San Francisco there we went........

Golden Gate Bridge

From New Zealand we headed over to San Francisco.  It was to be our first visit to the west coast of the USA and we weren't disappointed with what we saw. To make things easy we got a hop on hop off bus pass for 48 hours and became 'real' tourists for a few days. It's not normally our thing to be taken around with loads of other tourists but sometimes with time at a premium we've found it the best way to cover all the highlights of a sprawling city.

Fisherman's wharf

Powell St Cable car

It is mid summer and school holidays here in the northern hemisphere so things were pretty crowded but we managed to get around to some interesting sights and take lots of photos. The cable car stopped right outside our hotel so we headed to Fisherman's wharf to sample their famous seafood chowder. It wasn't as rustic as I had expected  as my vision was of fishermen hauling in their loads for the day and plonking them on the wharf, yelling out to find the highest bidder for their catch. It must happen somewhere on the wharf but it wasn't obvious to us as we wandered along the road.  It's very touristy with lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, take away places and amusement parks . All that being said, it was interesting to actually be there and to see the giant crabs and the myriad of different types of seafood being cooked on the streets  right in front of our eyes.

Painted Ladies

We visited the brightly coloured 'Painted ladies', a row of seven beautifully restored Victorian houses in Alamo Square. *The same term used to apply to prostitutes in the old days (in an era when prostitutes would wear cosmetics unlike respectable women who didn't).* We ventured over the Golden Gate bridge to a lovely seaside town called Sausalito and stopped to see where only the rich and famous can afford to live and  enjoy a quieter and more relaxed lifestyle, except for all the tourists spoiling their little corner of the world !!!!
We went to a silent film festival screening of an old French film from the early 1930's and stepped around the corner from our hotel in Union Square to see a premier performance of the musical the 'Fantasticks'. It was brilliant with top class performers and singers who've appeared on Broadway, TV and in movies.

House mural

One of the things I wanted to get in the US was an ipad so we headed for the Apple store only to find they were out of stock and it would take about a week to get :(  After some investigations we found out that they had some at Santa Rosa which was out of town. At 4pm in the afternoon we hopped on a bus and 1 1/2 hours later reached the store, bought an ipad each and then hopped back on the bus for another 2 1/2 hour ride back to San Francisco. The later bus wasn't an express but we were happy knowing we had achieved our goal and we had them at last.  They're fantastic by the way and they've been extremely useful during our travels.