Day 2 - San Francisco - 30th June

Day 2 San Francisco

Monday 30th June

Today is a special day for someone very close to all of our hearts –

Happy Birthday Dad and Grandad, we miss you lots xxx

 

Dad doing what he loved best - the garden.  This was when Mum and Dad came over and Dad worked like a real trooper to help us with our garden in Sulby, he double dug a massive border for us in April 2008 XXX

 

 

Here is the crew having breakfast I have popped back up to the room as I forgot my gluten free crisp bread as it is continental breakfast only served 

  

We jump back on the Hop on Hop Off bus as we got a 48 hour ticket to take us to Pier 39

 

 

Pretty church that provides shelter and food to thousands of homeless people

 

Pretty buildings again

 

DUCK!!! These flowers are overhanging and just miss our heads when we drive by, very pretty though!

 

Back in amongst the skyscrapers again!

 

Another heart in Union Square

 

The Goddess of Victory statue at the top of the Dewey Monument in Union Square

 

Here is another heart xxx

 

Good use of the lane a collapsible extension to the restaurants

 

Cool archway

 



Building works for the proposed tallest building in San Francisco the Salesforce Tower and when completed it will look like below

 

 

A close up of the Bay bridge showing the two decks below is for going over and top is for coming back into the city.  We are planning doing the night tour and it takes us over the bridge, cool!

 

Bay Bridge is beautiful as well as the Golden Gate Bridge

 

 

Clock tower at the Piers

 

Looking into the city from the piers

 

 

Here is our stop Pier 39

 

Sea lions came to visit Pier 39 in 1989 and initially the city wanted rid of them but their tactics didn’t work so they now embrace the Sea lions and have made them a special area in the marina.  There aren’t supposed to be any Sea lions at the port as it is migration at the moment

 

Now we think we have a problem with seagulls in the UK but these beasts are MASSIVE!!  There were two having a scrap over some food and we stopped until they had done their battle and flew away rather than try and walk through them, no messing with those dudes!!

 

Through the gateway to Alcatraz!! 

 

 

Alcatraz which is remarkably closer to the shore than we thought

 

Colin fancies jumping on this truck, a little thirsty Colly!!

 

We walk along the dock and the choice of eateries are surprisingly fish, crab and lobster!!  Funnily enough if that is what is on offer none of us are hungry!!

 

This counter is right on the pavement, ewh!!!  Amy's face is a picture walking by  :o//

 

Marina with the fishing boats that the fisherman will take you out fishing or in the afternoon they will take you under the bridge and round Alcatraz for $15 each bargain prices to what the tourist boats were charging

 

Two grumpy men together ha ha!!

 

We are away to head onto the famous trams to go on the famous hills of San Francisco, exciting!!

 

But first things first, what a cool truck!!!

 

The tram getting turned round on the turnstile as it has just came back into the station, dropped off passengers and away to pick up more.  We are in a long queue for the tram but we don’t mind as this is one of the must’s of being a tourist in San Francisco!!

 

 

Nearly there!!

 

 

We are wrapped up as it is a bit cooler today and Amy and I will be chilly on the outside seats!  We ended up queuing for 50 minutes which wasn’t bad as the queue was getting even longer by the time we were on the tram

 

Girls are sitting comfortably and

 

Colin is standing comfortably ha ha!!  Getting the full true experience of San Francisco trams!

 

Here is Amy peering out the window where Amy and I are sitting and Colin is going to stand, ding ding!!

 

Is that all the controls that we have to start and stop this tram, we can hear the cracking of the electrics coming from underneath the ground on the tram lines

 

 

Here we go off on our trip on the Powell and Market route

 

Here we go on our first hill, going up!!  The hill doesn’t look so bad but wait…..

 

Wow here we go up and really steep inclince!!

 

Glad we are on the tram and not walking up this hill!!!

 

Look at these cute hire cars, meep meep!!

 

Here we go as what goes up must come down!! 

 

 

So hilly but it is cool on the tram!!  Amy is enjoying it so much she would like to stand up next to Colin, eeek! 

 

 

 

Watch your booty Colin as the Coors Light van is going past.  The traffic goes past the tram and the people standing on the side so close!!

 

So at this stop …………

 

Amy has now stood up and when we get over the lip and ……….

 

Look at that steep hill on Powell Street, Amy says ‘this is like a Disney ride, this is COOOL fun!’  The thrill seeker is back!

