I would have got this out last night before we left San Fran but a dodgy mussel or two from Pier 23 at 3pm meant I was otherwise engaged for half the night...
So while I may now be writing this from Vegas, memories of San Fran are obviously still fresh. It was literally a lightening trip. Steve realised that a basketball game was on and he booked a flight and a hotel for three nights. It's been 25 years since I've been so basically I'm brand new to the city. Steve found a fantastic hotel called Hotel Drisco in Pacific Heights. In a city of hills this hotel, as the address suggests, is at the top. Located near the fantastic and huge Presidio park (up and down two hills to get there) which leads onto Golden Gate Bridge.
This city is certainly very hilly. You can't even negotiate only going up without going down and then up again. For those in Sydney, think Coogee steps everywhere. For those in London..we don't have it (perhaps Hampsted at a push). We love to walk, and I'm sure if I lived here I would give up any gym membership (not that I have any..but you know what I mean). We saw a PE teacher instructing the kids to sprint up one block as part of their training. According to one local, it does not improve one's rear (I didn't ask, she just volunteered this information!) but I imagine people at weekends must compare calf sizes while sipping lattes after walking the dog.
The area itself is a bit like Belgravia or Double Bay. Houses are huge and the locals are impeccably turned out. All the houses are very ornate. The architecture is victorian and the houses are called 'painted ladies'. The hotel itself was wonderful. 9 months away mean we prefer where possible to get 2 bedrooms so that we can avoid sitting in the dark waiting for kids to go to sleep (which is what I am doing now in Vegas). This means that Airbnb has really come to it's own as apartments are a great option. However, Hotel Drisco reminded me that when small boutique hotels do it well there is no comparison. Per night, we paid the same for our two bed suite in Hotel Drisco as we did for the apartment in Santa Monica yet there was no comparison. The suite was large, we were provided with outstanding breakfast, free 5pm drinks and nibbles, gym, business centre, all day tea and coffees and all those tiny extras that make it great like everything you need and more in the bathroom and two bowls of fruit in the room so kids have something to snack on. Special mention must go to the actual beds. So comfortable I just didn't want to get up. The front desk even gave me an itinarary for the day so I didn't have to organise anything. Man...why did I leave!!!????? (and for Vegas which is another story!)
San Fran is actually a stunning city. We got very lucky with no fog so about 100 photos from hill tops. Of course we went downtown and on a tram and did all the touristy things but I think you could really enjoy spending more time here. A lot more 'genteel' than LA !!
Kids are learning. we found out golden gate bridge is so called not because it's gold ('mum,it's international orange not red!' said Kyran )but because San Fran was the gate of the american gold rush. A trip to the bay visitor centre improved our American history and we followed through by a visit to Alcatraz. Since we left, Erin has continuously asked me would I prefer to live in Alcatraz or Azkeban (as in Harry Potter). Errrr...Alcatraz had no dementors so the answer is easy but she is not convinced. I think Kyran has been expanding on some of the horror stories from Alcatraz and has her nervous.... Kye has given his account of Alcatraz below.
Of course we went to the basketball. All day leading up to it Kyran kept testing my knowledge on basketball players so I wouldn't embarrass the rest of the family. I now know that Andrew Bogut is Australian and Stephan Curry is the best player in the league. Other than that I am still lost and merely cheer when they score. I have my uses. I got up 9 times during the game to buy beer, wine, water, chips and candy floss (repeat)
So now at Vegas. Another story...for another post x
Alcatraz by Kyran
A deserted island in the middle of San Francisco, once a prison now a tourist attraction. Alcatraz was home to some of the most notorious villains like Al 'Scarface' Capone and Robert 'Birdman' Stroud. We went on an audio tour through all the cells, the library and the most dangerous room of them all: THE KITCHEN! It was the most dangerous because each prisoner was 'armed' with a knife, a fork and a spoon. Some of the Officers said that sometimes they could hear the 'pop' and 'slap' of someone digging a knife into the back of an inmate. That's when all hell broke loose. Inmates started flipping tables and throwing chairs at eachother. Alcatraz wasn't just home to inmates and Officers but also to the Officers wives and children. Every morning at around 8:30, the children would board boats to go to school on the the actual island of San Francisco. Then one morning when all the prisoners were being roused up, there was a scream. One of the Officers had been trying to wake up a prisoner when his head fell off. There were two other screams as another two of the prisoners heads rolled off the bed. Later they found out that the heads were fake and that in each of the men's cells, the air vent was ripped off and that someone, using a spoon, had dug a hole big enough for a man to get through. Some prisoners had escaped! Alcatraz was on full alert. But after all the searching they couldn't find the bodies and so they believed they commited suicide by jumping over the edge into the ocean. That was my favourite story of all. At the end we bought a book all about this prisoner who tryed to escape 3 times but got caught everytime. The author was also there to sign his book. But you wouldn't believe who the author was; the 80 year-old prisoner who had only been released 5 years ago! After all the excitement of Alcatraz we had to head back home for another day of adventure.
