Got up early today to check out of our lovely hotel (thanks Mam and Dad!!) and make our way to the airport. Checked in ok then sat waiting for flight watching the crazy people playing the slot machines at 9am! Yes, even the airport has slot machines!! While we were waiting I phoned my Grandad to wish him a happy 88th birthday! He and my nana both sounded surprised and pleased to hear from me and it was nice to speak to them both. But then something not so nice happened...we lost our beloved platypus water bottles (trust me they were awesome!). They're soft plastic so when you've drank all of the water they fold up really small don't take up much room in your bag. Anyway, when we've got a long journey ahead we freeze them the night before so that it lasts a long time and stays cold. We've never had any trouble going through security with them before, as long as we drink the liquid in front of them! But this time a security woman on the other side wasn't happy and went to check with her supervisor - who said no :-( They were big blocks of ice still and there was no way we could empty them, plus we didn't have time as the flight was about to board. Never mind, they served us well in the heat of Vegas and the National Parks!

The flight was short - 1 hour, and we slept most of the way as we weren't used to getting up this early, still on Vegas time! We arrived in San Francisco and were immediately surprised and pleased at how much cooler it was - there was a breeze! We got the bus to downtown ($2! So cheap!) then made our way to our hostel following the directions on the hostel website. This is something I've been very impressed with, we've never had trouble finding a place yet as the walking directions are always so good and easy to follow. We pressed the buzzer and were told "come on up, we're on the 4th floor", so up we struggled with all our bags (no lift). The kind man on the desk came and met us at the 3rd floor and carried one of my bags! We checked in and were shown to our bunks - 2 top bunks, uh oh, I do not like top bunks! Normally we get a top and bottom of the same bunk so I can make Dave sleep on the top. No such luck this time! Never mind again!

In his welcome speech, the guy at the hostel desk had told us about a Jazz festival going on on the other side of town and marked it on our map. A street was closed off and 3 stages were set up, along with lots of food stalls and entertainment. So we decided to walk there...an hour and a half later, and after walking up and down many many hills, we arrived! We watched a brilliant group called the San Francisco Rock Project, who were all young people (under 18) and they all played a few instruments, so one song would finish and they'd all swap round or new people would come and play. Very impressive group! We had some food from a streed stall and stopped to watch a swing dance group for a while (Dawn and Steve would have fitted right in!), then we took the sensible option and got a bus back! We found out the next day that we could have got a bus from right outside the hostel to the street where the festival was on, for $2 each. Oh well!

On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Safeway and bought some food so we could cook our own meals at the hostel. After cooking tea we sat and drank a few beers with some people in the hostel. Most of them went out after a while so we spent some time on the free computers then went to bed in our top bunks!