5th March

Up and out sharp to squeeze as much into our day as possible. Pick up a Caramel latte and hit Golden Gate Park - just a ten minute walk from Jims place. Pretty scenes. Seen a lake and an enormous bird hiding in the reeds. Kind of like a Herron. Wandered about there for a while. Rose garden - no roses...Went to observetary tower but it was closed. Pretty foggy day anyway so not sure the views would have been any good. Walked to Haight-Ashburry from there, a crazy homeless hippy area with lots of kooky vintage shops. Spent some time browsing around them but refrained from purchasing anything since I lack the money and bag space.

"Hey, you girls look cute. I'm Matt and I'm a transvestite." This is the kind of rougue chat we seem to attract wandering around. Makes for some interesting convos. Went to Almo Square park to view the Painted Ladies. A row a pretty, colourful, victorian style houses. They are famous and a big tourist attraction but really the area we were staying in consisted of streets of hundreds of these type houses. Walked back along Haight street, down Cole street to an area to catch the 28 bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. Luckily the weather had cleared and it was a bright sunny day, even though windy and quite nippy. Stopped for a while, took some photos before moving on. Walked past Fort Mason, Laguna Beach - ridiculous looking houses with huge roof terraces and superb views. Went all the way along the shore to Fishermans wharf where we had been for a short time yesterday. We had it in our minds we wanted mussels and there were so many great looking seaside restaurants. Fired into one of those and got musseled in. Big juicy super fresh mussels. Oooft. Walked up Powell street and along Columbus in search of a Bluegrass bar Casey had spoken about and reccomended for some live music. The Saloon. A few seasoned drinker type locals sitting around the bar and a drunk, old, long white haired bartender. He gave us our beers then forgot to get us to pay...I had to remind him. He was out the game. Music started at ten. Got much busier. Everyone so keen to chat to us, don't think it draws in many tourists! These guys bout us Tequila "shots" (Sorry mum). Never seen shots of this magnitude in my life. They were glasses of Tequila. We were given another glass full of limes and a shaker of salt. The guys shot them down in one. Rhona and I had to go four times....it was pretty embarrasing. Emma Laurenson - at some point in our lives I am taking you to that bar, you're well practised. Maybe you could give tehm a run for their money. We were going to leave pretty sharp to catch the last bus BUT, found $20 on the floor and took that as a sign. Taxi fare. Stay extended. A band called The Bachelors played us some brilliant music as the banter flowed along with the beer. Got back to Jims about 2am, drunk and nackered from walking around 500miles in the day. Pass out.

6th March

Up at 7am to try to do the last few things on Jims list before departing San Fran. Got some clothes washed (important) and headed out. Walked in an unnecessary and time consuming loop due to the TERRIBLE map we had been given. Actual the worst map ever. I could now draw a better map of the place. Nightmare. Anyway, after walking quite a while we found a map on the side of a bus stop, realised we had literally gone nowhere and still had a long way to go to see the Castro (gay area) and the Mission district. Disappointing but we had to about turn as flight to catch to good old Fiji. Headed back to Jims place to gather all our stuff together before heading off. Caught a bus and then the Daly City Bart (a train) to San Francisco Airport. Much confusion at the ticket machines in the train station but nailed it after a drawn out, exhausting learning curve. Flew San Fran to LA, kind Delta assistant helped us dodge the bag charge for the short flight by tagging our bags straight to Nadi, Fiji. Legend. Think we look pretty poor these days. 1 hour 20 mins to LAX, back to where the journey had begun. Tried to get a shuttle bus outside to terminal B and the driver informs us thats actually where we are...so that was handy. Checked in with Air Pacific and had 3 hours to kill before our 10.30pm flight. This was surprisingly easy. It's nice to be still. Hopped on plane when the time was right and was sad to discover we were two seats in the middle of four. Pain in the arse seats for a long haul flight. It was a double decker plane also. Huge. Quite uncomfotable really, imposible to sleep. Ten and a half hours later, we arrive in Nadi, Fiji.

Kate x