And so we reach the last day. We're a little sad that its almost over but we've one day left and we're determined to enjoy it. The main highlight of the day is a tour of alcatraz!
The morning is spent collecting our alcatraz tickets and getting in a last bit of honeymoon shopping. I pick out a nice t-shirt and Izy picks up another set of Lucky brand Jeans. We look in a few other shops and make one other purchase but we dont go crazy as our cases are already close to bursting!!
Alcatraz is great. Its a shame our tickets are booked for 4pm really. That only gave us 2 hours which pretty much is the length of the audio tour of the prison part. It gave us very little time to explore the island and learn about the native indian takeover that happened after the prison closed. Still, the audio tour was really good and we get some great photos and memories to go into the scrap book!
The final evening is a repeat of the sushi from Saturday but this time we eat out for a more romantic affair.
The return leg on the Tuesday is an uneventful affair. We pay to move to the door seats which gives me more leg room than I can use and gives Izy quite a bit more as well (the door extends inwards a little). It was only $100 extra for the two seats so I'd defo do it again. Once home we crash into bed for a quick snooze and take it easy. Its sad to be home but we've had a wonderful time.
From here on out the blog will be updated much less but will cover various things I find interesting such as sport, tv, movies, games etc. Cheers for reading and check back if any of that sounds appealing.
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Francisco. Show all posts
Monday, 24 September 2012
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Food glorious food
Today is one of the days I've really been looking forward to!
Firstly we're going on a little bit of a food aventure. Before we got married we watched the Sanfran episode of Man v Food and it featured two places we're visiting today.
The first is a sandwhich shop in Mission called Ike's place. We order a Manage a trois on Dutch crunch bread with extra Mozzeralla sticks. Its amazing (if loaded with calories :)). I make a mental note to try and recreate it back home.
We enjoy the food in a local park that has tennis courts and basketball courts. The grounds a little wet in places and we have a private laugh as first one and then a second person try to walk down the bank to our right and completely wipe out.
Then its off to meet Izy's brother (and my new step brother) whos just moved out here with his family (wife and two kids, 3&0.5ish). We meet them also in mission and take them to the second food place. La Cumbre! Its a burito place that has apparently the best buritos in the district. I'm still pretty full from earlier so I only manage half of mine but its very tasty. I save the rest for tea as its too good to waste. After which is back to the park to hit the kiddie playground with the little ones. We spend an hour watching Jonah (the 3 year old) run, jump and swing with boundless energy. I'm tired just watching!
Tired and a little hot from all the sun we grab an icecream on the way home and say our farewells.
The evening is an exciting affair. We goto the local blues bar. Sunday nights is jam night and throughout the evening the band lineup is forever changing as local established musicians come and go. Its amazing to watch and listen to them playing and Izy and I hit the dance floor on more than one occasion to lay down some moves that are mostly stolen from our wedding routine!!
Firstly we're going on a little bit of a food aventure. Before we got married we watched the Sanfran episode of Man v Food and it featured two places we're visiting today.
The first is a sandwhich shop in Mission called Ike's place. We order a Manage a trois on Dutch crunch bread with extra Mozzeralla sticks. Its amazing (if loaded with calories :)). I make a mental note to try and recreate it back home.
We enjoy the food in a local park that has tennis courts and basketball courts. The grounds a little wet in places and we have a private laugh as first one and then a second person try to walk down the bank to our right and completely wipe out.
Then its off to meet Izy's brother (and my new step brother) whos just moved out here with his family (wife and two kids, 3&0.5ish). We meet them also in mission and take them to the second food place. La Cumbre! Its a burito place that has apparently the best buritos in the district. I'm still pretty full from earlier so I only manage half of mine but its very tasty. I save the rest for tea as its too good to waste. After which is back to the park to hit the kiddie playground with the little ones. We spend an hour watching Jonah (the 3 year old) run, jump and swing with boundless energy. I'm tired just watching!
Tired and a little hot from all the sun we grab an icecream on the way home and say our farewells.
The evening is an exciting affair. We goto the local blues bar. Sunday nights is jam night and throughout the evening the band lineup is forever changing as local established musicians come and go. Its amazing to watch and listen to them playing and Izy and I hit the dance floor on more than one occasion to lay down some moves that are mostly stolen from our wedding routine!!
Saturday, 22 September 2012
A little bit of history
We wake up excited by our first day in San Francisco. Or at least we kind of do. I'm pretty hungover but Izy persuades me to get up and embrace the hotel breakfast which is passable (we've been in better places) at least until we reach the nearest Starbucks.
The sun is shining and we wander up through Union Square and north to North Beach to the Beat Museum. On the way we stumble across a Chinese Street Festival which is teeming with crowds and street stalls and generally lots of fun. I manage to get some good photos - our new camera has seen a lot of action this holiday.
