Currency:
US Dollars

Highlights:
Haight and Ashbury, Golden Gate, Pier 39, a true South African braai, touring Stanford, more great friends

Our Adventure Summarised:

So after leaving Lake Tahoe nice and early and with our superstar driver Annie doing all of the driving Lara and I woke up at 07h30 in the car to find that Annie had already got us into San Francisco and we were sitting in some rush hour traffic.

We managed to get back to Annie and Justin's place in time for Justin and his work commitments and what this did mean is that Annie had the day off and we had a day in San Francisco that we had not planned for. Woohoo.

Although Lara and I had both been to San Francisco before there were a few things that each of us had not done and Annie very kindly offered to take us around San Francisco and show us some of her favourite spots as well as anything that we wanted to see.

First stop was to stop passed Annie's sisters place where we got to see Annie's absolutely adorable nieces and nephews.

We then headed on to Haight and Ashbury which is famous for being the home of the Hippie movement and this once bohemian area is still an eclectic treasure and truly an awesome area to go and explore. We grabbed some coffees and leisurely wandered the streets and stopped to finish our coffee in Buena Vista Park. Definitely an area of San Francisco that any visitor should check out.

On my last trip to San Francisco I did not get to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close and personal so we jumped back in the car and Annie found a great spot where we could admire the architecture of the Golden Gate bridge where after four years of construction, the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. Bridging the Golden Gate was one of the greatest engineering efforts of the century, and it acted as a social and economic catalyst that forever changed the San Francisco Bay region. Today over 40 million vehicles cross the bridge each year.

After a busy morning it was lunch time and Annie treated us (again) to an amazing sushi and salad lunch right on the water at Chaya - a scrumptious restaurant with delicious food and some very funky juices.

Final stop on our whirlwind tour of San Francisco was to Pier 39 to admire the views of Alcatraz across the water and to say goodbye to the Californian sea lions. California sea lions use Pier 39 to 'haul out' or come out of the water to rest. Sea lions have always frequented the San Francisco Bay, especially during the winter months, to feed on spawning herring. Biologists believe that the sea lions came to Pier 39's K-Dock and have stayed because there is plenty of food nearby, the docks are protected from storm waves and are easy to haul out on, and sea lion predators (great white sharks and orcas) do not come into the Bay.

After a great day with our tour guide we waved goodbye to the rather smelly sea lions and jumped back in the car where Annie kindly offered to drive us across the Bay Area to Fremont to see Robyn and Joe.

After an hour or so drive we arrived in the leafy suburb of Fremont where we bid farewell to Annie (well for a short time anyway) and arrived at Robyn and Joe's place.

Robyn and Joe have just had a gorgeous daughter Anabel - who was all of 3 weeks old - and was a little angel. Lara and I were very excited to hear that we had a true South African braai planned for the evening - this would be our third braai on World Tour - and what better a place to have it than with some good South African friends.

We soon tucked into some Savannahs and beers and after getting the fire going with a hair dryer due to the lack of firelighters (mental note: this is a great way to get a braai going) we tucked into a delicious meal of Pork Ribs, Lamb Chops and salad. Shoowee - it was great to have a braai again.

After dinner Joe and I headed out to pick up the girls some chocolate shakes from the local diner and ended the evening off by watching a DVD on the couch after another great day on World Tour.

You can view our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355328&id=713415257&l=48cf865af7

The next morning Robyn treated us to bacon and eggs for breakfast and then we decided to head out for a little tour around the Bay Area including what has been labelled as the 'Geek Tour'.

Robyn, Joe, Lara and I jumped in the car and we took a drive around Palo Alto and the Mountain View area which included Stanford (Joe studied at Stanford), the offices of Facebook, the headquarters of Google and the headquarters of 219 Design which is the company that Joe has started with a few of his buddies from Stanford.

Unfortunately that was all we had time for and Robyn and Joe kindly dropped us at San Jose airport where we said our goodbyes and it was time for our next destination on World Tour: Orange County, California where it was time to see the LeiseGANG's of California.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355329&id=713415257&l=c9216b1aca

Leise + Lara