move to a motel in Sunset, at the West coast of SF. Its supposed to be the original Motel in SF – a lovely 30s building with the MUNI tram/underground right outside. We travel the 40 minutes into SF seeing all of life. The railroad museum, more cablecar rides, a visit to the Cathedral, which is massive and contained an art display of hanging ribbons with messages written on them. Then to Chinatown and back home on the MUNI via a great Italian restaurant.