On Friday after leaving Big Sur we continued north on the 101 up towards San Francisco. After an hour or so of driving we decided to stop off at a random beach for a quick break and stretch of the legs. We landed up staying there longer than expected after finding Colin the crab and watching the seagulls have him for lunch. Like a real-life wildlife TV show...

From the beach we continued onto San Fran airport to drop the car and catch the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into town. Si and Suzie hopped out before us, but we carried on to Embarcadero where we changed from the BART to the the 'F Market & Wharves' line which took us past Fisherman's Wharf where we got off and checked into the Radisson Hotel. The F line is one of several light rail lines in San Fran and unlike the other lines, it is operated as a heritage streetcar service, using historic equipment both from San Francisco's retired fleet as well as from cities around the world. It's operation is supported by a nonprofit organization of streetcar enthusiasts who raise funds and helps to restore vintage streetcars.

After dropping our bags we decided to head downstairs for a walk along the wharf and find somewhere to eat. There was little doubt that we'd be having seafood for dinner, and eventually decided on The Franciscan Crab Restaurant which has fantastic views over to Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. I'm certainly glad we did as Uns and myself landed up sharing an amazing crab platter dish between us which really was worth it! From there we headed up towards Telegraph Hill and eventually up to Coit Tower which overlooks the city of San Fran - but on getting to the top we decided against hanging around there since it was almost midnight, and instead we took a slowish walk back down to the wharf and then back to the hotel.

Yesterday morning we were up early for sunrise and down to the pier at the end of Fisherman's Wharf which had a great view over towards Alcatraz as well as the early morning mist-covered waterfront of the city. I snapped away there for sometime until the sun had completely risen, and from there on the way back to the hotel we grabbed a coffee and bite to eat from Boudin Bakery which was established back in 1849 and is famous for it's sourdough bread - self proclaimed as the "Original San Francisco Sourdough French Bread". Plus their coffee wasn't bad either!

We had pre-booked our Alcatraz tour for 10am, so just before that we headed down to Pier 33 and met up with Si and Suzie who'd done the same. The ferry trip over to Alcatraz only took about 15 minutes and with great panoramic views of the city of San Fran as well the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. We started off with an introduction and welcoming by volunteers dressed as Civil War soldiers which only happens twice a year when the island returns to it's original days of life in the 1860's, so that was certainly good timing by us choosing to visit then. From there we headed up to start our audio guided tour which took us in and around the prison and the island. Alcatraz - often referred to as "The Rock", is a tiny island located right in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, and was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison in 1868 and then a federal prison from 1933 until 1963. Now it's a historical landmark with millions of visitors each year. The tour of Alcatraz lasted about 4 hours in total and really was incredible. It certainly did remind me a lot of Robben Island off Cape Town, except here we each had our own audio guide headset and could do the tour at your own speed, instead of a group tour being lead around by a guide at their pace. But overall, a fantastic tour and something I'd been wanting to see for years!

After the tour we caught the ferry back to Pier 33 and made our way down Jefferson Street and to In-N-Out Burger, which we said we'd wait until San Fran before having one. In-N-Out Burger is a chain of fast food restaurants with locations only around the west coast of the US. I obviously went for the Double-Double Burger, and even though their colour scheme reminded me a lot of McD's, it certainly was a better burger indeed! Another box of 'things to do in US' ticked off.

After lunch we decided to hire bicycles for the afternoon after Claire and Jamie had suggested it back in Vegas and cycle over The Golden Gate Bridge. After getting ourselves a bike each we headed east from Fisherman's Wharf along the city's waterfront towards the bridge, a fairly easy 3.5 miles away. We passed by the Aquatic Park, along the sidewalk at the water's edge, climbed through Fort Mason, cruised past the mansion homes of the Marina, past the Palace of Fine Arts, Crissy Field and eventually to Fort Point, the unused military lookout underneath the bridge. From there it was a bit of a climb up to the road and onto the bridge.

The cycle over the bridge was good fun, even with the wind, and took us about half an hour to get over to the other side. We decided against cycling down into Sausalito, but rather lock the bikes up and take a bit of a walk back along the other side of the bridge and admire the view over towards San Fran which was catching the late afternoon sun. I'm glad we decided against Sausalito as that would've all been in the shade by that point, and instead we decided to cycle back over the bridge and find ourselves a spot on East Beach beach to watch the sun go down behind the Golden Gate bridge. East Beach is located along the north edge of Crissy Field in the Presidio and is the only beach in San Fran.

After sunset, we cycled back towards Fisherman's Wharf, returned the bikes and headed up to the hotel to shower and change. For dinner we came across Pompei's Grotto which looked alright and served a decent seafood pasta, so I was happy, unfortunately Uns' meal was somewhat disappointing. After our meal it was back to the hotel to crash for the night.

This morning was another early start with us headed out towards Pier 14 for a sunrise shot over towards the Bay Bridge. I had tried to research this spot beforehand on Google Maps so we had a specific destination point in mind. After an early wake up alarm, we caught the tram down to Embarcadero which was probably a stop too early and then had to quickly mission further along until we found a decent spot. The sunrise was stunning and certainly we glad we made the mission down there for it.

After sunrise we decided to walk back, passing the various piers and then stopped in at the famous Pier 39 which has great views of the California sea lions hauled out on docks on the marina. The sea lions have always been present in San Francisco Bay and started to haul themselves out onto the docks of Pier 39 from 1989 onwards, and have been there ever since.

After the seals we grabbed some coffee and breakfast from Boudin Bakery and headed back to the hotel to pack and check out. We left our bags at the concierge's desk then made our way up to Coit Tower, which stands atop Telegraph Hill in San Francisco's Pioneer Park. We didn't have to wait too long before catching the lift up to the top, which at a height of 64m offers fantastic views of the city including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Aquatic Park, Alcatraz, Pier 39, Angel Island, Treasure Island, the Bay Bridge, Russian Hill, the Financial District, Lombard Street, and Nob Hill.

From the tower we made our way down to Powell Street to catch the famous Powell-Mason Cable Car which goes from Powell & Market, past Union Square, over Nob Hill and ends near Fisherman's Wharf at Taylor & Bay Streets. It is the oldest cable car line (and reportedly the oldest unchanged transit line in the world), and follows the same route as when it first opened back in 1888. Certainly one of my highlights of the holiday :) We hopped off at Union Square, wandered around there a bit then headed into Macy's for a quick look around. I'd spotted a Starbucks on the top floor so insisted we head up there for Uns to get her frappuccino which she'd been moaning about asking for for ages, so at least we managed to get one in.

After our frappuccino we headed back downstairs to Union Square and caught the Powell-Mason Cable Car back to the cable car turntable, where Powell meets Market Street. Once back at Fisherman's Wharf we decided to sit down outside at Boudin for lunch and ordered the clam chowder which looked a popular dish based on everyone else's lunch. After lunch it was back to the airport to grab our bags and unfortunately we're now waiting for the airport shuttle to pick us up, which is rather sad after such a fantastic holiday. But hopefully we'll be back in California or the States sometime soon... thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!