San Francisco

So San Francisco was quite different to what I expected it to be and turned out the be the most bookish portion of my Holiday...

My first stop was city lights Bookstore which was really interesting. As you can see from the picture did make a purchase which included a book and a tote bag, I will show them to you soon...

Then I made a pilgrimage to see a setting for Take a Look at Me Now by Miranda Dickinson. I went to see Earthsong and Lizzie's apartment, which both appear in the book and are located in Haight Ashbury. I really liked this area of the city but felt I could spend far too much money on interesting cuisine, unicorn headbands and of course books. 

Yes I also visited another bookshop here and got myself another tote bag. I loved this bookshop, they had awesome music playing and a great selection of books from all genres. 

Of course we went to visit Alcatraz. I really enjoyed this adventure, it was so interesting being able to actually wak through the prison and have an audio tour hosted by former inmates and guards. Having to go over by boat made it all the more surreal because it really is this entire island surrounded by water with no way on and off apart from by boat. I would highly recommend taking a trip here, yes it is a touristy thing to do but you learn so much from it and there are all sorts of extra talks and bit of information that you can learn from the rangers too. 

The day we did the trip to Alcatraz, we also did a bus tour of the city. Which took I a drive last both the bay bridge and the golden gate bride. It was really cool to explore the vast expanse of city in just a 2 hours bus tour and seeing such iconic structures made it worth it, our guide was excellent and very laid back which I think made a lot of difference to us. 

We stayed at Fishermans wharf which had a great outlook but I found to be really really touristy. If you want to do boat trips and sightseeing it is a good base to have though there are lots of restaurants around the wharf, although all have a wait, of course. And pier 39 also has lots of shops and restaurants. The Sea Lions at Pier 39 definitely have to be seen, they appeared after the 1989 earthquake and are there most of the time, you'll hear them before you see them! 

We ate well in San Francisco, taking in plenty of seafood as well as visiting the Cheesecake Factory on the top floor of the macys in Union square which was quite cool. The highlight for me though was a visit to a speakeasy, you had to book and give a password which they sent you a couple of days before in order to get in. They had a great selections of whiskies and other spirits and did some fabulous traditional cocktails. We had a great evening here, it's call Bourbon and Branch and I'd really recommend it if you like that sort of thing. 

I didn't fall in love with San Francisco as much as I did Seattle but I'm glad I got to see so many of the iconic structures and areas that I have seen in so many films and TV shows. 

After San Francisco we picked up our hire car and that's where the next part of our Californian adventure begins!