San Francisco- 13th, 14th and 19th till 26th February 2012

The Sydney Harbour Bridge. Just kidding.

The last (gasp!) stop on our journey of awesomeness was San Francisco.  We spent a couple of days there before we went to Seattle, staying in a lovely hotel near Union Square, and then a week in an apartment before we flew home.

Our apartment was great- gorgeously fitted out and decorated, with an amazing view from the roof terrace.  The downside you ask?  Well it was at the top of Telegraph Hill which meant many, many steps every evening after eating out, and close proximity to a whole bunch of strip clubs!  Other than that the location was great- very handy to the waterfront but still close to town.

View from our street down toward the water and the Oakland Bridge. 

Night view from our apartment

Breakfast on the roof terrace. Mushrooms from the market and fresh baguette.

Gin and tonic on the roof terrace!

The street we walked up every night to get home! 151 steps - quite something after a meal and a few drinks. We usually stopped for a small cry halfway up. 

If you've been following us at all this last year you'll have a fair idea of what we got up to- a bit of sightseeing, a bit of shopping and some eating and drinking.  San Francisco is a sunny, relaxed town with a completely different feel to New York.  It is also full of mad people. We did a lot of walking and definitely enjoyed the warmer weather.

One of the big sightseeing highlights was the tour of Alcatraz.  It honestly was interesting and informative! Also, best audio tour ever, it was done by ex-cons and warders.

It also looked a lot like a boat.

If you look closely, you can see the burnt out shell of the warden's house. The fire was caused by that thermite bomb strike at the end of 'The Rock'. Honest.

Nope, no-one could have swam these turbulent waters and lived to escape.

Note: the graffiti is NOT racist. An American Indian tribe put it there when they occupied the island.

The Library. 

The dining hall - there were tear gas canisters in the roof to be deployed in the event of a riot. 

The exercise yard.

The light house - the first one on the west coast and it is still going.

This is one of the prison cells that the three prisoners escaped from - featured in the 'Escape from Alcatraz' movie starring Morgan's dad, Clint Eastwood. They dug their way out with spoons, made fake grates in the wall to hide what they were doing, and also made fake heads. They had commentary from the guard who tried to wake one of the prisoners. He had a bit of a turn when he patted the guy's shoulder and his head fell off.

'Broadway' in the main cell block.

Upstairs in the hospital wing. We assume they created zombies here.

This feels familiar somehow...

Golden Gate Bridge at sunset

Because it is so big, we decided to do Golden Gate Park the lazy way- by Segway!  Yes we looked like idiots but it was a lot of fun.

No, we actually looked much more dorky than this photo implies. Fact: Segways work by magic.

The de Young fine arts museum.

The California Academy of Science.

The Japanese tea gardens

On the Saturday we joined many people, and many more dogs, out walking.  We walked all the way from the Fisherman's Wharf area, around the waterfront and over Golden Gate Bridge.  At that point we realised there were no public transport options back from where we were, so we joined in on a bus tour. It was pretty cool because the bus was a converted old historic tram and conveniently took us to see the few things we hadn't yet got to, like all of the beautiful Victorian houses in the Haight-Ashbury region.

Crabs a-plenty at Fisherman's Wharf

The beach by Fisherman's wharf.

The bay near Fisherman's Wharf, with Alcatraz in the background.

This seal is busy stealing everyones bait. When they stopped re-baiting their pots,  he yelled at them. Pretty funny.

He was chubby looking too. I suppose that is part of the essential essence of a seal, however.

View from Golden Gate Bridge of Sausolito. The bridge is really, really, really high. Morgan got the heebies just a little bit.

It's painted in "International Orange", in case you were wondering. Because it fits in with the landscape. Somehow. Maybe if you are on Mars.

Our Mum's were right- there's no reason you can't be warm and stylish. Note the vast array of safety features between me and the traffic.

This was our tour on an old tram that had been converted into a bus. 

The view we're looking at through the tram window is a very famous one- the park in front of the "Painted Ladies", a row of Victorian houses, with the San Francisco skyline in the background.  Most people of our era would recognise it from the opening credits of "Full House"!

Our wandering also took us to the Ferry Building, where they have great food and regular farmers markets; to Lombard Street, the "crookedest street in San Francisco"; to Coit Tower, an art-deco tower which contains some amazing murals from the 1930's; and around the centre of town.

The Ferry Building. Tamales in the foreground, and the world's second best ramen behind it. Compare the queues.

Inside the ferry building. Not the weekend, because there is not an insane madness of people.

'Shrooms.

Rainbow coloured carrots! And psychedelic beets above them.

Banh Mi. A traditional Vietnamese roll full of pork and all things good and Vietnamesey. 

I got to try a tamale.  Nom nom.

...and Morgan found Ramen, which made him a very happy boy.  Even though it looks like he is being sick in this photo, he's not.  Honest. That guy behind him looks like he should probably stop eating and have some more fruit.

Morgan hiding the every increasing hole in the crotch of his only pair of pants.

Nah, didn't go on the cable cars. Too crowded, and a massive queue. That's not how we roll.

Lombard Street - the windy-est street in the city. Looks like a normal street in Wellington.

Coit Tower

One of the amazing murals in the tower. One of the artists got in trouble for being a big Commie and making everyone look miserable.

View of Alcatraz from Coit Tower

The Transamerica Pyramid. Striking, yet hideously ugly.

Morgan about to lean forward and hit his hat on the clear plastic in front of his face.

Downtown San Francisco

The foyer of one of the shopping malls. The mall is new, but the dome is over a hundred years  old.

A Frank Lloyd Wright building in downtown San Francisco. It was very, very cool.

It was also an antique store - and not selling Grandma's sideboard type of antique shop. It was a selling a 5,000 year old statue of Budda for $20,000 type of antique shop.

In addition to strip joints our apartment was also very handy to lots of great restaurants.  Most of these were recommended by the owners of our apartment and were genuine 'locals'-  signs were almost invisible but several of these places had lines of people waiting outside by 6pm.  We also, on the advice of the lovely Rachel, had a great meal at a Peruvian restaurant on the waterfront.

Loved this cute little bar.  Check out the mo and suspenders combo! It was a bohemian cigar bar - so bohemian they didn't actually sell cigars.

Potatoe, sweet potatoe and banana chips at La Mar, the Peruvian restaurant.  The rest of the meal (cebiche and skewered chicken) didn't last long enough to have a photo taken.

Onion pancakes at Brandy Ho's.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much pizza. It's OK, we boxed it up, took it home, and threw it away a few days later.

A "classic" Italian joint, with home made gnocchi (delicious) and an owner who made the rounds shaking hands and patting backs. Which always seems a bit weird.

 We had a great time in San Francisco, and it was a lovely way to end our trip.  It's hard to believe it's over- when you travel for this long it feels like a way of life, rather than a holiday.  Another big thanks to everyone who's shared in our travels this year and to all who have kept up with our blog.

Maybe one more post when we get the van back?