Wednesday 30th January
Lovely to be waking up in Phil and Brena's house ( although a little strange not being on the ship overnight!). The sun is shining brightly and we had a leisurely start to the day sitting and chatting in Brena's parlour before she made us a lovely breakfast. Phil took us to the main post office in San Mateo to get some stamps. It was a lovely old building with some painted murals similar to the ones we had seen yesterday in the Coit Tower. After this we drove to see the Redwoods. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped to take some photos of these wonderful trees that looked lovely with the sun shine down through them. We then drove to the coast and had lunch in a restaurant just by the sea. Had some lovely seafood.
We drove back to the house along the coast road to pick up Brena and say goodbye to Geordie, before going into the city. Russ quickly put our bags back on the ship and checked the boarding time (7.30). We then drove through Chinatown and Phil dropped us off somewhere at the top and we got on the Powell- Hudson Line cable car. The car was lovely, very old and it was great to see how the driver controlled the braking system. It looked like hard work! We passed the top of Lombard Street and then came some very steep hills! It was a wonderful experience and we enjoyed every moment of it. We met up with Brena and Phil at Ghirardelli's chocolate shop when we got to the bottom and had a mug of hot chocolate. Time was getting on so we drove to the FerryBuilding for our final stop on our whirlwind two day tour! This is a beautiful building and was looking really lovely as it was starting to get dark and it was lit up. Inside are lots of different shops. We stopped at a wine bar for a drink before our return to the ship. It was really sad to say goodbye to such dear friends. We have had such a wonderful time with them here in San Francisco and will hopefully see them later in the year in England.