A golden time

I'm writing this in San Francisco airport awaiting our delightfully timed 1:35am flight to Tokyo while admiring Bec's ability to sleep anywhere at any time (currently curled up in the departure lounge fast asleep on the floor). Sort of makes me wonder whether I could get away with even cheaper hotel rooms...

We've had 4 hugely enjoyable days in San Fran (despite Bec having a bit of a fever yesterday and today), which was no doubt helped by the continuous sunshine and the almost overly friendly nature of everyone we met. I know most do it in order to get tips, but even random people in the street appeared to be almost disconcertingly nice. I've got a sneaky suspicion that google has replaced the general populace with robots, but need to undertake further work on this theory.

The first two days were spent wandering around the city, which as anyone who's been will know amounts to the equivalent of doing urban hiking. It was during these days that Bec's somewhat competitive nature came out as she refused to be overtaken by anyone...ever. During these walks I probably saw her for about 20% of the time due to an insistent and sensible approach not to have any part in it. I get the feeling she'll be waiting at least a couple of days at the top of Kilimanjaro for me if this is any inclination.

The third day involved almost five hours of biking, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the area just north of the bay. Thankfully Bec is rubbish at biking so I got to have my own back by overtaking her on every hill while asking if she was ok. Petty revenge is the best I find. Unfortunately I looked like a bit of a dick:

 

We also made decent use of the fantastic old cable cars, which we enjoyed more than people our age probably should do as the photo below will attest. They also provided my favourite conversation of the trip when I asked the driver if he was ever tempted to just see how fast he could get it running down one of the steeper hills. My question was met with a very deadpan response of: "No sir, that would be a major rule violation". No sh*t...

Robert hugely excited about hanging onto the side of the carriage - Bec hugely excited not to be

Over those days we saw most of the landmarks for which San Francisco is known, including Alcatraz which we didn't go to as the night tour was booked months in advance and I'm not paying $100 a person to go to something I've seen repeatedly on tv (repeated viewings of the Rock obviously).

If bec askes me why the bridge is called the Golden Gate even though it's red just one more time....*

Where are the guidance chips??

Because we just had to go to Lombard street

And to see the bridge...

Today was spent driving around, with the key focus being the tall redwoods which can be found at Muir Woods just north of the Bay. The area is gorgeous, and the trees can be made to look even more impressive if you use Bec as a scale:

She is there, trust me (bottom centre)

There were some beautiful views over the bay too

 We also went to Cliff House, an old restaurant right at the West of the city, before wasting some time in the afternoon exploring the lovely golden gate park, with all its varied inhabitants:

 

 I also saw this sign which I've made a couple of edits too:

Anyway, our flight leaves in ten minutes so I'll wrap this up now. Early tests of our speech translator apps bode well for this blog though, as a very early try of Bec's turned "Goodbye" into "Tits". I know not how, nor do I want to know. I just want it to happen again, ideally at a very formal place...

Until next time,


Rob&Bec

 *It's because the strait it crosses is called the Golden Gate Strait