San Francisco: 6th to 9th June

Hi to anyone still reading these photo-less blog entries ...
Another airport blog post! Sitting in Seattle airport for 5 hours, waiting for our flight to Maui (one of Hawaiian islands to leave). Everyone tired and on edge, as we got up at 4 am to catch underground to airport, then flew from San Francisco to Seattle. May come back after Hawaii to see Microsoft head office!
From Mexico City we flew to SF and went straight to bed (2am our time). In the morning we went in search of breakfast and discovered:

1. There are a LOT of homeless people in SF, most of whom congregate round our hotel; and


2. There are very few breakfast places, and those that there are all have a queue outside.

But it was worth it! 30 years on from my first SF blueberry pancakes, I was able to repeat the experience - what a great breakfast, consuming thousands and thousands of calories in a single meal. Not sure Jenny would agree ...

We queued up for ages to catch one of the old-style cable cars, and rode up and over a hill and down to Fisherman's Wharf (think Covent Garden by the sea, with the odd seal). After free chocolate-tasting at Ghirardelli's (an SF institution, apparently) we had a Subway sandwich (unbelievably, our first this trip), then I took the girls into "Ripley's Believe it or not!" (I'd always wanted to go). There was one glass screen where you had to practice pulling different faces - touching your nose with your tongue, curling your tongue, etc - and we all enthusiastically indulged. When you got to the end there was the same screen from the other side; it turned out to be a one-way mirror. We enjoyed watching other people make fools of themselves ...

On to see the seals (hundreds of them have taken up noisy and smelly residence on the wooden pontoons next to Pier 31), then by trolley bus back to the hotel.

We had our evening meal on the 8th floor of Macy's (a huge department store) in the "Cheesecake Factory". The portions had to be seen to be believed - a photo of Joanna's chocolate sundae will appear here soon, if we get round to it.

The next day we did a maths lesson, then took a bus out to the Golden Gate Park where we hired bicycles for the afternoon. After the sunshine and heat of the previous day it was cold and windy, but we cycled through the park to the beach and had a meal in a warm restaurant, where the girls found another family of 3 girls to play with. We cycled back (poor Pippa has been ill, and was a bit tired, and Katy's bike had no gears and ineffective brakes) via a great playground, where Jenny chatted to a gopher:

(a small, cute underground chipmunk type thing), returned the bikes, collected our laundry and went back via a clothes shop to the hotel for sandwiches and a pot-macaroni-cheese.

And that was San Francisco! It'll be nice to get away from big cities in Hawaii, and (I never thought I'd say this) nice to escape the cold.

Byeee!