On the way up to San Francisco we made a couple of stops. we had one night at San Luis Obispo & one night at Santa Cruz. We drove via carmel-by-the-sea on the way, which is this quaint little town with an old picturesque mission. We loved it here its got an Old englishy feel to it. On Friday morning we arrived at san fran. It looks very industrial on first impressions & the roads are like spaghetti junction, however we made it to our motel with no problems. Were staying in Russian Hill which is a really central location. First things first, we had a walk to union square which is the main shopping area. oh the shops are fantastic & they have a huge macy's Daryl had to drag me away from the shoes (i have never seen sooooooo many amazing shoes in my life, im sure it was heaven). The streets here are just as you would imagine, very steep rolling on for miles, lined with tall pastel coloured houses. It has a really nice feel to it & lots of character.

Next morning we were really excited as we have booked a tour to Alcotraz. We walked via the most crooked street which is extremely windy & steep then we walked down to Fishermans Wharf which is alot bigger than we imagined, it took a while to get down to pier 33 to catch our boat. It was only a 10 minute ride across to the island and once we got there we got a welcome speech and then we got to do an audio tour which was really good. We got to walk all around the prison, including cells, dining room, solitary confindment units, recriation yard & looked at the cells where the great escapes were made through holes in the wall that were made over the course of a year! All in all it was a great tour well worth the money!! We also had a walk on pier 39 which is home to loads of themed shops and restraunts along a boardwalk, including Bubba Gump Shrimps, Rain Forrest Cafe, Wipe Out surf cafe.......We treated ourselves to a gourmet hotdog that turned out to be, well.....not very gourmet!! lol

Sunday is a day of rest so we have decided to spend it....... shopping, yippeeeeeee!!! First stop Macy's, second stop Holister then who knows where our credit cards may take us!!