Made a fairly early start and got the BART across the bay into San Fran. Weather was a bit rubbish - but I gather that's to be expected from Fog City. We grabbed some breakfast (pancakes, natch) in the tacky, touristy Fisherman's Wharf area (presumably every US port has one). Amused, after our attempts to order coffees in the local parlance, to hear the table next to us ask for a 'flet woyt'. Then spent the morning wandering around Russian Hill, blown away by the architecture and mad, steep streets.
Took a ferry trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, which was really cool and very informative, even if the bridge was shrouded in mist. The facts and figures about it were fascinating, and the stories about The Rock compelling...and the weather improved as the trip went on so by the time we disembarked it was almost sunny.
And there were more seals.
The perspective allowed plenty of coveting to be done...not that we hadn't been quite capable of that from ground level. Ruth decided she wanted this one.
Then it was time to join the throngs and have a look at the famous crooked bit, which Dylan informed us he had driven down many a time in some game or other. Difficult to get a good photo, but here are a couple - one from the other (Coit Tower) end, and one from the top of the turny brick-paved section (that's Coit Tower to the right), which was made so in the '30s because the 27ยบ slope was too steep for the cars back then, apparently.
Time to head to another part of town, so we walked towards the 'cable' car (tram) route we wanted, only to find a broken-down tram in the way. So we kept on walking...and before long found ourselves in Tenderloin - not a nice part of town. What with the guys on the corners, the skid-row feel and the general change in atmosphere, we didn't hang around to see if the Green On Red song had any relevance for the situation. Got to the bus stop we were looking for and had only taken a glance at the map before a nice young chap asked if we knew where we were going. We must have looked a bit spooked and out of place. He was genuinely a nice young chap, though, and proved very helpful.
Got the bus to Golden Gate Park and had a wander, then were persuaded by the kids to hire this for an hour...
..because we hadn't used our legs enough yet today. It was fun though. And the park was nice, although still too many gum trees for my liking.
Pretty much exhausted by now, we took a quick stroll through Haight Ashbury, not expecting it to be quite as cheesily 'hippy' as it was. Abandoned plans to eat there due to the total naffness of it all and instead jumped on a bus back to Downtown and then the BART back to Oakland, where we had marvellous fish tacos for $4 a pop. They also had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap. Called it a day and, very proud of the boys for walking (and 'cycling') bloody miles without a single whinge, wended our way back to the apartment.
Epic day.
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