The Beat Museum is really good - obviously the owners are pretty clued into the whole scene and in touch with the defendants of the legendary Neil Cassidy and the director and actors of the new film of On the Road. We have a slightly sad chat about the demise of Jack Kerouac - Izy has been re-reading Big Sur on the drive up Highway 1 - and spend quite a while looking around the museum which is really interesting and informative if a little lacking in actual stuff - the referee shirt worn by Neil Cassidy while driving Ken Kasey's Further Bus is the only actual relic of the period - although the photos and video interviews are fascinating. Afterwards we go to the famous City Lights bookshop - which was the publisher of most of the seminal Beat writing - including Howl which was the subject of an obscenity trial in the late 50s. Mindful of how small our suitcases are we try, however, not to get too carried away at the till but Izy gets a few postcards and its good to have been there.
After all of that, we're off to Fisherman's Wharf to experience the famous arcade museum. The huge former shipping warehouse has hundreds of well-preserved arcade machines and so on from as early as the late 1800s. These include Waltzer pianos and some pretty tricky antique baseball games - all completely playable. I am in my element getting to grips with a classic Star Wars arcade machine and finally the brilliant Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine after i manage to wrestle the controls off an annoyingly tenacious 40 year old man. Izy wanders around reading up about the emergence of the fairground culture in turn of the century America and wracking up the high scores on Skee Ball.
Finally as the chill sets in in the late afternoon light, we scale the hilly heights back to our hotel where we settle in with take away sushi to watch the Real Housewives of Atlanta followed by the Real Housewives of Miami and then, for a bit of culture, the Real Housewives of New Jersey - a classic old school American hotel experience.
The sun is shining and we wander up through Union Square and north to North Beach to the Beat Museum. On the way we stumble across a Chinese Street Festival which is teeming with crowds and street stalls and generally lots of fun. I manage to get some good photos - our new camera has seen a lot of action this holiday.
The Beat Museum is really good - obviously the owners are pretty clued into the whole scene and in touch with the defendants of the legendary Neil Cassidy and the director and actors of the new film of On the Road. We have a slightly sad chat about the demise of Jack Kerouac - Izy has been re-reading Big Sur on the drive up Highway 1 - and spend quite a while looking around the museum which is really interesting and informative if a little lacking in actual stuff - the referee shirt worn by Neil Cassidy while driving Ken Kasey's Further Bus is the only actual relic of the period - although the photos and video interviews are fascinating. Afterwards we go to the famous City Lights bookshop - which was the publisher of most of the seminal Beat writing - including Howl which was the subject of an obscenity trial in the late 50s. Mindful of how small our suitcases are we try, however, not to get too carried away at the till but Izy gets a few postcards and its good to have been there.
After all of that, we're off to Fisherman's Wharf to experience the famous arcade museum. The huge former shipping warehouse has hundreds of well-preserved arcade machines and so on from as early as the late 1800s. These include Waltzer pianos and some pretty tricky antique baseball games - all completely playable. I am in my element getting to grips with a classic Star Wars arcade machine and finally the brilliant Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine after i manage to wrestle the controls off an annoyingly tenacious 40 year old man. Izy wanders around reading up about the emergence of the fairground culture in turn of the century America and wracking up the high scores on Skee Ball.
Finally as the chill sets in in the late afternoon light, we scale the hilly heights back to our hotel where we settle in with take away sushi to watch the Real Housewives of Atlanta followed by the Real Housewives of Miami and then, for a bit of culture, the Real Housewives of New Jersey - a classic old school American hotel experience.
Friday, 21 September 2012
Goodbye little car! You served us well!
So this is it. We grab breakfast and enjoy a chat with some of the other guests about American politics, Obamacare, OJ Simpson and Drug companies before loading up the car and setting off on our last journey to San Fransisco. Its uneventful until we get to the bay bridge which is massive and actually rather fun if a little slow (city traffic!). Its also made the more lively by the fact that the fuel needle is on E as I was doing my best to get to car drop off with as little fuel in as possible to save money. A task thats made harder by the gauge not being to scale! (at least it seems that way). After the bridge I bite the bullet and put in a little fuel to play it safe and we drive the last few miles to the hotel. Parking is a crazy $39 dollars so we swing round the corner and park in a multi storey that is still crazy at $3 for 15 mins but then we're only dropping the bags at this point. We do that and then drop the car off. We wave good bye and head out for a little explore which as per usual includes a coffee from Starbucks.
The evening involves us walking to the Ferry building at the far east of the city to meet up with Anya's friend Gina. We do so and head to a local cocktail bar and begin throwing back white russians and Boscia's. We chat for ages and are having a great time but Gina has to head to a house party. She invites us too and hey, why not! The party is on the other side of town so we take our first bus journey and head over there. On the way Gina warns us of the area called the tenderloin that sits between our hotel and the party we're going to. "Don't walk it at night" she warns.
The party is fun but we don't stay too long and end up getting a taxi back to the hotel. All in all a lovely first day in SF!
The evening involves us walking to the Ferry building at the far east of the city to meet up with Anya's friend Gina. We do so and head to a local cocktail bar and begin throwing back white russians and Boscia's. We chat for ages and are having a great time but Gina has to head to a house party. She invites us too and hey, why not! The party is on the other side of town so we take our first bus journey and head over there. On the way Gina warns us of the area called the tenderloin that sits between our hotel and the party we're going to. "Don't walk it at night" she warns.
The party is fun but we don't stay too long and end up getting a taxi back to the hotel. All in all a lovely first day in SF!
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