Flowers in my hair...

San Francisco so far... what a great City! Lots to see and lots to do. The weather has been fantastic so far, nice and warm with a gentle breeze. On my first day I didn't wake until about 11am, which I think was acceptable being that I had been awake for 27 hours previous to that! Melon and Lexi drove me about the area they live, and we had a nice cruisy sort of day which I was pleased about. We went to somewhere called Gilroy, where there are heaps of outlet shops. I managed to do really well for myself in the shopping department... I got a new watch (it is AMAZING), four dresses and a cardie... and I only spent about $140USD - not bad!! We had good old American Starbucks (which by the way, Emily - was pretty good!!!), and we even had the traditional food of America, McDonald's.

A really cool old-school fire hydrant. It's the small things that get me excited.

Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino, in Amercia?? Heck YES!!

In the Jelly Belly shop with Melon

In the evening we went to a friend of Helen's, Jen's place and had a BBQ with her and some of her friends. They had a bonfire there which was nice to sit around and chillax- though would have been made better had we have had some marshmallows. We actually tried looking for some at the supermarket but they only had little teeny tiny hot chocolate ones. One of the people at the BBQ is a sports TV cameraman. He also is heavily into music. We went across the street at one point to his place, and I was excited to see an amazing collection of music memorabilia, including: Two framed golden records from Capitol by the Beatles (so super cool) and a SIGNED LP by old Blue eyes himself - Frank Sinatra.  I was quite impressed with his collection, and apparently he has loads more things that he has not yet framed. He has met all sorts of famous people - 2 degrees of separation right there!

Melon, myself and Jen at Jen's place

So excited right now!

Lovely ladies...

Today (Monday) we got up and headed into San Francisco City. Wow - I really liked it. Nice and clean, although still a number of homeless people sleeping around the place with their shopping trolleys full of their possessions. We jumped on a bus tour of the city, as they tend to be the best way to get your bearings and learn about a city. We drove past the apartment complex where Francis Ford-Coppola wrote the screen play for "The God Father" (oooh and ahhh I hear you say), and we even took a drive down Steiner Road... where the seven painted ladies are. You might recognise the houses from a TV show called...FULL HOUSE! Yes, that's right. I was quite excited about that. It was awesome to go in the bus across the Golden Gate Bridge, even though it was *so* windy and cold! City Hall is also an impressive structure, which is actually a replacement for the one that was destroyed during the 1906 Earthquake. A random fact for you is that Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were married at City Hall back in 1954.

Alkatraz

The green building is the one where the God-Father screenplay was written

The "FULL HOUSE" houses on Steiner Street

That's the Golden Gate Bridge!

Alkatraz

For lunch we stayed on the bus and made our way back to the starting point - Firsherman's Wharf. It was there that I did what you do when you go to San Francisco. I had Clam Chowder in a Sour Dough bowl for lunch... which is interesting being that I am not a seafood fan... but I have to admit, it was quite nice! I think Mum would have been proud haha. After lunch we walked down to Pier 39 and had a look at the Sealions who reside there - *so* cute, and especially nice that they are in their natural environment. We then had a look around at the shops on Pier 39, and then headed to Macy's for some shopping. By this stage it was quite late in the day, and we were all quite lethargic. Macy's is quite amazing, it is a huge department store, somewhat like Selfridges in London. Unfortunately my brain wasn't engaging in the shopping, and neither was anyone elses so we decided to head home and save more shopping for another day.

Clam chowder... actually... NOM

At Pier 39

Oh yes! A shop for left handers!! aMaZiNg!

I am hoping that we go to Alkatraz this week - we do have plans to go to the Aquarium which is quite exciting. I love aquariums... there is something quite peaceful and magical about them. I'd quite like to go to Kelly Tarlton's again in the near future as haven't done that in a while. Anyway... I am sure there will be more adventures to come... meanwhile, when Melon wakes from her Nana Nap, we might watch some Twilight.... hahahah.


Cheery bye :)