 

Soooooo steep I did think holy smoke why did I agree to let Amy stand up but she is absolutely fine it’s a mummy thing!!  She wouldn't sit down now anyhow she is having too much fun!!

 

Next lip and then …..

 

Whoooh!!

 

We stopped in the middle of the crossroads to let people get off at the Cable Car Museum, convenient but nobody got off!

 

The standers on the tram!!!

 

 

Amy holding on tight but absolutely loving it!

 

Oh no which way to go????  We went right!!

 

One last hill to go up!!

 

Last hill down to the terminus

 

We skim past another tram going up as we are going down, breathe in!!  One guy that was standing behind Colin was high fiving the other tram customers, Colin was too busy holding on to high five anyone!!

 

Sir Francis Drake Hotel, looks real posh!

 

Back to Union Square and another heart on display!

 

Cool looking bar

 

 

 

We had a look through the shops in Union Square and we managed to buy a couple of new dresses for Amy and a sunsuit, bargains to be had and we got them!!  This is just a random building we walked by with a .....

 

pretty archway!

 

 

Here we are heading onto the F tram to Markets and Wharves which will take us back along to Pier 39!  So all the tram’s are from different parts of the USA or Blackpool!!  We didn’t see Blackpool tram which was a shame but we thought of you Kathleen and Ken!

 

 

Steamy drain going on there?!?!?

 

We thought this was our tram but it was choca so we waited for the next one!

 

This one surely but then it wasn’t in service!!

 

Third time lucky, this is us this time!!!

 

The driver and our view down the street, bargain $2 each for Col and I and 75cents for Amy!

 

Here we are back at Pier 39 and it is lunch time so we head to Hard Rock Café

 

Raising a toast for Grandad’s birthday xxx

 

Then the funny one is appropriately 'Rock' hand signs!!

 

 

This was where Amy got desert as it says on the front door 'Greatest Chocolate Shop in the World', yummy!!

 

On the Pier

 

Ooooh look a perfect shop for Colin, you lefty!!!

 

Yeah right!!!

 

I didn’t know those celeb’s were left handed but does it make a difference eh no!!!

 

Look what signs we found, that is our next destination while we were waiting for Colin to pay for his treat from the Lefty’s shop

 

Here is the purchase!!  An oven glove that is left handed that will help Colin tremendously when he is the house husband making all the meals before he gets himself a job!!!  Heaven help us, Colin cooking!!!

 

 

San Francisco is famous for it being foggy too and we are now struggling to see the Golden Gate Bridge from the Pier!!  We are supposed to be going on it later with the night time tour!

 

 

As part of our Big Bus ticket we got a ticket to go on the 7D experience which was a combination of a 3D film with the 4D external special effects such as wind and our seats moving us around as if we were on a rollercoaster.  It was a shoot ‘em up game too so you played against all the other people that was in the theatre with you.  There were about 20 people in with us so you sat in a chair that was going to move around and we all had a laser gun to shoot robots in a cowboy setting!  Cool the funny bit was that when you were waiting to go in they had a live stream going of what the people inside were doing, funny watching their facial expressions, oh gosh that will be us in a couple of minutes!!  So game on!!!  Shoot, shoot, shoot and then the results Colin came first, I came second and Amy came 9^th, I think we all did good, good 5 minutes of fun!!

 

Look what we found in the Hot Sauces and Fiery foods shop!!!

 

We were told not to expect  any Sealions but look he is cute but does look a touch lonely!

 

The platforms they have built for the Sea lions to live, eat and sleep on!  And look at the white lighthouse building in the middle......

 

 

So we are just looking around the marina area when Amy spies Forbes Island (in the above photo), oh my gosh my Dad’s name was Forbes!!  How bizarre is that, but lovely to know that you are with us celebrating your birthday Dad!

 

Not many Forbes' around!!

 

Ok we are supposed to be going on the night time tour bus in that fog over the bridge, we don’t fancy it as it was cold enough on the bridge yesterday and that was in the sun!!  So we make a new plan and that is to walk up one of the hills to get to the Crookedest Street in the world on Lombard Street!  Sounds cool as we only caught a glimpse of it today on the tram!

 

We were walking through the pier when there was a guy doing a magic show so we stopped and watched him for 5 minutes

 

Amy and I have a turn on the Musical Stairs, so cool running up and down the stairs making music!!!

 

Amy has ran out of money but we had to get the San Francisco tram charm for her bracelet because she has been so good!

