Doug and Kerry Hudson in San Francisco, California

World Trip >> USA >> California >> San Francisco

Kerry remembers the flight from Seattle to San Francisco very well. First of all, there were the extremely rigorous security checks at SeaTac airport. Naturally, it did not help to lower Kerry's stress levels when she was asked to remove her boots the second time. And when the plane started to wobble violently from side-to-side on the final approach to San Francisco airport, as if we were going to ditch into the sea, it was enough to put her off flying quite for a while.

The only other notable thing we need to mention about the flight was the hilarious in-flight magazine. You could buy anything, absolutely anything! How could we resist the Solar-Powered Personal Boat, or the "At A Distance" Insect Vacuum, not to mention the Miniature Bicycle? The piece de la resistance, however, was the cabinet in the form of a life-size sarcophagus of Tutankhamen!

We were briskly whisked away from the airport by a Chinese taxi driver who couldn't speak English and who didn't know where our hotel was. After a hair-raising dash through extremely heavy traffic, we arrived at our hostel, the Hostel Adelaide. An independent hostel, this was not part of Hostelling International who we normally stay with. We had had to look elsewhere this time as HI were all full up. We arrived to be greeted by a young man also from Norwich. Unfortunately he had bad news: the hostel had been over-booked and we were actually staying two blocks up the hill. So we resolutely hauled our heavy bags up the hill to the Biltmore Hotel where we eventually found the owner next door. We checked in, and the room was not too bad actually, for the price: clean and functional.

Within five minutes of venturing out into the mean streets, Doug was told where to go by a beggar.

If he'd actually come out and just asked for it straight up, instead of wishing us "Have a Nice Day" over and over, we might have understood that rather than having our personal well-being at heart, he just wanted some money...

Despite this charming welcome, San Francisco turned out to be great fun. We saw loads of things and walked up the steepest hills we have ever seen. Things we saw included:

The Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone knows the golden suspension bridge. It's not gold though.
Grace Cathedral. We attended an Organ Recital in the evening, which was awesome.
Lombard Street. Officially the crookedest street in the world.
Alcatraz Prison. Our 10 minute ferry journey was very bumpy but the prison was worth visiting and we even had a brief chance to experience solitary confinement in "The Hole". Very scary and we came out gibbering wrecks.
Fisherman's Wharf. It's a shameless tourist trap but interesting to wander around.

We picked up our hire car and left San Francisco for Cayucas. Where? we hear you say...

World Trip >> USA >> California >> San Francisco

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006