Category: America

Today was a relaxed morning. Robin has been suffering bad toothache for 3 days now so it was time to sort out a dentist to see him and sort it out. Appointment was made for 12.30 so we decided to go and try out a San Francisco tram. We only had to walk 2 blocks to get to it and it was $6 for the trip. Not too bad as it was one experience we really wanted to do, especially as you see them going up and down the steep streets on movies, and wonder what it would be like to ride on one personally. It was great. Only two people are allowed to travel outside on the back and Judy and I were the two people. I videoed nearly the whole trip. We got off at Chinatown so we could wander through but stopped at Starbucks for a coffee first. Robin then left us for his dentist appointment. Judy Len and I had fun exploring as many of the shops as possible and also had a lovely lunch at a chinese restaurant. We even walked all the way back to the Hotel as it was a lovely sunny day and actually really relaxing just wandering along.

Judy and I left Len about 3 blocks from the Hotel to do a bit of shopping before we leave San Francisco. The first real time of shopping with no time limits. And did we have fun. I only spent about $125 but loved every minute of the spend!

We decided to have tea at the Rainforest Cafe again as it is only down the road and serves fabulous meals. Another nice dinner to add to our growing list!

Home to pack our bags to 1. see if everything fits in and 2. see if there is room for any more shopping! We have until 5.20 tomorrow to fill in. At 5.20 the courtisy van takes us to the airport for our trip home! I can’t believe that that time has come so quickly. And yet….I find it hard to recall everything that we have done in the 6 weeks. It has been a very full trip with lots of happy moments and memories made. I have loved every single bit of the holiday and would do it all again if I could!

A nice early start this morning. We were being picked up for our tour to Monterey and Carmel by 8.30 and we had to have breakfast first. Ihop was the choice again as we really enjoyed our breakfast there yesterday.

The tour bus picked us up and took us to the depot ready for the tour. And there we waited for the next hour. The bus was held up in a traffic jam caused by Barak Obama. He was visiting the town and was going by in his car. All the roads were stopped to make way for him. Finally we got on our way over one hour later than we should have. Monterey is a three hour drive south and we were stopping there for 2 hours, driving on to Carmel and staying there for one hour.

The trip was really scenic and thankfully the bus driver stopped a few times for us to get out and take some photos. We travelled along the coast line and the road changed from being sea level to very high…looking down the cliffs to the land and sea below. Monterey was a lovely town built for the cannery industry. Many of the large cannery sheds are now converted to shops especially for the tourists. There is also a big Aquarium there and many restaurants. We chose to have our lunch at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Restaurant. Now that is a great experience including trivia questions about the movie during the lunch time.

We travelled past some very rich properties to Carmel including a private 17 mile road (which we had to pay to go on). The road had 2 big golf courses, one we stopped at to take photos. Clint Eastwood, Nicholas Cage and a few other ‘stars’ own the golf course and it reaked of money! I needed to go to the toilet while we were there exploring and taking photos…so I just used the toilet at the club rooms. They were just like a first class hotel with special cloth towels to dry your hands and extremely tidy and clean. I found out later that we were suppose to use the public toilets! Oops…no one said anything to me so hopefully no one noticed.

As we left so much later in the morning we didn’t get back to San Francisco until 10.30pm, and we still had to wait until all the people were dropped off at their hotels. We were one of the last drop offs. It was a fabulous day! I hadn’t realised that we were going so far, but it is now great to be able to say that not only did we go to San Francisco, we also went down to Monterey and Carmel. Very nice indeed 🙂

Well…after staying up til as late as possible, and trying to get into the time zone as quickly as possible, I woke up at 11.30pm…ready for the new day! I got up in the dark and checked the time on my cell phone. I couldn’t believe it was only 11.30 so fumbled for my watch to check. In the dark I read 11.30 as 6am. I thought the others are still asleep so I will try to sleep in a bit longer and wake again when they did. I thought 6am was pretty good and I will cope with the day fine! Feeling rather good about getting into the time zone rather well. Next time I woke I checked the time again as everyone was still asleep…I stirred to look as Len asked me if I was awake. And no!!! I do not share a bed with Len! We are in a room with 2 double beds! Len asked me if I knew what time it was and I said it must be around 8am. When he said it was 2.30 I couldn’t believe it. I felt ready for the day again and it was like torture to just lay in bed. I finally managed to sleep again and woke up with everyone else at 5am. It was time to get up…we couldn’t wait any longer.

We had booked a city tour which started at 9.40am so our next step was to find a place for breakfast. Blow me down….next door is an Ihop! Ihop is an amazing place for a breakfast menu specialising in pancakes and crepes…along with the usual bacon eggs etc! Off we went and joined the queue for breakfast. Tomorrow we will come down earlier and miss the crowd! Well worth the wait though as it is so yummy!

Our tour of the city sights was great. First stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, second the view from the Twin Sisters. Lots of photos taken at both places folks! We also went to Ocean Beach and viewed heaps of other places from the bus. A great tour!

Our Tour finished at about 1.30 so we went to Fishermans wharf again and experienced lunch at Rainforest Cafe. What a neat place to eat! The whole place is done up like a forest with animals everywhere. Everynow and then the animals move and make sounds and then about every hour there is a thunder storm. The whole room darkens, thunder sounds and then it lights up with flashes of lightening. Of course this disturbs the animals so they move and make sounds as well. Oh by the way the food is great too!

We wandered the shops and found our way back to the hotel. All of us could hardly keep our eyes open and it was only 9pm. I think I was the first asleep again! What a great day though 🙂