 

That is so true as it is very foggy out there this afternoon!

 

We can’t even see the Golden Gate Bridge now!!

 

Wow the birds are so intimidating it is unreal!!

 

So for us to get to the Crookedest Street we need to climb up the hill!! 

 

 

Amy is charging on ahead to see how many streets we have left to go before we get to Lombard Street where the windy road is!

 

It is funny as when we get to the top Amy turns round and says ‘I am so glad the man fixed your heart Mummy’ she’s right as I wouldn’t have been able to climb the hill without my heart being set off!!  My heart has been great since my operation and I can hardly believe that I had my op on the 10^th December last year!!

 

We stopped to admire the flowers!  Stunning!

 

We have arrived to the top of the hill and look at the directions of the cars on the street!!  WOW!!  No wonder this is the crookedest street in the world!

 

This is when Colin wishes he had a car to drive down the 8 tight hairpin bends!!

 

Lombard Street going down but we need to go up the crooked street to then go down Lombard Street on the other side to get to our hotel!

 

 

A different angle of the crookedest street in the world!

 

 

Here we go climbing again up the steps on the curvy street but our steps are straight and not curvy!

 

One of the eight tight hairpin bends!

 

As we are walking up the steps we see some Fuschia’s one of my Dad’s and my Uncle Bert's favourite flowers, so pretty,!!  I am sure my Dad and his brother, my Uncle Bert are getting up to mischief again in the Angel's greenhouses and gardens!

 

Amy calls Fuschias Dancing Ladies so she is thrilled to see something familiar to her too!!  Reminds Amy of Butterflies nursery walking from school back to after school club as there were a few houses along the road with Fuschia bushes in their gardens.  I had never heard of the term dancing ladies before but they do look like a dancing lady it was Pauline from Butterflies that enlightened Amy of the name!

 

 

Down one of the hairpin bends and then you can see all the way down Lombard Street to the row of trees

We went onto someone’s driveway to get this shot and then........

 

 we spy and smell some Sweet Peas, gosh my Dad used to grow these from seed every year and have a display of them in the garden since I was little.  Sweet Peas always remind me of being at home when I was younger in Elgin.  Today is certainly a day of memories!

 

 

Here is my Dad and I on my first day at work as a Secretary with the Sweet Peas behind us.  Remember those days pre-digital camera’s when you didn’t know what photograph you had taken until they were developed here is prime example, thumb alert!!  Still a great photo of Dad and I even with my dodgy attire but it was early 1990’s!!

 

 

 

The view all the way down and the photo bomber but he did apologise and take a photo for us just not as good as this one!

 

Imagine parking on this driveway, wow!

 

Absolutely stunning views over the city and out towards Bay Bridge in the distance

 

Beautiful display of Agapanthus which reminds us of our garden back in the Isle of Man

 

 

We did have Agapanthus on the left of the kitchen door on the patio that we used to look out onto when we were having breakfast, the Agapanthus didn't do that well in Sulby garden as it was a bit too windy for them!!

 

 

And here was our attempt of growing Sweet Peas on the trellis thing on the patio just below Amy's tree house!  The sweet peas didn't take that well either but the garden does look beautiful in full bloom out of the living room windows.  Certainly seeing the flowers has reminded us of our beautiful garden in the Isle of Man but also has made us think what kind of flowers are we going to have in our garden in Australia??  Amy has told us with living in apartments during this Big Holiday Adventure she would like to live in an apartment now instead of a house and isn't bothered about having a garden?!?! Colin and I are still unsure on that discussion!!

 

Here we are at the top of the Crookedest street but now the descent down the other side to our hotel, looks more hazy/foggy this side!

 

Pretty building on the way down

 

Fog City eh, certainly living up to its reputation this afternoon!!  It is funny as we saw Doggie Day Care in Los Angeles too!

 

Yippee here we are back to the hotel, now that was a good walk and no complaints from Amy! Certainly a nice way to end the day!

 

And then Amy asks for her last swing on the hammocks!!

 

The girls have a last swing together before bed as we have packing to do in the morning!

It has been a real emotional day but lovely knowing that Grandad was around us!

 

Tomorrow we move onto our next destination which is Hawaii.  Hawaii has always been a place we have wanted to visit, so tomorrow will be amazing!!  We are all looking forward to a week of rest and relaxation as we are all feeling a bit tired of the constant moves but on saying that we wouldn’t change a thing that we have done!!