We did so many cool things in SF I will probably have to leave a lot of it out, but the first thing was that we went to visit a Japanese Garden - very calming and beautiful (stark difference to NY). We saw some huge koi and said hello to our old friend Sid (Buddha) and then went for a walk to find the horse tornado.
Yay for carousels!!! I really hope these beautiful creations don't "die out" of existence. Us girls had a bit of a "childish" moment and jumped on the merry go round for a bit of a giggle. After that it was back to our hotel, which was situated right on the foreshore!! We walked down to the beach and Steph took us "sand crabbing". These were some seriously weird crabs. They didn't have nippers, and they kind of looked like shrimp! But all you had to do was dig into the sand and you came up with a few of these friendly little critters (no critters were harmed in the creation of this sand crabbing adventure!!!!!)
The next day the six of us caught a boat out to Alcatraz! Wow, what an intense place! The cells were so small, and the stories of some of the inmates and guards are truly thrilling. We were even lucky enough to meet an ex-inmate, who wrote a book about his time in Alcatraz, and was there doing a book signing and answering questions about his life.
We needed some cheer after that visit, and we lucked out on finding the COOLEST restaurant in the whole world: Rainforest Cafe. Okay, I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I'm just a big kid at heart... So imagine my happiness and joy to discover someone has made a restaurant into a JUNGLE!!!! Complete with moving animals, sound effects, and themed drinks and food!!!!! You have to SEE this place to believe it. We even had a balloon artist come and make us balloon animals! It's every big kid's dream!!!!
The next day we took the train down to the wharf and had a look at some market stalls before heading to the EXPLORATORIUM!!! So, this is basically a GIANT building jam packed with every possible awesome science experiment you could imagine!!! Sound, light, magnets (my fave haha), speed, illusions, plants, the body, time, weight.... You name it!!! We only got through half the building and it was like a brain explosion of sciencey goodness! Can't wait to share some of my science with the teachers and kids at school!
We also went to check out the mall (and did some shopping, woohoo!)
We spent the next day driving to Monterey (ROADTRIP! 90s MUSIC! WOO!) where we visited the aquarium! It was so much fun. What were my favourites?? The jelly fish and the otters. Omg otters are so cute! They're almost as cute as squirrels!!! Michael's favourite from the Monterey Aquarium was clown fish (NEMO!!!)
We told the crew that we had always wanted to ezperience some "traditional American food" - they were the best people to ask!!! - we tried all the typical American foods that we don't really see in Adelaide: hot pockets, Taco Bell, bagels, s'mores.... some was good, some was not so great. We even found GIANT candy (I was not going to attempt to bring it back in my already over stuffed suitcase, but at least we have pictures that it exists!!!)
Our next day saw us off on a bay cruise, travelling under the Golden Gate Bridge! It was a little bit foggy (as it tends to be on cold days in SF) but we had been lucky enough to have gorgeous warm weather every other day of our visit. We spent some more time at the pier after the cruise - delicious Mexican food for lunch, a yummy ice cream with a freshly made waffle cone for Michael, and a fancy pair of earrings and some over priced but overly awesome magnets for myself - and then it was back to the hotel.
I should mention that we also ordered Chinese, which maybe doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is when you've never done it before!!! .....and the orange peel tofu was probably one of the best foods I've ever eaten in my life. Mmmmmmm........
The next day we walked down to our local cafe for brunch. Michael found an interesting "chicken and waffle" selection from the menu, which was basically a chicken schnitzel on top of a waffle. Haha. What the!??
From there we made our way to the California Academy of Sciences, which was a super mega awesome place filled with aquariums, history, and even a butterfly garden!!! We saw loads of cool and cute animals and creatures, and then walked back to get some lunch. We went to a place called Underdog which had the most delicious vegan hotdog! We found out that the very next day was International Hotdog Day, so it was a perfect way to end the day!
We spent that night hanging out together enjoying each other's company (much as we had done every other night). It's great when you are close enough with people that just sitting around doing "nothing" is really more than anything else you could ever want.
It was a very sad goodbye the next morning, but a promise was made to save up and have them all over to Australia - hopefully not TOO far into the future. Goodbye my beautiful friends, and goodbye San Fran, you've done superbly.
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