San Francisco

After leaving Yosemite we started to drive towards San Francisco.  We spent the night in Oakland just across the bay which was much cheaper than staying in the city.  In the morning we drove over the bridge into San Francisco and decided to make the most of our last day with the rental car by doing the 49 mile scenic drive around the city.  There are signs posting the way, it was quite difficult to follow at times and we did detour a few times but it was a good way of seeing the main sights.

Our first detour was to Coit Tower for some views of the city.

Our next detour was down the 'crookedest street in the world' - Lombard Street.

We then drove on to the Palace of Fine Arts which was very impressive and huge, much bigger than I was expecting it to be.

I had read that the Lucasfilm Studios were in San Francisco and that anyone could go into the lobby and see some of the memorabilia that they had on display.  It wasn't too much of a detour from our scenic drive but it was quite difficult to find.  Eventually we found Yoda sitting outside the entrance.

The driving tour was a great way to see San Francisco but it took a lot longer than we expected so we decided that we didn't have time to actually go over the Golden Gate Bridge today so stopped for a few photos at the side instead.

Once we'd dropped off our hotel we went to our hotel - the Hotel Triton which was in a great location just at the edge of Chinatown.  

On Saturday morning we were booked on the first tour of the day to Alcatraz Island.  Being the first tour group out meant that we got to wonder around the prison while it was fairly quiet before the big crowds arrived.  The tours are sold out days in advance so as the day goes on, the island gets busier and busier.

We did the audio tour around the prison which was really interesting.  Part of the tour takes you outside the administration building and there is a great view of the city from there.  I took a photo then told Chris to get in the photo too just as a seagull decided to poop all over his head!  I don't know what they feed seagulls in San Francisco but I have never seen anything like it, he was absolutely covered all over his head and down his sweatshirt!  Luckily he was wearing his sunglasses otherwise it could have been even worse.  He actually took it really well and laughed about it before wondering off to the restrooms to sort himself out and after a quick clean up operation he was ready to continue walking around the island.  I'm not sure that I would have taken it in quite the same way if it had happened to me!  

After Alcatraz we walked around Fishermans' Wharf and saw the sea lions hanging out.  

Then we decided to jump on an open top bus tour.  We thought it might be a good way of going around the city and would mean that we could go over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Even though our photos of San Francisco look sunny, it was actually really cold and poor Chris was freezing in just a t-shirt after having to take his sweatshirt off after the morning's incident!

I had been desperate to go to a tea shop called Crown and Crumpet that had been recommended by some of our friends but when I had tried to make a reservation there was nothing available as they were due to close the next day to move to new premises.  We decided to go to Ghiradelli Square where the shop was anyway and just went in to see if they had any tables free and they did, I was so happy!

On Sunday we used the open top bus tour to get to Golden Gate Park and visited the Japanese Tea Garden.

After a walk around the park then around the shops in Haight Ashbury, we headed for AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team.  Unfortunately they were playing away from home during our trip and all the stadium tours were sold out but after talking nicely to someone guarding one of the gates they let us sneak in for a look around.

Back in the city we went to look at City Hall and noticed these amazing messages being written in the sky.  It was the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th birthday the weekend that we were in town so there were lots of celebrations.

Our last touristy stop in San Francisco were the Painted Ladies.  There are so many beautiful Edwardian and Victorian houses in the city but the really famous ones are on Alamo Square.  

On Sunday evening there was a big firework display on the Golden Gate Bridge so we headed down to  watch it.  It was fantastic, the most impressive part was when they turned the whole bridge golden.  I don't have any photos of the golden bit, we have some video but as usual I'm struggling to actually get the files off our camcorder so here's a photo of another part of the display.