After a sleep in this morning, we got ready and headed down towards the Embarcadero and the waterfront to find ourselves some sort of party for Independence Day.
There were a bunch of markets down there, and we passed one guy selling tshirts with really cool designs on them. We had a chat with the guy who had made and designed them, who was a muso from Finland, and Darren bought a shirt with a bear playing a California-shaped guitar.
We grabbed a samosa each from a food truck, then headed off again.
As we crossed the street to the waterfront there was a busker playing a table full of pots, pans, garbage bins and basically anything that made noise.
He had a poster up with pictures, saying how his drum kit had been stolen from his car, so he was busking to try to buy a new one. And he was really good too!
After he finished a song though, the police were there telling him he needed to stop. It looked like he was in another buskers spot, and was going to have to move his entire setup. Bummer.
So we kept walking along the waterfront and around to Pier 39, which is where all the action was happening.
The pier was full of shops and restaurants and there was live music being set up out the front, and there were people absolutely everywhere!
We had a very slow wander down the pier, as there were so many people, and looked through a few souvenir shops.
We bought a bottle opener and I got myself a pair of very patriotic stars-and-stripes knee high socks for the occasion then we kept wandering.
From the edge of the pier it was a very clear view over to Alcatraz Island and we could see across to the Golden Gate Bridge as well, which was covered in a thick fog that was rolling in towards the city.
We kept walking to try find something to eat, but everywhere was so busy!
There was a table at a seafood place but no vego options, so we had to keep looking.
There was a Mexican place which had a 2 hour wait, unless you wanted to pay for a $200 minimum spend balcony seat!
So we thought we'd keep wandering away from the pier and walked along the waterfront past Fisherman's Wharf and to an Irish pub called Fiddlers, which was near the Cannery.
We were happy to be able to sit down there and had a Guinness and some food.
We had a chat with a couple from Portland, Victoria and Tyson, who were telling us a little about the beer scene there, as they were both in the industry, selling hops.
After a while we fixed up our bill, said goodbye to the Portland guys, I put on my new socks for warmth (it was getting really cold) and we headed off.
We walked back down to the waterfront and stopped at another souvenir shop.
Darren found a nice jacket that he bought, (and that I wore), then we went up the road a bit further to Aquatic Park and found ourselves a spot on the sand to wait for the fireworks.
There were a group of young girls and a guy from Alabama and Georgia that we chatted to after Darren photobombed their selfie, and a guy behind us who we asked to take our picture, who turned out to be a photographer, and who got some nice shots of us.
He got some more good ones when the fireworks started too which was cool!
The fireworks were interesting because it was so foggy that the really high ones would burst where you couldn't see them.
It just made the whole cloud light up in different colours, then the sparks would kind of fall out of the cloud. It was pretty cool!
When the show was over, we chatted and walked with the young group and walked together to find some food.
They decided on a takeaway burger place, so we said goodbye to them and went to find somewhere we could eat in.
We went to Applebees, just because its one of those places you hear about on TV shows and we thought we'd give it a try.
There was a 20 minute wait for a table, but we were able to wait at the bar, so we ordered a drink.
The table was ready before the beers were though, so we went to get our table and asked the waitress whether we should pay for the drink first or all together at the end.
Because of the tipping system we just weren't sure, and the waitress seemed offended or something by the question.
Eventually we figured out that we should pay the bartender first and we'd pay again later for the rest of our bill.
So after that bit of confusion we paid for our drinks then had a look over the menu.
The waitress walked back past us about 5 or 6 times after we'd closed the menu and just completely ignored us, it was so weird!
Eventually, sick of waiting, we flagged down another waitress, Teressa, who was super nice and funny.
We got our food and as Teressa was talking to us the original waitress came back and was asking her how she got our table and being quite rude to her, right in front of us! (Still without acknowledging us though)
When she left we told Teressa why she'd gotten our table, just to make sure she wasn't going to get in trouble or anything.
So from then, we were sorted, and Teressa came back to chat and laugh with us whenever she was free!
We had a little joke together about the other waitress, and when we had finished eating, two other off-shift waitresses came and joined us at our table and bought us a jelly shot each!
We chatted and laughed with them for a while, then eventually we fixed up our bill, said goodbye and headed off up the street to go back to the hotel.
On the way back it started to rain though, so we jumped in a cab back to the hotel then went up to bed.