Howdy Folks!

It was 'G'day' from Oz and NZ so it had better be 'Howdy' now that we are in the land of the greenback. Not too happy about there only being $1.48 to the £... it was more like $2 when we booked the hotel, thankfully.

Due to a minor cock-up (not our fault) we left Auckland a day later than planned and so only had only one full day in San Francisco. We decided that the best method of attack to get everything in was to take the open-top bus tour. This allowed us to hop off at certain points for exploration, coffee and photography and then catch a later bus to continue the tour. We found, when inspecting the route map we were issued with, that we could combine the buses with walking, so we managed to cover much of the city and it was a lot cheaper than taking taxis.

We stayed in the Hotel Whitcomb, in Market Street and only a stone's throw from Union Square in the centre of the city. The hotel itself is fine (see the photos) but the area around it has seen better days. All of it was rebuilt after the devastating earthquake in 1906. At the time it was really salubrious and the Hotel Whitcomb building was used as a temporary replacement for City Hall, the original being totally destroyed by the earthquake. By 1915 the new City Hall was built and the Whitcomb reverted to a hotel. It has been kept largely original, with occasional updating. The entrance hall is resplendent in domed Tiffany glass ceilings and French chandeliers. The room was large, about 12 feet high, with two enormous king-size-plus double beds, and very ornate brass lamps and fittings. The shower was scalding hot and very powerful, nearly blowing us out of the bathroom!

Due to crossing the international date-line on the trans-Pacific flight from Auckland to San Francisco, we had a forty-hour, continuous, Wednesday/Thursday and arrived before we started! We had to find something to keep us awake until the evening and were lucky enough to get late tickets to see the musical 'Wicked' at the Orpheum Theatre near our hotel. The production was simply outstanding, one of the best evening's musical theatre we have ever experienced.

Friday dawned drizzly and cold. Shortly after 8am we were in San Francisco airport for the flight back to Heathrow, followed by a five-hour wait and then a 35-minute hop up to Manchester on a tiny BMI jet no bigger than a cigar tube. It had been ever so slightly annoying to realise that our San Francisco-Heathrow flight was actually passing over Rossendale but we had almost another seven hours before we would be through our front door!

Never mind... it was worth it to experience a fabulous holiday!

A big thank you to everyone who made it possible, especially Catherine and Steve in Sydney and Sue and Dave in Auckland who lent us their homes. Your generosity knew no bounds and was very much appreciated. We'll reciprocate, no worries!

And thanks to everyone in the UK for keeping us up-to-date via their emails and messages on our blog. We are going to have our blog made into a printed album but not for a week or two, so it is not too late for you to add a message!

Signing out for the last time,

Dave and Denise