It’s all coming up roses

Today we visited the Golden Gate Park. It’s Americas oldest man made park, some 3 miles long and ½ mile wide. We took the 71 bus Market Street direct to the park.

We visited the botanicals gardens which where very well kept. It included many trails allowing you to get up close and personal with the plants from all over the world. We had to be careful as squirrels jumped over our heads in some of the most confined areas.

Located adjacent is the spectacular Japanese Tea Gardens. They consisted of a splendid array of Japanese gardens including a Zen one. Located in the heart is a Japanese tea room where Vin and I rested for some refreshing green tea.

Taking the 5 bus from Flosum Street, we headed back into the city for Thai food and some more shopping. We headed to the local gym to relax in the steam room before heading back to the Castro for a drink.

We biked the bridge!

Today we dusted off our biking skills, strapped on our helmets and biked the 1mile across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The day started with breakfast down in the hotel restaurant. We noticed there was a gift card in our room for the restaurant, so we decided to try it out. Turned out it was pre-loaded with $25 of credit. Thanks so much Wes, the manager here! Breakfast was on him. Feeling very stuffed we boarded a trolley down to Fisherman’s Warf to hire our bikes from blazing saddles bike rentals. It’s about $40 per person to hire the bikes, insurance and ferry tickets back to San Francisco.

The bike route took us along downtown San Francisco through mid-morning traffic, then out via the Golden Gate Park up towards to the Bridge. The views back to the city where breathtaking as we approached the Bridge. I must admit, I was a little frightened crossing it – Vinnie was fine. There where crisis emergency phones located every 100metres for those thinking of jumping off. Frightening!

Once across, it was downhill all the way to the town of Sausalito, where we stopped for burgers and chips! The weather was the total opposite to that of the city. For once we where baking in sunshine. Looking back towards the city, you could clearly see the veil of fog swallowing the high rises. We took the Ferry back to the city and refreshed in the hotel.

That evening we walked through Chinatown, which at 10pm on Sunday was practically a ghost town. Turning into North Beach, aka little Italy, we found a lively Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves on pesto-chicken and drank very strong Mojitos! We finished the evening with a pint in O Reilly’s Irish bar, taking the trolly back home.

There is such a thing as shopping therapy

Not much sight seeing done today as we hit the shops again. We didn’t rise until after 10am and didn’t get out of the hotel until after 12. Our hotel is ideally located right in the heart if San Francisco’s shopping district – so we’ve every major big label within walking distance. We hit Abercrombie (again), American Eagle, French Connection, Macys, Apple, Virgin, Shoe Pavilion, Armani Exchange, Puma and GAP to name but a few.

Macys had a great sale on shoes which Vin and I couldn’t resist.

We returned back to Panda Express for Chinese before returning to the hotel to relax.

The evening was spent back in the Castro, at the Monster Drag show in Harveys. It was their 2^nd year anniversary show, lasting only a hour it was unlike any in Ireland. Nevertheless, it was great seeing Drag San Francisco style. Arriving back to the hotel around 1am, we settle into bed to build up some energy before our 30km bicycle ride tomorrow across the Golden Gate Bridge!

Captive on the Rock

After heading to bed quite early, we both awoke around 7am, so decided to get up early and head out for breakfast prior our scheduled trip to Alcatraz at 12:15. We’d booked in advance for the trip online, a must to avoid queues and common sell outs.

Vin had noted a few good diners from tripadvisor.com, one such is Dotties. The review mentioned to ignore the queue outside as the food is classic. Not taking in the advice on queuing, we headed of to Jones St.(between Geary and O'Farrell),. What, there was a queue half way up the block to get into this small city dinner in the Tenderloins District. After 30 minutes waiting in line we where escorted to our table. Inside, the diner accommodates around 30 people max. Bottomless coffee was promptly served. We both ordered from their “blue” plate, including eggs (any style), bacon, potatoes, toast and juice. The portions where massive and the food certainly lived up to the reviews. Whilst we wouldn’t rush back due to the time it took to get seated and served, it is a must experience if you’ve got the time.

Time was a little tight and queue for the bay trolley car was massive, so we took a cab to pier 41 to collect our prepaid ticket, boarded the 12:15 “Blue and Gold” fairy to Alcatraz Island. The ride was smooth enough. After disembarking, a national park ranger introduced us to the island outlining where everything is including the talk schedule for the day. The prison is located at the top of the island, some 10mins walk, up hill from the dock. The views of the bay and San Francisco are outstanding.

