Right, Weve just arrived in LA and ive scored myself 2 1/2 hours of internet time to upload all of my blogs from san fran to sandiego and everywhere in between!!!!

So, we flerw into San Francisco airport on a crappy american airlines plane, that was delayed for an hour aswell, and set off for our hostel, the famed Green Tortoise Hostel. We arrived and our expectations were met, the hostel itself was really cool and big and there were loads of rooms so loads of people to meet!!!

We arrived on a Thursday and promptly went to get some lunch as we hadnt eaten for about 9 hours!!! Thebn it was off for a power nap to get over our 3 hour time difference jet lag!! After this we promptly sighned up for the beer and burrito tour that night and got an early start to the drinking.

So we all gathered for the tour and off we went for "the best burrito in san fran" and it was a good burrito, not like those poxy tiny litle ones you used to get in birmingham at 3 in the morning from the burrito stand!! Then it was off to a few bars for $1 drinks (very dangerous when one of those drinks is vodka and coke, as we all know this is kels preferred poison!!) and got the night started for good. We got talking to a bunch of the people on our bar crawl, played some pool, i lost but so what, players player and managers player!!!! Anyway we got talking to a group of guys from the uk (2 scots, chris and ross, and a guy from england called gaz) who knew of another, better bar crawl that was going on with another hostel, so we jmped into a taxi and off we went to gatecrash!! A couple of bars later and the $1 drinks were sterting to catch up with kel (well infact theyd overtaken her and left her for dust) so we had to cut the night short to take the vodka queen home!!! Nice one kel!!!

Next day we woke up pretty early and after accepting kels apologies for the premature end to the night off we were to book our alcatraz tour tickets. So we set off to the pier only to discover that they were all sold out untl the day after we were due to leave for yosemite. To say the least we were gutted. Now, you have no doubt have looked at the photos by now and already know this has a good ending. We did get tickets for Alcatraz, only we had to pay 4 times the price from a street vender, but how many times will we be in san fran so we handed over our cash (grudgingly) and got our tickets for the next day. Then it was off to pier 39 to look at the sea lions that all live at the end of the pier which was cool. It was a bus tour next for us that took us around most of the city, but not the Golden Gate Bridge, Which i shal refer to as ggb from now on to save my fingers!! So we got a good luck at the city and before we knew it, it was time to go back to the hostel to get ready for another bar crawl (it was friday after all). An even bigger group of people went on this tour, bit pricier this time as it was friday, a staggeringly expensive $2 a drink tonight!! (again dangerous when you know who is about). We met loads and loads of people on this tour, too many to name and we had a really good night out, well, it was really good until midnight when the inevitable happened, you guessed it, Miss Hayden did it again!!! Nice on again kel!!!

Next day was the day of our Alcatraz tour, which was at a really awkward time of day so we couldnt really do much in the morning so we just walked around Fishermans Wharf for a little while until it was time to go. So off we set on the boat to Alcatraz. Now before i tell you about Alcatraz, a little word about the wheather in California. Do not believe the T.V shows. It is not always warm. Especially in San Fran, when in the bay it gets pretty cold, especially when the wind blows. And where is Alcatraz?? In the bay, and its right on top of the island, so quite high up. It was freezing on there, which made my decision to post all of my warm clothes back home because i wasnt using them and there is no way california is going to be cold, especially when Canada was so warm, a bit unwise to say the least!!! So anyweay we took our tours of the Jail which was really interesting and we saw some really cool views from the jail (not a bad place to be locked up if you ask me, bit cold though!!), the city skyline and the ggb all looked really good from the jail. That night we went out to pier 39 to get some food and then had a couple of drinks and went back for an earlyish night (hardcore!!)

next day we decided we'd hire some bikes out to ride over the ggb. So we got our bikes but before the ggb we headed for the crookedest street in san fran, up the hills we rode (this time you can believe TV, the hills are so steep!) which was hard work and took some photos of all the cars winding their way down. Then we set off over to the bridge which was about 4 miles away, we got some really cool photos of the bridge going over it, but, a bit foggy as its the worst time of year to see the bridge because of the fog. Anyway over we rode into a really pretty mediteranian style town called Sauselito where we had lunch then caught the ferry back to san fran and went to see Alamo sq, which is where the Painted Ladies are (old victorian houses) which are on loads of postcards. Then it was off to a really cool area known as Haight and Ashbury for a quck look arond before heading back to the hostel for takeout and band night. That night we decided we needed an extra day in san fran to do a bit more stuff so we booked an extra day (only just though).

The next day it was time to pick up our hire car, so we went to the hire company and was given our car by a really sleazy mexican called danny!!! The car was a Chevvy Cobalt and letsjust say it was a good thing Kel was driving as its a bit of a hairdressers car. Big boot though (just as danny had promised!!). We then took our own drive down the crooked street and went to spend the afternoon in Haight and Ashbury before going back to the hostel for our free food, and to do some laundry before our adventure into the wild. We caught up with the guys from the uk who had been to see The Smashing Pumpkins on Sat night as vip guests because they met the keyboard player and so went to the bands hotel after too for drinks!!! Very jealous!! We decided that we were going to leave at 5am to get a good campsite so got another early night!!!

San Fran was easily my favourite city so far, there so much to do and its really cool and laid back and different to the other cities, w bothy really loved it and would really love to go back!!!!

Next stop Yosemite!!!!!!!!!