San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO BLOG

Here we are in beautiful San Francisco. This is our second time here and we love this place!

The trip over was smooth, but of course tiring, and we landed in Los Angeles expecting a long wait to get through customs and immigration dealing with the sort of brusque officials we experienced three years ago. But this time it was different. For the most part staff were friendly and helpful. The immigration guy was very chatty and welcoming. All up it was a much better experience. We managed to stay awake for a little over 30 hours before we crashed last night.  I woke up and thought it was about 6am.  One look at the clock told me it was 9.20am, so 14 hours sleep and we are now ready to party!!

That great start has continued in SF. Our hotel is right near Fisherman’s Wharf and this morning we had breakfast at a restaurant on Pier 39 overlooking the water. Nice!

Yesterday we got on the hop on hop off bus to check out the city. Our driver was Willie, a really cool black guy who could earn a great living as a stand-up comedian. We have no idea what Willie is on but we want some! Maybe he is just ADHD but he talks 10 to the dozen and is so entertaining you don’t really care that you miss most of what he is saying.

The weather is great – cool air and warm sunshine. When the bus took us across the Golden Gate Bridge you could feel the temperature plunge God knows how many degrees as soon as we got on the bridge and warm up again as soon as we reached the other side. Wow the bay air is cold!! But it is all so beautiful. We got great shots of the Bridge and Alcatraz (which we visited last time).

We got off the bus at the SF city park and walked through the beautiful gardens to Stow Lake where we took some great photos. We also quickly checked out the Botanical Gardens and the Japanese Tea Gardens. The park is not only gorgeous, it is the biggest inner city park in the US.

One thing Willie told us is that there are more dogs than kids in SF and dog walkers can make up to $60,000 a year! All that cash plus fresh air and exercise. What a great job. Where do you get an application form???