Tuesday 5th May

Made our way down to the bay and along to the piers on foot, the hotel wasn't that far. We walked along a wall out into the sea which gave a good view of the Golden Gate bridge even though the mist was quite thick over the bay. We stood and watched a cruise ship come into the bay and dock at one of the piers. We continued our walk along the bay front and soon got to Fisherman's wharf. The first pier was part of the National Park with ships of all sizes which had been repaired or restored and were now part of a museum, you could look over them. There was a boat yard on the pier where the work was carried out on the boats. We carried on along the wharf it was very lively and there were many restaurants and food stalls with a variety of sea food on the menu. We eventually reached Pier 39. The pier had lots of shops and restaurants on it, we had a look round and ended up at the end of the pier looking out over Alcatraz, there was a strange smell in the air and a loud noise, we followed the walkway round to find hundreds of sea lions basking in the sunshine on wooden platforms in the marina. We sat for a while watching them, They are wild but chose to inhabit the marina after the earthquake in the 1980's, there were also a few Sea lions which had been rescued and put into the colony. They were very entertaining and very noisy.

We decided to try some of the Clam Chowder for lunch, there were lots of places offering it either in a cup or in a bowl made from soda bread. We chose the soda bread bowl it was very filling and the bread crust was quite chewy and not that easy to eat but we persevered and managed to finish it all. It wasn't until later that we realise that people didn't eat the whole of the bread bowl only some of the inner bread!!

We called into a bar on the way back to the hotel for a couple of drinks (it was happy hour). We tried a few of the local beers which were good, and got chatting to some Aussie's and a couple of Gay American guys.

Wednesday 6th May

We got down to pier 33 and bought our tickets to Alcatraz. The weather was still very misty and we could not see too far over the bay. The boat only took about ten to fifteen minutes to get to the island. We watched a short film on the history of Alcatraz and then went on the tour of the prison. The cells that the prisoners were put in were very small and they were kept on their own in the cell, you could imagine how cold it would have been in the winter. It was very interesting looking around and we were there for a couple of hours. As we were leaving, the tour took us through the book shop where there was one of the few living ex inmates, he was signing copies of his book about the prison. When we got back we walked along the piers calling into Pier thirty nine again to have another look at the sea lions, we then called off to get some lunch, we had crab and shrimp sandwiches which were in soda bread again and had lots of filling, they were very nice.

In the afternoon we bought a day pass for the transport system and spent a few hours riding on the cable cars and trolley busses. It was great on the cable car going up and down the hills. There were great views over the bay from the top of the hill going into the city centre. We sat in Union square and had a coffee, the city was very busy, and there were a lot of beggars and homeless hanging around.

Thursday 7th May

We picked up a car and headed out of San Francisco heading north for the Napa Valley. We had a bright blue sky not a cloud in sight and as we left the city and headed towards the Golden Gate bridge we couldn't believe how clear it was, it was the first time we had seen the bridge clearly. We were told there are not that many days a year that you can see the bridge with out a mist, the cold air from the sea hits the warm air from the valley and the bridge ends up being shrouded in cloud most of the time, so we were pleasantly surprised to see it so clear. We got over the other side and stopped at a view point opposite the city, from there we walked across the bridge, it was very noisy and there were a lot of cyclists on the path across. We could see some Sea Lions swimming in the bay below us, there we great views across the bay.

We drove for about an hour and a half arriving in Napa late afternoon. The information centre in the town centre gave us the phone number of a hotel so we phoned and went along to have a look. The hotel was fabulous right on the outskirts of the town and between five and seven there was a wine tasting of the local wines. We tried several wines and there was cheese and nibbles to go along with them. There were lots of people in the hotel from all over the world which was interesting.

Later we had a walk into the town for dinner, Napa town was a very nice place.