It's been another couple of mad days, trying to squeeze in as much as possible! We left Oakhurst early and nipped back into Yosemite as Gordon was keen to see the Giant Seqouia's. It was only after seeing them that Amy realised just how big they were and that it was worth the detour for! They're like proper huge, we got a few photos of us in front of them, but even they don't really show the true scale.

We then set off for San Francisco, stopping briefly for a bit of shopping - $17 for a pair of Hollister Jeans, go on then :-) Amy and Gordon both got nice new watches too, at bargain prices! It was then straight into the centre of SF to locate the hotel. Gordon offered to navigate, and thinking this the safest option, Amy agreed.................hmm, think she may have been had there. 8 lanes of freeway at times and far too much lane changing but amazingly we made it to the hotel without too much swearing, in one piece and all still talking!

The hotel is beautiful and perfectly located, just 2 blocks from Union Square. We wandered out to find somewhere for dinner and realising how cold it was, fell into the first place that looked acceptable - bit of a find really as it turned out to be a gorgeous Italian meal and made a welcome change to burgers and fries.

This morning we went to Alcatraz Island, which thanks to everyone's advice we had pre booked (next available trip was 27th Aug, so a good job we had!). Amy managed to get there and back without being sick, which given her previous record on boats and the fact she had forgotten to take the tablets we brought with us, was a bit of a bonus. Alcatraz was fascinating, and the Audio Tour of the cellblock incredible. The narration by ex-correctional officers and inmates really added to it.

We spent the afternoon on an open top tour bus, which took us across Golden Gate bridge and back and helped us get our bearings around the city. Back at the hotel, we have now realised that having escaped Vegas and Death Valley at 45 C with no sunburn, here on day 1 in San Francisco at 18 C, we both have red faces, oops! Weird as I'm seriously considering the need to buy an extra jumper, it's freezing!!

We are planning another bus tour tomorrow (need to make use of our 48 hour pass!) and a spot of shopping - Macy's have a huge one day sale on, so would kind of be rude not to :-)