Alcatraz

We had a chilled morning, had the hostel breakfast then headed out to the wharf for a chilled morning.

We watched a magicians show and I was picked to help with magic tricks - cringe!

We them went to pier 33 and collected our tickets and waited to board the boat which was due to leave at 1.30.

We took the short ferry across to the island and headed straight to the place to pick up headphones for the audio tour.

The audio tour was amazing, sky interesting and had commentry from officers who worked at Alcatraz and also commentry from prisoners.

We saw the cells they stayed in, the library, the dining room. We saw where the officers were based and where the prisoners would sit to talk to visitors. 

We also saw the cells where the more dangerous or trouble maker prisoners would go. They would be in complete darkness for up to 28 days, only seeing light to eat food. And their food was puréed up and they would eat it with their hands. These prisoners were not given a bed or anything and learnt to sleep standing up as the ground was too cold. We were put in the cell for 30 seconds to experience what I was like to be in a cell in complete darkness. 

We also head about the attempted/successful escapes from Alcatraz.

The tour was very interesting and would recommend it to anyone visiting Sam Fran.

We got the boat back to the mainland late afternoon and headed to Boudin on pier 33 for the famous sourdough bowl. The most popular one is the clam chowder however Laura and I both had the beef chilli one. It was amazing!

Cycling the Golden Gate Bridge

So today we woke up at the later time of 8.30 after having a half decent sleep for a change!

We got ready and headed to the cycle hire place to meet Chloe and Kerryn at 10.30. We picked our bikes and watched some stupid safety video and the route to take which was pointless and we were on our way just after 11.

The ride to the bridge took as along the coast and past a beautiful harbour and then up a steep hill to the bridge. We stopped a couple of times to take photos :)

We then cycled on the bridge which was super cool, and obv took selfies! Hahaha!

We then cycled down hill to another cut harbour looking out towards San Fran. We continued along the coast and up a number more hills before we reached the town of Sausalito. We parked our bikes and wandered the street in search for food. We found a cute Italian deli place which served the nicest sandwiches. We made our choices and ate the sandwiches on a bench at the sea front.

We wandered the cute shops before returning to our bikes. Chloe and Kerryn left us here and took the ferry back to Sam Fran. Laura and I decided to continue onto Tiburon which was apparently 45 mins away.

We started to follow the directions on the map but they were useless so in the end we just asked people and followed signs.

The route was amazing, we cycled past floating houses, several marinas, a college american football game and a park just for dogs!! We even watched a wedding which was soooooo cute! 

18 miles later we arrived at the town to find out they were having a beer festival! We explored the town and went to the cafe and then joined the queue for the 5pm ferry back to San Fran. 

The ferry was jokes as it was full of people smashed from the beer festival! 

It also gave us a fab view of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge (although we were sat on the wrong side to take pics!)

We arrived back in San Fran and cycled our bikes back to where we hired them!

We showered, changed and headed back to the wharf to meet Chloe and Kerryn for tea. We met at In and Out Burger. We had been recommended this by many people as it's only in California, so we had to try it!

The place is constantly busy and it was a fight to find seats! I enjoyed the double meat double cheese burger and fries!

It was 100% better than maccies and better quality too!!

We then headed to ghiradelli and Laura and I shared the chocolate brownie sundae! Mmmm!

Amazing day thanks guys! Xx

Fishermams Wharf

After a horrendous nights sleep as we had two snorers in our 22 person dorm I woke up at 7.30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so decided to go on a run. It was the perfect temperature for a run not super hot like my runs in orlando! I managed to run 4.80km in 30 mins, not bad! 

We went and had the free breakfast which was surprisingly okay! Then headed out to fishermams wharf. We went to the Musee Mechanique which is one of the oldest arcades and features in the movie Princess Diaries. It was so cool in there and we had lotsa fun!

We continued along then wharf browsing in a few shops and looking at all the fish stalls and street food stands. We arrived at pier 39 which is the most famous pier on the wharf. There was so much to explore here, many shops and restaurants and things to photograph, I loved it! We walked to the end of the pier and then to the sea lions. They were so amusing to watch and so noisy too!!

We then went to the aquarium, this was fun. However it was very small and didn't take us long to look around at all! However I did manage to spy dory and nemo - you can take the girl out of Disney but you can't take Disney from the girl!!!

We wandered the rest of the wharf and then headed to a cute restaurant on pier 39 for a drink and shared a bowl of chilli cheese fries. I love these and will most definitely be recreating this when I get back to student living! Perfect after a night out, Crier just you wait!! 

We then walked to Lombard Street to find the crooked street, it was amazing! Can't believe people live on the street and that you can drive down it! It was hard to get a pic as there were so many cars! 

We then headed back it the wharf and went to a sweetie shop before meeting Chloe and Keeran to go to ghiradelli square. We browsed the shops here and chilled by the fire pit. C & K left us and Laura and I ordered chocolate drinks and chilled outside with the fire pit to keep warm. 

We then headed back to the hostel and here I am now writing this blog.

Tonight we are heading back to the wharf for a yummy dinner - cannot wait :) 

San Fran we are here!

We left Yosemite a day early as the worst drought in Cali for 500 years meant there was not much to do, especially without a car.

We got the YART back to Merced for our 1.08 train. The train arrived ,to tell us it was delayed due to the train in front having a mechanical fault and needing an engineer or something. We waited in merced for 1 hour, not moving.

We finally arrived to Emeryville where we got our connecting bus to San Fran. We arrived at Fishermans Wharf and ordered an Uber (our new fave thing!) to our hotel which was on Lombard Street. We got to the hotel, and got upgraded for free again. We had two queen beds each - amazing!! We showered got ready and headed out for tea. 

We wandered Union Street for a bit not finding anything we fancied then stumbled across a cute Italian. The Italian was buzzing and busy which was a good sign. We could only be seated at the bar which we were more than happy to do so. We were so glad we did as we could watch the chefs make our food in front of us. The chefs also fed us extra bread sticks and parma ham for free!! 

I ordered the sausage pizza and Laura had a pasta. We shared a carafe of white wine too :) it was delicious and so good to watch the chef make the pizza in front of me!

We walked home and went to bed to have the best night sleep ever! So comfy!

We awoke the next morning got ready and headed back to Union Street as we had spotted a bakery called La Boulange the night before. We ordered delicious pastries for breakfast and I had an iced caramel latte. Fun fact for you all, La Boulange make all the food for all Starbucks in America! 

We then walked the short distance a couple of blocks away to Mrs Doubtfire House which was 6740 Steiner Street or some thing..... there were lots of flowers outside and people had written on pebbles for Robin Williams.

We then walked and walked and walked for a long time to Union Square. It was up a hill, down a hill up a hill down the whole way!

It was worth it tho as Union Square was amazing. We went to the top of Macy's to Cheesecake Factory and waited for a table outside. We both ordered the tastiest smoothies and I had a cheesecake (of course!!) and Laura had a flatbread. It was a hard decision between the Oreo cheesecake and lemon meringue, but lemon meringue won!! 

We then went shopping around Union Square, there were so many nice shops and plenty of designer ones.

There was also a Westfield shopping mall which was sooooo nice!

We spent all afternoon shopping then wandered up China town which was pretty cool!! Before ordering an uber to take us back to the hotel, where we had left our bags.

We picked up our bags and walked the short 10 min walk to the Hostel. We checked in got our beds, showed then headed to Ghiradelli Square which was a very short walk away. It wasn't very busy so we looked around and headed back if the hostel to chill.

Night :) xx