San Francisco

After an easy drive up the 101 from Mountain View, we left the off ramp in San Francisco and pretty much landed up at our motel. Nice and easy just the way we like it. Our motel was just south of Market Street and a short walk from china town, so we stopped for a meal before bed. 

China Town

The following day we did a walking tour from our Lonely Planet guide book, it took us around most of the city.  We walked through the back streets of Chinatown, through Little Italy and up a very steep road to the Coit Tower - from where you can get a pretty cool view of the whole city.

Stupidly Steep road towards Coit Tower

We then walked down the steep Filbert steps discovering houses hidden away in the hillside and only accessible by foot from the steep path and steps.  From here we headed up to Pier 39 and had some local beer at Bubba Gump's.

Forest 'Gump' Ratcliffe

A little merry, we walked down past all the odd numbered piers to the Ferry Building  (the even numbered ones are south of the Ferry Building).  By this point we were quite tired and hungry so we headed back to our motel.

Ferry Building

The next day we embarked on the 49 mile scenic drive, which is a route which takes in most of the main sights of the city.  Driving through downtown was a bit manic but once we got a little further north, the roads were a little quieter.  Some of the highlights were City Hall, Lombard Street (bendy road) the Palace of Fine Arts, the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point, Golden Gate Park and the awesome view of the whole of San Francisco from the top of the Twin Peaks.  We even stopped off at a nudest beach but it mustn't have been warm enough for that.....  An awesome drive and a very enjoyable day.

Palace of Fine Arts

Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco from Twin Peaks

On Saturday we went to the railway museum and did a bit of shopping - a relatively relaxing day which was well received.  Sunday was the day for our trip to Alcatraz.  We got up early and took a 1930s Street Car to the pier and sailed to Alcatraz island.  The audio tour of the prison was great and we got to listen to a former inmate talk live about his memories of being locked up there.  We wandered round the island, sat on the steps in the recreation yard and learned about several escape attempts from a ranger.  

Alcatraz from the boat

As the sun started to set, we took a cable car ride from the north back down to market street.  Kate managed not to fall off as she hung onto the side of the car.

Cable car being turned around

Our next day (Valentine's day) was spent exploring Sausalito and Napa Valley (wine region).  We had lunch in a waterfront café in Sausalito and drove up to some of the oldest wineries in Napa Valley.  Unfortunately we experienced our 2nd day of rain since leaving the UK and we missed the sunshine.

Sausalito bay

We stayed the night close to the airport ready to fly to Calgary, Alberta the next day.  We've been here for a week now and blog updates will follow.