So after a great time in vegas, we were sad to leave we headed for the greyhound to LA. The journey to San Francisco direct was 17 hours and involved three changes, so not only was it cheaper but worked out better for us, to go to LA for one night in between.

Our bus was fine, it took around five hours and before we knew it we were back at stay on main the hotel we stayed at during our time exploring LA. By the time we got to the hotel it was around 6pm, we spent the night getting organised, doing all our washing and updating the blog, before getting an early night.

The next morning lee was up before the alarm, he was so happy we were back at the hotel as they do free waffles in the mornings. I am not joking I think it is the quickest he has got out of bed in six months! The waffles didn't disappoint, then we headed back to the greyhound terminal for our bus to San Francisco. The bus left a 9.30 and was due to get there at 5.45. We were both dreading this long journey and although the bus was meant to have wifi it had broken. By an hour in we were both already bored and knew it was going to be a long day on the bus.

After our lunch stop, lee was thrilled there was a subway (his new favourite lunch), we got on the road for a bit, when all of a sudden the bus started jolting and slowing down. Before we knew it we were at a standstill on the hard shoulder with the hazards on. The driver announced "oh dear guys we have a problem". Everyone sighed and couldn't believe the journey would be any longer. The engine was over heating, so we stopped for around twenty minutes, then to everyone's relief we were off again. Ten minutes later we were back on the side of the road. This time everyone got out to stretch their legs, and the driver informed us that if we have to call another bus it would take three hours. Fortunately we just kept stopping every now and again to let the engine cool down and by a miracle no one knows how, the bus actually made it to San Francisco in one piece, but two hours later than scheduled.

After an even longer bus journey than expected we were so happy to finally arrive, and got the bus to our hostel. We were staying at a place called adeliade hostel, in a six bed dorm. We were both not looking forward to going back to dorm life, especially as we had been living in celebrity luxury in the venetian for a week. I warned lee that there definitely would not be Egyptian cotton sheets or jet showers that massages your back! Haha! Our room was fine, it was a really good hostel very homely. We also had curtains to pull across our beds, which was good for privacy and made it easier to sleep, despite someone drunk falling on lees and bringing the rail down at four in the morning!!

San Francisco

Two words to sum up the lovely city, chilly and hilly! It's been so cold since we have been here, it's clear blue skies but the wind is bitter cold. It was a shock to our systems having to wrap up!! There are so many hills here too, some of the roads are so steep. Lee said the city reminds him of a cross between Amsterdam and Brighton!

Our first day in San Francisco was spent exploring Fishermans wharf. We travelled on the f line which was a vintage street car, and we got to see a lot of the city. We also loved watching the cable cars, which were introduced in San Francisco in 1873, and today there are a few left which are a national landmark.

We visited the famous pier 39" a renovated cargo pier. We loved wandering around the pier, it is nothing like Clacton pier! It has two levels of speciality shops and lots of restaurants. It was really cool and quirky, and we loved looking in many of the shops. Our favourites were the biggest magnet shop, (they had ones that felt and looked like real donuts me and lee wanted to buy one!), the candy shops which had barrels full of sweets and every flavour toffee, and the magic shop. The pier also had lovely views, we could see the bay, angel island and Alcatraz. We were really disappointed as we wanted to go on a day trip to Alcatraz, but they were completely fully booked. Apparently you need to book three to four weeks in advance during holidays, but at least we got to see it!

Next we went to see the sea lions. There is a dock just off the pier, in which hundreds of sea lions migrate to. You could hear and smell them before you could see them. Me and lee couldn't believe how many there actually were, we could have stayed there all day and watched. They are such strange creatures, they were fighting and plopping in the water! There were some massive ones aswell!

After dragging ourselves away from the noisy sea lions we took a stroll down Jefferson street, and watched all the street performers. We also went to ghiradeli square, where the famous ghiradeli chocolate factory is. We had never heard of it before, but it's a really popular chocolate here. Me and lee went in all three of their shops just so we could try the free samples three times!! They were delicious! We also went to a bakery lee's favourite, where you could watch the bakers make the fresh bread, lee wanted to go in and have a go!

Our next stop was a Walk or should I say a steep uphill trek to Lombard street. This is known as the crookedest street in the world, which consists of eight sharp turns on a 40 degree slope. This was great to see, the cars zig zag around beautiful flowers. We loved watching the cars manoeuvre their way down, lee wanted to give it a go, I definitely would not have been able to do it with my driving skills! We tried to get some pictures so hopefully you can see it. After an extremely busy day sight seeing, we went to westifield San Francisco for a lovely dinner but the portion size was absolutely massive and we struggled to finish.

Our next day, we wanted to visit the famous Golden Gate Bridge, which took four years to build and cost 35 million. We got the bus to the nearest possible point, then had 30/45 min walk along the beach to reach the bridge. It was absolutely freezing and when we finally caught a glimpse of the bridge, we couldn't believe our luck, most of it was covered up by a foggy mist, which is apparently very common. The bridge is the second most used suicide site and the most photographed in the entire world.

We walked to forte point and got a great view of the entire landmark, we tried to capture it as best we can for you all to see. Unfortunately in some pictures you can barely see it! It was great to see it in real life as we have seen it in many films. Our next stop was the golden gate park, which was absolutely beautiful especially the Japanese tea gardens. During our bus ride we went through many neighbourhoods, including china town, mission district (Mexican and Latin America cultural traditions) and the haight (hippie area). We also stopped at union square to have a look around.

That night, we decided to go to the cinema, this was to stop us attending the hostel's pub crawl as we have drunk plenty of cocktails in vegas to last us a life time. I am sure lee only wanted to go to the cinema for the popcorn. We watched a film called blended it was so funny, and we couldn't believe that the pop corn was refillable. we got the refil before we had even started our first one, as lee wanted the large one to himself, although we barely made a dent in either of them. It was a nice change to go to the cinema as we haven't been for months and months!

We have both really enjoyed San Francisco, it is a really cool and quirky city. There are so many different areas, it's like going down a few blocks, and you feel like you are in a completely new city, although we have noticed the sheer volume of homeless people here, which is very sad. Also, the city apparently has the best and most accessible public transport system in the entire us, yet me and lee still couldn't navigate it and got lost on various occasions!!

So tonight we fly to orlando,it is only a five hour flight but we also go ahead three hours so we land at seven in the morning. We spend two weeks in orlando and have park tickets for seaworld, wet n wild, aquatica, Busch gardens, universal studios and island of adventures. So we have a busy two weeks ahead of us and we are so excited to go to the parks. The tickets are unlimited access for 14 days so we can go to our favourite ones more than once, which is great! We can't believe how close we are to the end, it is approaching us far TOO quickly, but we can't wait to see everyone :)

Don't worry we won't be dangling our legs off any more canyons!

Lots of love xxx