Day 183 Monday 8th March 2010

Johno says

We were all ready bright and early for the next stint of driving from Boron to San Francisco, Liam and I couldn't believe that the night before we had been talking to some locals from nearby the legion bar - they were so welcoming that one even bought us two beers each when we first arrived. Dusty (one of the locals) told us about his job of guiding a space shuttle's back down to earth, craziness. Stacey had scared Liam into thinking that there were big hairy spiders in California, only for Liam to scream like a woman at the site of a cockroach on my bag as we were leaving our motel, it was a funny site especially as I didn't know what he was screaming and running from. We stopped at a few places along the route, each place was just full of fast food outlets it was ridiculous so Stacey passed on the hamburgers this time but I had a burger with a salad chaser just to make myself feel better. The scenery was changing from desert to green mountainous countryside within the few hours we were on the road. We arrived into San Francisco late afternoon and decided to drop off the car and head out for an Indian, we struggled to breathe and move in the evening so we enjoyed an early night.

Day 184 Tuesday 9th March 2010

Stacey says

We all slept in till around midday, since we were rudely kept awake by a serial snorer!! This guy was unbelievable, it's the loudest snore I've ever heard!! He was a petty awful looking man to go with the awful snoring.. I had to climb down off my bed out of frustration and stamp my foot saying "This is ridiculous" There was no way we would get any sleep with his racket. But I didn't have much choice... so we then just laughed so much at our situation, which did keep waking him out of his snore, for at least 2 minutes..... I then remembered my EARPLUGS! Steve and I decided we'd go to the Supermarket and get some food for rest of the week, we need some normal food! Including a litre and a half of Californian Shiraz for afters. We then ventured down to Union Square to ponder around the shops, there were a good mixture of shops dotted around, including a Macys store, Bloomingdales and a Westfields store. But with everything being back to normal price we only came away with one or two purchases each! The weather is a lot colder here, between 10-15 degrees, but sunny, I am still walking around in flip flops! We didn't get up to a whole lot today, but it was a nice easy day, we headed back and cooked our dinner and enjoyed our wine, and were back in bed for 10.30pm!

Day 185 Wednesday 10th March 2010

Johno says

Today we joined our hostel for the walking tour of the city, as part of the tour we strolled through Chinatown stopping off at the fortune cookie factory for some free samples, then on to a cheap dim sum shop then we marched up the second steepest street in the world (apparently) to get a great look out to San Fran with the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz for a back drop! The walk down Telegraph hill was more relaxed, with a stroll through little Italy and the guide left us at a place called Fisherman's Wharf which was quite an impressive area with a few restaurants and coffee shops, they also have a seal colony here at pier 39. After a spot of seal watching we stopped for a coffee and people watch then made our way through the antique amusement arcade and walked on for a bit. By the time we returned to the hostel we were all pooped and ready for bed, but there was another supermarket visit in order to stock up on some beers and carrot cake for Stace. The evening was spent cooking dinner, drinking, playing cards and chatting with the other guests including an Italian guy who nicely updated us on the mafia scene at the moment in Sicily and a German guy who picked up the rules of black jack quickly enough to join in, he was also impressed with the card trick that the Americans showed us in Halong Bay.

Day 186 Thursday 11th March 2010

Stacey says

We had a 10.30am trip to Alcatraz this morning, leaving at about 9.45, we strolled through the streets towards the pier, realizing we had just 10 minutes to get there, and we weren't even near the pier yet, we had a bit of a mad dash, with me far behind in flip flops, shouting lets take a taxi after Steve and Liam!! We actually still had a fair way in the taxi, but we made with 4 minutes to go! The 15 minutes ferry ride was mainly filled with security and safety rules on the tannoy, but it was a nice trip with the Golden Gate Bridge in clear view. We had in an introduction talk and went over to a guide who spent an hour telling us stories of the escapes attempted at Alcatraz, just 5 out of 32 made it away and are unaccounted for, but they would guess the cold temperature of the sea would have killed them before they made the mile long swim over to San Francisco. It was quite creepy knowing some of the worlds most wanted had been in this prison. We then did an audio tour, taking us around the cells and life at the prison. There was a brilliant view of San Fran from the Island, and they said this was the psychological torture for the prisoners as they could sometimes hear the parties and smells of San Fran from the prison, yet they had no freedom themselves. We spent around 3/4 hours on here before heading back. We came back through China town picking up some snacks and then via the supermarket picking up some beers, and we chilled out in the hostel with some drinks for the evening. For our final hostel cooked dinner we had made mash, beans and sausages... it really turned out to be a bit of a disaster... the mash was nice... but the supermarket didn't have any normal beans..athough this tin did say in tomato sauce... and the sausges LOOKED ok, but they were the spiciest polish made sausages we'd ever tasted... but we ate it anyway.....!

Day 187 Friday 12th March 2010

Johno says

This was our last full day of the six months away so we set out for a day of looking around San Francisco and shopping - it was absolutely tipping it down so Liam and I went to our favourite sports bar for a few beers. We met back up with Stace in the evening and went for our final meal in Chinatown, after turning our nose up at a buffet offer, we found a lovely little restaurant and had delicious feast and then planned to have a good drink to toast each others efforts over the last six months, the evening soon went into the early hours and we were in bed for 3pm.

Day 188 Saturday 13th March 2010

Johno and Stacey says

The final day has arrived and we were feeling a real cocktail of emotions, the hangovers probably assisted us in feeling pretty knackered by the time of check out at 10am. We had successfully lapped the world in 188 days!! No back to reality with no more random adventures, cultures, beaches, living out of a bag or no more blogging!! We hope you enjoyed our adventure half as much as we did….