Day 3

Well after many hours sleep...13 hours for me, woke up refreshed ready for the day. The day has been cold, windy and overcast all day, max temp is just 15 and its supposed to be summer in California! Just as well we bought some tropical warm weather gear!
The tour director (Peter) is leading us at a cracking pace! Walked down to the tour company to get our tickets for the Alcatraz tour, had about an hours wait but finally got the tickets. Our tour didn't start till 11.30 so we went shopping, for some warm weather gear... then Alcatraz. It was an amazing tour, self guided with audio and very well done. Made you feel like you were there. Consequently, we didnt get back till late so missed out on our other tour, which we can do tomorrow. Our feet at the end of the day felt like they didnt belong to our body, they were sooo sore.

Waiting for Trolley Car

Cell Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island

Solitary Cells Alcatraz

For dinner we decided to go on one of those famous San Francisco cable cars that go up and down those very steep streets, to Union Square where there are lots of eating places. By this time i reckon it was only 10 degrees, cold and windy and we had to wait 2 hours for a car! Still it was worth it, people were singing and having fun, I think they were all delirious with cold.

Day 1 and 2
Saturday Night 11pm San Francisco.

Flying, Flying, Flying and we have finally arrived safely in San Francisco this afternoon. its quite cool here about 18 degrees. The plane leaving Brisbane was 2 hours late due to an oven failure in the Business Class galley so they boarded us then we had to wait for 2 hours whilst they fixed it. Luckily we had a an original layover of 4 hours in Los Angeles which still allowed us to connect with our original flight to San Francisco.
Michele & Kevin are with us and they had their luggage tags ripped off which meant they had to recheck in at LA instead of the luggage transferring through. It was touch and go for them to catch the connecting flight, luckily that plane was delayed 1 hour as well! The security checks coming into the country is mind blowing! We were security'd on arrival to LA then security'd again flying up to San Francisco. We've had our fingerprints taken, both hands, had our photo taken, asked to take our coats and shoes off, dont worry about the cold!
After checking in walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and stopped off for some Clam Chowder on the way for a late lunch. Had a look at the seals etc but there weren't nearly as many as there were when I was last here.
Came back to Hotel about 5 as jet lag had caught up with everyone.
Off on a couple of tours etc tomorrow including Alcatraz.

Pier 39 Fishermans Wharf

Seals Fishermans Wharf

Welcome Family and Friends to our blog.
We have set up this blog so that you can follow us on our trip to the USA and Canada in the upcoming 7 weeks. (I hope we have got this blog sorted out)
An overview of the trip is as follows.
We leave Brisbane on Saturday 27th July for San Francisco, where the adventure begins and ends up in Vancouver on the 7th September via Los Angeles,  Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Washington, New York, Toronto and Alaska. We will try and post every couple of days with pictures so you can see what we have been up to.
Love to you all Peter & Linda.