Day 17 ~ Cath & Ian Visit San Francisco

It was a perfect day in San Francisco, not even a fog or cloud in sight (strange here I believe).  We got a typical American breakfast in Union Square and the pigeons here don't even wait until you start to eat before they hover.

Today we decided to get one of the Hop-on Hop-off bus tours thinking that that's exactly what we'd do, hop-on and hop-off in different locations.  We mistaken with that one.  Our hop-on, hop-off had a human guide (often they are just pre-recorded in multiple languages).  We both found him knowledgeable and entertaining that we stayed on the open top deck of the bus.  We were on the bus for around 2 hours before we came to the last stop at Pier 39 which is around Fisherman's Wharf.  This is where we'd promised ourselves that we would have some lunch.  Before lunch though we also caught up with the local sea lion population at Pier 39 ... take a look (kinda how I'm feeling right now)!

Town Hall

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Hi guys, Ian here. We meandered through the city centre, past town hall, and then on to Haight and Ashbury which for you that might recall was where the whole beatnik and then the hippy thing started in the 60's.  I found this really interesting as this is where a lot of the greats such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix all started back in the mid to late 60's. Apparently Bill Graham a music promoter back in the 60's started these free concerts of these unknowns..can you imagine...! Fantastic! The area is great with a lot of the buildings still the way they were back in the day; also some really amazing murals on the front and side of building. One really great one on front of a building of George Harrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Joni Mitchell.  From here we went on to Golden Gate Park and over the Golden Gate Bridge back through Union Square and down to Pier 39.  We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday on our way to the Napa Valley and it was completely fogged in.  Today, a very different story, a perfect day and some great photos.  It was such a great tour and worth every cent.  We are very happy that we chose a live human guide rather than the pre-recorded drone which I decided to listen to on the way back to Union Square in the afternoon (rather dull).

Haight Ashbury Intersection

Detail of Mural - George Harrison

(Cath here) We wandered around Pier 39 looking for a great lunch destination and we found Swiss Louis Restaurant.  It's not too often in your life that you can eat a great lunch on a perfect day, with the back drop of the Golden Gate Bridge, so Swiss Louis was a good choice.  Our lunch wasn't that Italian really, we had Fish & Chips ... beautiful (oh, and Ian did have the Seafood Chowder, but I don't think was that impressed).

Before lunch we did wander around Pier 39 (couldn't find Hooters though so if you can help Tony, we're down there again tomorrow for our Alcatraz tour - hopefully, I can get my own Hooter's T-Shirt).

Golden Gate Bridge Today

We caught the bus back to Union Square and ended up just having Tapas at the bar here.  We are starting to run out of clothes to wear now because we've eaten so much and we may even get charged for excess baggage on ourselves on Saturday.  I guess next week we'll be back to proper eating and exercise, so we're not worrying too much at this stage!