I thought I’d pick up where Marc left off for part three. Seeing as he has now taken two blogs to just introduce our trip to San Francisco we’d be here till Christmas otherwise. Did you know that it’s only 81 days till Christmas? We’ve decided to have Christmas lunch at our favourite restaurant, ‘Shutters on the Beach’ this year. I’m excited already. Not sure I can wait 81 days. Then we’re off to Vegas for New Years Eve – where we’re going to party like its 2009. Yippee!
Anyways, this is turning in to a Marc Ollington blog special and I’ve gone off on a tangent already. Back to our San Fran adventures. Firstly I couldn’t believe how freezing cold it was there. Stepping off the BART tube thing on Friday night I thought I’d arrived in the North Pole. But being in the know we had come prepared for this, you have to layer it up in this city as one minute it’s boiling hot sunshine, the next its freezing cold.
We departed our hotel Campton Place bright and early Saturday morning (after enjoying the lovely bathrobes and slippers - you know you’re staying somewhere nice when you get a decent pair of hotel slippers) and headed down to the docks where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of pastries from the farmers market. Marc also got a fruit salad as he is healthy these days.
Our first port of call was a trip to the famous Prison on an Island, namely Alcatraz. It’s a bit odd really that visiting a derelict prison is one of the top sightseeing trips in San Fran but there you go. In the queue we had the obligatory group shot in front of a fake Alcatraz picture. When collecting the photo after the trip my Mum decided to rate us all on our appearance in this photo and put Marc in last place. She didn’t think he’d tried hard enough with his smile. I won’t rub it in that she put me at the number one spot.
After a short boat ride we were on the island and were soon heavily absorbed in our audio tour as we were directed round the prison and all its nooks and crannies. I’ve undertaken numerous audio tours since moving to LA and I’m becoming a connoisseur of them I think. I’d rate this one a strong four out of five because they actually had several convicts telling you what it was like being a prisoner there. This was a brilliant touch. As prisons go, I think it seemed quite nice. I’m not an expert and I’m sure it was horrible to live there but the surroundings were nice. All the families of the guards who lived on the island said they had an idyllic childhood and loved living there. I’d pick it as my prison of choice I think.
After a few hours on the island we headed back to the main land and on to our next sightseeing spot, the Coit Tower. This was after a spot of lunch in an Italian restaurant. One of the waiters was a kind of transsexual. We weren’t sure which way they had decided to go but Marc was sure that whatever way it was they had taken a shine to Dad.
I love the architecture and streets of San Fran. A lot of people say it’s very European in its appearance. The hills are crazy, some are so steep that you practically had to crawl up them. Luckily I had Felicity Furness on hand to pull me up them. Being a young thing she is much fitter than me.
The Tower finally appeared at the end of a little residential street and discussions broke out as to whether we’d opt to use the stairs or lift to get to the top of the tower. It’s quite a tall tower so stairs would be no mean feat. Luckily it turned out that the stairs were currently broken so it was in to the tiny little lift we went, helped by a slightly mad lift attendant. Several photos later we’d all had our fill of views so we headed back down and off for sightseeing spot number three, “the crookedest street”. At this point Marc decided to start telling us all some boring story about a tea towel he’d seen in a shop that listed all the sightseeing spots in San Fran. This street wasn’t on it so he said we shouldn’t bother as it obviously wasn’t worth seeing if it didn’t make the tea towel. Half an hour later he was still going on about this tea towel but luckily we’d reached the wonky street at this point so his argument had been lost. This street has featured in lots of films and it’s very pretty indeed. It’s on such a steep hill that they’ve had to make it bendy so that cars can travel down it safely. But really it’s now only ever used by tourists or for car chases in films.
Reading this back to myself, it sounds like our day was only just beginning but by this time the sun was setting and we were all exhausted from walking for miles and miles all over San Fran. So we went back to Union Square for a bit of shopping. We had time for a wash and brush up before going out for a lovely dinner and then we all collapsed happily in to our extremely comfy beds. Well actually I didn’t as I was suddenly struck down by a tummy ache so severe I couldn’t stand up. Not one to make a fuss I bravely took some painkillers and tried to sleep and hoped it would have gone by the morning.
Would Sunday bring an end to my stomach ache and yet more fun adventures in San Fran? Stay tuned in this exciting blog adventure, which is fun for all the family.
Emma xx
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