San Francisco

Just spent the past 3 nights in San Francisco which is a lovely, charming city. Much more manageable size than L.A. as you can explore it pretty much on foot in that time. Took in many of the tourist attractions. Boat trip out to Alcatraz was good fun - cold and windy and very foggy but it all adds to the atmosphere. We saw loads of seals (well we heard them honking first) in the harbour area at fisherman's wharf. Went for long walk along the coast. Rode on one of the famous cable cars over the hills clinging to the side for dear life!

As well as seeing some of the major sights we also managed to catch a baseball game too. Cheered on the SF Giants who were winning for almost all the game until the last half hour when it went a bit wrong!

Driving in SF is a bit of a nightmare as we discovered when we arrived at rush hour on our first day, so the car got parked in the hotel garage and didn't come out again until we left today, and of course Colin had to drive! By now though we'd really got the hang of those pesky american road junctions and Colin has learnt that, when we don't know who's right of way it is, it is apparently ours!! So far it has worked out for us. We've had very few beeps from other cars and not been arrested once by those pesky american police.

So today we left SF and drove further north out of the city over the Golden Gate bridge, which for once wasn't covered in mist so we managed to get some photos of the whole bridge, not just the top sticking out over the mist. Then it was less than an hour to our next stop where we are staying for the next few nights. We're in Napa which is famous for it's wine so we may just have a few tastings. Particularly tomorrow when it is Colin's birthday.

Napa seems like a nice town. Went for a walk around and got some lunch there. Then we headed back to our hotel which has a nice pool, - great this afternoon when the mercury hit about 93 degrees. Finally a day of relaxation, which we both appreciated after the chaos of city life. Tomorrow we're planning to drive up to the top of the valley where there are some geysers and hot springs as well as vineyards all the way so hopefully colin will have a nice birthday. I'll be doing all the driving of course. We also plan to take in a wine tour so neither of us needs to drive. Genius plan. Next stop will be Yosemite National Park which we were intending to go to a bit sooner but apparently americans have a bank holiday on monday and the entire nation go to Yosemite so Kim and Colin couldn't find a place to stay so we just have to stay here and drink more wine. Bummer!!!!!