Driving over one of San Frans many bridges we were pretty excited about our home for the next week... And after dropping off Tom Harvey in Oakland, catching the muni and then a cheeky cab we arrived at our 2 bed apartment in the very up and coming outer Richmond area (a bit like tooting/Balham). Unfortunately up and coming meant that we were a good 45 minutes bus journey out of the city - but we were defiantly city living like we wanted! A little tired, we wandered around our local area, taking in the mahosive golden gate park, some quirky gift shops in Richmond, and some very local dim sum. The next day we got to work in Downtown San Francisco, we headed straight to the pretty 'touristy' pier 39 on the amazing Embarcedo, said hello to the sea lions, and explored the crab stalls at Fishermans wharf. We then conformed to the classic tourist thang of having clam chowder. We picked Boudins, a famous sourdough place, was pretty good actually! And then we wandered around the famous Union Square taking in a few shops on route much to Wills joy. We then had a chilled night in in our apartment, as had an even more touristy day planned the next. So up bright and early we slowly made our way to the Embarcedo on the bus, and slowly was probably not good, as when we got there, we decided to walk to the Alcatraz pier, not realising quite how far away it was, so after jogging (running) we got on the boat 2 mins before our departure… phew! Anyho Alcatraz, the famous rock, was a very slick venture, giving us a real insight into what life locked up on the rock would be like.. lucky for us we left a few hours later. Then we grabbed a couple of bikes and slowly made our way over to the golden gate bridge, and then rode it! A super duper special, almost surreal moment! After then we cycled some more to the very quaint Sausalito, grabbed some well deserved sarnies (as there were a few uphill bits) and then hopped on the ferry back to the ferry building on the embarcedo, taking in an amazing sunset on route. Ooo and I don't think we mentioned how amazing this 'ferry building' was, a foodie haven, a whole building full of restaurants, cheese shops, bars, olive oil etc… so needless to say we had a quick drink, and a bite to eat, to again congratulate us on a very 'hard' day…

On Thursday we had a particularly sunny day, so we headed down to the beach, taking in the famous cliff house, the sutra baths (not quite roman) and a massive beach... it was very exciting to be on the beach and so hot in November! And another plus to San Francisco (it has a beach aswell…yey!) Though the only problem with this was that, just like we have found before, in pretty obvious locations, like the beach for example, there seems to be a serious lack of outside seating… so we sat next to glass windows, overlooking the beach, with the sun shining, drinking beer and munching on scallops and mussels, whilst sweating…! So a quick but good meal… We then proceeded to get pretty lost in both golden gate park, and whilst trying to find 'grand view' park to watch the sunset, so we watched it from some stairs, but pretty cool regardless. We then experienced 'Nightlife' in San Frans massive science museum, basically think Night of the Museum 2, with Dj's, Hawaiian nibbles, and lots of alcohol. Was a very unique experience, we watched a play in a planetarium, wandered rainforests, glow in the dark aquariums, examined the moon and Jupiter and met an albino alligator. As the theme of the night was surf night, we also watched jellyfish dance to a band playing the beach boys. Pretty random but pretty cool.

Friday was rain day, so a pj day of planning was on the cards, until the wifi broke, but still a very chilled morning, followed by a trip into downtown to take in a few sights. Firstly, we headed up San Fran's rolling hills, in their famous cable car, to their wonkiest and windiest street Lombard Street, and then after that we pretty much went drinking. Aperitif, was a beer whilst drying off in the trendy North Beach area (a real Italian esque part of town) then we went to an amazing tapas bar called Bocadillos in the centre of town, drank too many amazing glasses of Spanish and American wine, but the highlight was defiantly the local Monterey squid & red mojo, amazing, caramelised and wrapped in Serrano ham, we are still talking about it today. Then we actually headed back up to North Beach, to this very quirky post prohibition bar called 'Comstock' where we drank gin & absinthe out of classic glasses, and listened to the funky sounds of one amazing band, and we even met the band! Needless to say though the absinthe did hit home quickly, and therefore so did we, needless to say great night!! Getting sad that our time in San Fran was nearly over, our last day L was pretty much spent trying to pack in all we had left out. First stop though was heading back to the ferry building for their farmers market, to buy some fresh ingredients for our last dinner, buying the most expensive, but delicious mushrooms, cheese, fresh bread etc, Laura spent a good 2 hours in here, will was not happy. Then we walked through the very cool, and out there mission area (like Shoreditch), the very friendly, and chilled Castro (Soho), and the very hippy Haight and Ashbury (Camden!) We then quickly popped to the famous Victorian Ladies houses for pics, and then headed back for a home cooked meal, and a bottle of Roederer's Pinot… and said goodbye to san fran, even though it felt like we had just arrived…. L