WARNING:- be prepared for an extremely long blog consisting of lots of things that may make you ever so slightly jealous!
We went from 38 degree heat in Utah to a mere 18 in San Fran and my god did we feel as though we were in the North Pole! The most annoying thing here is knowing that 18 is quite hot for England and the fact they were having a heat wave of around 30 degrees made gloating extremely difficult for once!
Anyway, we arrived in San Fran on Friday and went for a little wonder to get our bearings. We picked up a Chinese and spent the evening watching Cake Boss. This is definitely one of my new favourite programmes! We had good intentions of getting breakfast Saturday morning but by the time we got out of bed it was soon lunch time. Kate's aunt and uncle were arriving in San Fran Sunday and we had planned to spend most of our time with them.. So we went and checked out there hotel (which was very swanky!) and left a little gift to be put in there room upon arrival... An a3 sized cartoon drawing of myself and Kate.. Obviously!
That evening consisted of a few more episodes of cake boss!
On Sunday we paid union square a visit and I think Kate left a little depressed because we were surrounded in high end designer shops.. Including Mulberry. And obviously it would be rude to not pay it a little visit even knowing full well we could not afford a single item in there! So we drowned our sorrows by purchasing a cheeky slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! (YES, we found another and it was still as amazing second time round!) the day flew by and before we knew it we were playing articulate and drinking wine in the fairmont apartment (not hotel) with Kate's fam! The rest of the evening consisted of more wine and many more games of articulate! Going from this luxurious apartment to our hostel was slightly depressing.. But we had a friend that couldn't be left alone. Carl the cockroach! (Ewwwwww).
Monday morning was spent in a lovely cafè eating pancakes and drinking coffee and water. Hangover breakfast is what it's also known as! We all then spent the afternoon being extremely touristy by going on the San Francisco sightseeing bus.. and of course we went on top of the open roofed bus which is extremely windy and cold! We hopped off in china town and got some lunch, done some more shopping, hopped back on the bus and went back to the fairmont where we quickly got ready and made way to Van ness street. There were loads of boutique shops but obviously we went to a bar and spent an hour or so drinking cocktails before dinner. I can't think of the restaurants name but it was Mexican and a really good one to! We had the tequila mules flowing and a variety of starters, followed by more cocktails and a variety of main courses. Waddling out of the restaurant a few hours later we made way back to the Fairmont where articulate and wine were in full swing once again!
Another exciting day on the cards.. SEGWAYS! oh my god this was far too much fun and I really want my own now! After an hour training and rocking the vest/hat look we went on a tour around fishermans wharf, Washington park and some other areas. Literally the best 2 1/2 hours but the evening was also extremely fun. We went to a baseball game and I felt so American! We watched Oaklands play against Torrontos blue jays where they lost 5-0. Originally I thought I was likely to get a bit bored but the corona was flowing and the anticipation of potentially catching a ball kept me intrigued.. But seriously, it was actually really good fun! As every other night, we finished it off with wine and articulate, and tonight trivial pursuit also! This ended up a very late night so we got to stay in the hotel, the bed was sooooo comfy it was one of our best nights sleep!
Wednesday called for an early start as we biked over golden gate! Leaving at 10am we biked 40 minutes up hill to get to the start of the bridge. This was the only time I thanked the weather for being cold as I swear down I would have died! Biking over golden gate was beautiful and refreshing. You could see Alcatraz in the distance and the cool breeze on my very hot face was bliss! Biking back was much more fun as it was down hill.. And that's definitely the best bit! After returning the bikes we went to another boutique shopping area where we watched others but clothing.. As always it was torturous! However we had a lovely yet extremely eventful lunch at a Greek style restaurant! I was happily eating my chicken kebabs with cous cous when my fear of birds dramatically increased. Earlier that day someone broke the door to the restaurant and a mass of birds covered a table outside. 1 then found it hilarious to fly inside, aroud me, flew into a window and eventually left. I was left crying a little but soon found the funny side. ARGHHH my heart was pounding for ages after!
Me and Kate then got a taxi back to our hostel, collected all our bags and checked out early and moved into the hotel. Hehehe it was soo good. That afternoon I soaked in the bath and my god it was amazing! It's been 2 months of having showers so I indulged in bubbles and my own thoughts. That night we all got dressed up and it was an excuse for us both to wear our new pretty dresses! And Kate her pretty new heels.. A bargain in Zara sale that she couldn't say no too! The restaurant was called A16 which was a lovely Italian! We all indulged in a 3 course meal, with beautiful wine accompanying it.
Our last full day in San Francisco was spent going on ferry over to Alcatraz. I'm sure you all know but it's a large prison on a small island off of San Fran which closed in 1963. We went into the prison and viewed the cells all whilst listening to an audio tour telling us of what would happen/ who would be there/ who escaped etc etc. It was slightly sad listening to some of the prisoners opinions on it but sooo mind blowing! As you all know I'm not a massive history geek but even I enjoyed this tour!
After getting the ferry back we explored the 3rd most visited area in America, pier 39. Times Square and Disneyland were the top 2 (a fact I learnt on the sightseeing bus whoo). We obviously saw the sea lions which was very amusing, seeing them flop off the deck and struggling to get back on.. Ah! After a little bit of shopping and wandering the pier, we found a wine bar with a table outside fully in warm sun light! The first time I took my jumper off all week was here with a glass of fizz in my hand. B-eaut-iful! As the bubbles and heat started to go to our heads, we made way to Hard Rock Cafè and indulged in a 10oz burger! The rest of evening we played articulate which finished this incredible week off perfectly!
As you can read it was an extremely foody week jam packed with lots of activities. This morning when we were all getting ready to leave I was genuinely ready to step on the plane and come home as the holiday would have finished on an amazing high, but it's back to travelling for another 2 weeks.
A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO THE ALLEN FAMILY!!!!
We are currently on route on Santa Barbara where I'm hoping the weather will be warmer so I can start to get my tan onnnn!!!!
Speak again soon x
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