john and rel: A day in San Fran

On the previous night Angela and Jen had declared they were going hard with shopping. Obviously this was not going to be any place for the faint hearted.
They strongly advised that Rel and I should jump on the sightseeing hop-on, hop-off bus. We got the hint.
John was keen to go for a run in the morning, but his weather forecasting gurus told him to sleep in as it was going to be terrible weather.

John awoke to a fine morning, and set out for an exploratory run.
He decided to avoid going up the steep hills to begin with

Going down seemed a much better idea to get going.

Managed to find his way to the Golden Gate bridge

But he did not run over, as he had sort of got lost getting there, and did not not know how long it would take to get back home.
But running through the streets of San Fran was pretty cool. Golden Gate bridge will still be there next time I come back.

Once back home, we got set for a day out.
Rel found a funky car, but we both thought it would be impractical for the day, especially as showers had kicked in by now.

John managed to control his desire to jump on a bike and explore.

We jumped on a hop-on-hop-off bus and headed for Union Square.
Once there, we set off in search of a coffee. John hoped Rel would not spot Macy’s, but that was not a realistic hope.

Macy’s was not opening until 11, but that did not stop Rel looking for alternate ways of getting in.

There were some interesting specialty shops

We decided to hit the Cheescake Factory for breakfast and coffee. The menus were an interesting read in their own right.

The coffees were actually pretty good. The double-shot tasted real good in fact.

Rel contemplated what lay ahead for the day in quite a grand ambience.

John just smiled knowing he and Rel would have a great day together, and that he had avoided a potentially brutal day of girl’s shopping. Very thankful that Ange and Jen had spared him that fate.

Rel always found John’s chips more interesting than hers.

Did we have room for dessert? This was a restaurant built on its cheesecakes, so how could we say no.
This one lept from the pages for us both

And it satisfied immensely!

Time to look out over Union Square from the top of Macy’s

Took John much longer to realise he was standing behind the letters on the top of the Macy’s building. Obviously not a natural born shopper.

Rel discovered the Christmas stuff was out in force. :-0

John had spent so much time in shops lately, he decided to try some part-time work as a mannequin.

Couldn’t find any fruit’n’veg here, but John did find some goodies. His advisor prevented any purchases though.

The hop-on-hop-off was a great way to see the key sights of San Fran. Looking forward to watching some classic movies/shows that were based in San Fran, to get a different perspective now that we have seen the layout of San Fran.

Rel was having a ball on the top of the bus.

But should we have got these cars instead?

Rel got to see the painted ladies again

John wanted to go help this lady in obvious distress, but Rel assured him that she was OK, and that he could stay on the bus.

Haight St was a fascinating street.

No tour would be compete without at least one tunnel ride.

It was then time to ride over the Golden Gate bridge. Or what we could see of it.

The fog had really set in, and the temperature had dropped.

The only consolation was that the view from the Northern side (Marin County) was just as impressive.

It seemed that the only part of San Fran in fog was the bridge itself. This photo was taken overlook the rest of the bay. Or maybe it was the warmth of Narelle’s smile that lit up the rest of the bay.

John was inspired by all the monuments to those who deal with the challenges of being at sea.

It was then time time to get back on the bus and explore downtown San Fran again.
The sky did not have a lot of blue downtown.

We wandered down by this bridge (whose name I will remember one day).

Saw paramedics attending to the injured at a car crash. It did not look flash.

John found a spaceship, but could not find his way in.

San Fran is a great place to explore by the water

We watched one of the ‘seagulls on steroids’ take off

Loved exploring this street

Dropped into a wine bar for a glass of 2 while we watched the world go by, and chewed the fat on some good topics.

We saw one of those 3 wheelers chugging up the San Fran hills. They really do work!

Saw a funky bike collection car/ute.

Which inspired John to find the bike shop around the corner from where we stayed

Just a shame it was closed

We had tentatively penciled in a night out with Ange and Jen, so decided to head back home. In a sheer coincidence we arrived back home much the same time as Ange and Jen. But they were shattered after going particularly hard at the shops. The only thing they missed out on was a congratulatory call from Barack Obama thanking them for their contribution to improving the US economy. They were so shattered by their hard work that they said their farewells until breakfast the next morning.

With Rel and John still wired and wanting to kick on, they wandered the local neighbourhood.
Ange had done a great of finding our accommodation.
Just down the street or around the corner we had ...

a 24 hour pharmacy that sold nearly everything including cordless home handy man drills