Last night - dinner in a nice little french bistro - 'Chez Claude', in Claude Lane! ;-) They had a heating lamp so we ate on the terrace - trout, and steak tartare. Somehow we also got this hot chocolate fondant type dessert for free to share. Very rich so just right! Today... Last few hours... Breakfast at the big Ferry Building. And oops just realised we were due to fly out yesterday and not today... Just spent the past hour on the phone to get this sorted, ...

Last full day out here - and it's cold and wet, so typical!! Well yesterday was a nice lazy day with a thai herbal infusion massage in the afternoon - involved loads of stretching and some very hot balls of mixed herbal concuction being rolled over the body. Was actually great fun abd relaxing ;-) Today we set off to golden gate park, and saw the japanese tea gardens (from the entrance gate - it was $7 each, and in the rain we decided not worth it. We had a nic...

Today was a morning boat ride across the bay to the Rock - Alcatraz Island, now a protected national parks area. Whilst some spots were closed for nesting season and / or maintenance work, we had quite a good look around. The place, though no longer used as a penitentiary since 1963, is still quite impressive, inspiring - and educational, especially the bit about all of the (attempted) escapes and te big riot of 1949... Unfortunately i hadn't realised quite how...

Today... took a tram to wonder round and of course went to Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf). Very commercial, but nice area. Saw the numerous sea lions lounging about too. We also went as far as Presidio park and the famous Golden Gate Bridge (still find it looks very similar to Bay Bridge, though not the same colour - apparently called International Orange!) And to follow on yesterday's story... there was one very big queue outside the main Apple store today, with ...

And here we are in San Francisco! A bit of a chang in temperature, strangely enough... We have a cool view over the Bay Bridge, looks a lot like the golden gate bridge (i think) though we will go and check that one out tomorrow. Celebratory birthday dinner at a michelin star restaurant called One Market, where we had the Chef's taster menu of six (reduced size) courses. Just right really ;-) On the news locally - the iPad 2 comes on sale tomorrow (Friday) from...