#TIMONTOUR - SAN FRANCISCO

Warning this is a suuuuuuper long post!

Its been a while since I've given you a recap of #timontour, sorry about that. Things have been a bit insane around here. Andrew's been busy with work and I've had lots of things to do, plus there's been lots of excitement getting ready for our biggest trip yet to....ALASKA! But enough about that.

For the second week of Tim's visit we went on a road trip leaving Mr Macintosh behind. We spent 3 days in San Francisco and then spent 3 days in Yosemite. This post will cover San Francisco then. Most of the big landmarks you'll have seen before if you've read any of our other San Francisco posts but this time they'll have Tim in them too. 

The first day we did the long drive up and then went to the California Academy of Sciences. It was so much fun. There was an aquarium section, a whale exhibition and my favourite part a rainforest section where you could walk around with butterflies and birds flying round your head. I was amazed, except that no butterflies landed on me. That would have tipped it into the insanely good category. After that we went to find our airbnb place and spent the evening cooking dinner and exploring the local area. 

The second day was probably our most full on day. We woke up early and did all the touristy things. We started off at the piers and caught a boat that took us underneath the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz. It was crazily windy and a bit choppy but so cool. We then went to the Aquarium of the Bay and got to see some pretty cool things, including Andrew's new favourite animal; the sea otter. He even pooped whilst we were watching!

After a lunch at Bubba Gumps (where Tim had the most insanely large meal!) we did some cable car riding, visited the cable car museum, saw the most wiggly street in the world and had coffee at our favourite coffee shop, Saint Franks. We then took a bus to the Golden Gate bridge and walked along it for a bit to get some crazy views back across the city. Had a quick stop for ice-cream before we headed home for some proper food and to rest our poor exhausted feet! 

The third day started with some serious shopping so there aren't a whole lot of photos for that. We then explored Chinatown and did some more cable car riding. We then ran home to change before heading out to our favourite restaurant there, Leopolds. An amazing German place. Tim was rather excited to eat there too! 

The next day we left our amazing airbnb place and had breakfast at La Boulange before heading off to Yosemite! Bit of a whirlwind tour of San Fran but I think this way you understand how insane it all felt for poor Tim who most of the time had no idea where he was. Some days we had to show him on the map where he'd been. He clearly wasn't too sure!! But it was fun!

H 

SAN FRANCISCO PART I

As I sit here typing this Macintosh is neatly curled up on his new bed snoring away! Its so lovely having him here. The excitement of picking him up at the airport was pretty intense, as was the paperwork to get him released. But he's here now and that's all that matters! Can't wait to get out and about with him although its best to wait until after the jetlag has worn off. Yes dogs get it too! So whilst I'm waiting for that to happen I thought I'd share about the Golden Gate bridge as promised. 

Let me start by saying it was simply spectacular. Everybody tells you how amazing it is but really you can't appreciate it until you've seen it. We were totally blown away by it. For the first couple of days we were in San Francisco you could see some of the bridge but a lot of it was shrouded in fog. However on the day we went over it the skies were beautifully clear and a wonderful shade of blue! 

It was quite busy when we were trying to drive over it. Poor old Andrew was concentrating on the driving whilst I was snapping away with the camera and shrieking at everything. Here are some shots of us as we're driving over it. 

Once you got to the other side you could turn left to a ridiculously overcrowded visitors viewing area or you could drive a little bit further and turn right. This takes you up a hill to the Marin headlands from which you can see the whole of the Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco and beyond. It was an amazing viewing area. We parked about halfway up and then walked the rest. It was simply fantastic and we really couldn't believe we were there seeing it. 

As we walked around at the top of the headland we discovered a gun installation called battery 129 that was being built during the Second World War. It was intended to house 16 inch guns which could fire 2,100lb shells a distance of 27 miles. Looking out from there towards the sea you realised you couldn't even see as far as they would be able to fire. However the battery was never finished as has been left, as it was then, since the war. 

After investigating the gun emplacement and soaking up the views we decided to head round the coast a bit further to visit the Rodeo Beach which had a lagoon near it. Unfortunately at this point our camera battery decided to die on us. We had thought it was fully charge but sadly not. So we don't have any pictures of that little part of the visit but it was wonderful wandering along the coastline. We noticed that dogs were allowed on the beach too so we stood for a while discussing how great it would be to have Macintosh here whilst watching dogs running around the beach, swimming or generally running away from the waves! 

So there we go, that's the Golden Gate bridge. Andrew will be making an appearance on the blog to tell you about some of the other parts of San Francisco but in the meantime I'm off to marvel at my dog being here!

H