We have paid for the audio tour, a must. It’s self led using a digital audio device. The narrator provides complete background to the history of the island/prison whilst haunting sound effects and voices of prison guards recollecting their experiences all recreate a chilling atmosphere.

A talk entitled “escapes” was held in the main dinning hall, which we attended. We spent some three hours on the rock. Well worth it.

Back on dry land we ventured onto the famous Pier 39, much to the delight of Vin when he found the resident sea lions! So cute! Heading back into town we took the trolley car as far as China Town gate, where we meandered back to Union Square at our leisure. Another word of warning, the queues for trolleys are on average 20 minutes if boarding at the terminal!

China Town was an experience, like the Castro, it’s full on. Everything is Chinese, including bakeries (don’t try the custard tart, it ended up being scrambled egg in pastry!) to schools. The area is massive and deserves an afternoon in itself to explore in-depth.

We headed back to the hotel for some shut eye before heading out for the night to the Castro. We ended up in a great bar/night club which played videos for ALL songs where being played. The music was very pop/dance based, with a fantastic mix of modern and 90s/80s. Prices where very reasonable, with a vodka/coke costing $4 only!

We left around 1:30 and couldn’t work out the timetable for the night owl bus service. We walk home, a good 40 minute walk, but we stopped in massive Sainsbury’s around 2am for some well needed grocery shopping! Hilarious!

Let the shopping begin

After a 9 hours nights sleep, we awoke at 9am PST. It’s very strange to think that as we wake up everyone back home is finishing up work for the day! We took it easy getting up and didn’t make it out until 12ish after availing of a few cups of the free tea/coffee in the hotel reception.

Today we based ourselves around Union Square, its shops and malls. First on our list had to be Abercrombie and Fitch. Our Mecca! Vin spent a small fortune on items! Well worth it though! From here we eat lunch in Panda Express, situated in the food court of the San Francisco mall – their two entrée plate is well worth it!

Some more shopping followed, as we hit American Eagle, Old Navy, Apple Store and Virgin. This area has so much shopping there simply isn’t enough time in the day. We will return! It’s great that the hotel is situated right in the heart of all this activity.

We took the muni metro (subway) to visit the Castro area. We where both shocked by its openness. It was full of bars, clubs, and stores including a massive Diesel! After a little walk around the area and coffee in Starbucks we headed back to the hotel to relax.

Tomorrow we’re off to Alcatraz Island.

Chasing the Sun, the longest day of our lives

We arose at 4am local Dublin time to be in the Airport for 5am. We arrived in San Francisco at 7pm PST/local time and got to bed at 11pm, some 30 hours after getting up that morning. It has clearly been the longest day of our lives.

Our flight wasn’t until 9am BST, but we where advised to arrive some 4 hours early due to the heightened security alert of late. Unfortunately someone forgot to inform the local ground staff in Dublin as check in didn’t open until the usual 6am. There really wasn’t much signs of extra security apart from Duty Free being delivered to the plane and all hand luggage being searched. Security was performed in a very non-treating fashion, very comfortable and re-assuring. The flight, CO23 from Dublin to Newark, New Jersey was fine, but we where let down somewhat as the aircraft wasn’t up to the same quality as last years. It was a basic 757, without personal in-seat LCD tvs and game system. Instead we shared common overhead TVs which showed Ice Age 2, which we’d both already seen.

We arrived in New Jersey after the 7.5 hour flight at 11am EST/local time. The area is located beside close to Manhattan, so we where treated to seeing the impressive New York City skyline. We’ll be back next week to play there! Our connecting flight to San Francisco, CO41 wasn’t until 3:30pm EST, so we passed the time window shopping and eating.

The second flight took off a little late, but some 6 hours later we arrive in San Francisco around 7pm PST. The airport, somewhat like the city, is stuck in a 1960’s time warp, very retro. Once bags arrived and we made our way into the City on the BART (Bay area rapid transit), taking the Red BART in the direction of Dublin of all places!

Walking from Powel Station to Union Square and onto to hotel was very quick, and provided a glimpse of what San Francisco is going to offer us over the next week. Our hotel is great, our room, on the 12th floor, overlooks Union Square. It was almost 9pm PST when we checked in, dumped our bags, picked up some food and headed to bed.

It’s been a very long day; we are both very excited, tired and need sleep. Here’s to the start of our adventure!