San Fran – part two!

Before I forget I wanted to share with you our trip to Alcatraz … okay I know I said we had been, but it was the tour that I forgot to mention. Once in a previous lifetime when working at Big Day out, I wandered past the silent disco and was fascinated / amused by everyone dancing manically while wearing headphones. Alcatraz reminded me of that – everyone wearing these little head phones and walking around like zombies. It was a great tour, but unless you pushed pause, you just kept following the instructions and there was hardly anyone talking inside the main cell house, which actually meant you could just absorb your surroundings and hear the narrator. “look ahead and you will see a green door … go thru it” and everyone just did as they were told!!

We found a little hidden place that not many tourists take the time to go to. The Hidden Stairs in ‘Sunset’. We used our MUNI passes and took the train, asked a few locals and found them. What a treat, there are these incredible murals when you look up, but just a few tiles on each stair, which are each sponsored by the local community. We had a womble around the neighbourhood, and were delighted to see Pohutakawa (Tahitian) and Manuka Trees!! Who would have though we would see these in suburban San Fran!

The next day we used our MUNI passes again and headed out to Lands End and the Legion of Honour Museum. An incredible building, but because we had spent so long on our walk to to Lands End, we didn’t have enough time to visit the museum.

We also found a Holocaust Memorial that was so bleak, I couldn’t take a photo. We have been to two of these now in America. Our first one was in Houston and even then I couldn’t take a photo. We also stopped in at the National Cemetery where all the crosses are laid out with precision. In both places, you have this sense that war is senseless and we should all be a bit more generous with our love.

Anyway we had a very hot walk down to the coast and Lands End – it gave us great views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge reminds me of Rangitoto Is. – you can look at it from many different points, but it is the same.

We are now staying out in Oakland in an Executive House on the Hill, Monte Vista Villas called Sky View, with a lovely young couple who have a gorgeous dog.

We have had a really quiet time since moving here yesterday, although we did go on a walk and our hosts said we shouldn’t really be walking there!!! I actually did feel that we were like two fleas on a dog’s bum!! Even though we had walked to Lands End in the morning, I walked up those hills back to our AirBnB at a bit more than a dawdle on the way back!! When Colin went to heat up his chicken soup, he found that I had got broth!! Whooops! I was so distracted by the locals being distracted by us, that I had no attention to detail !! We had cereal for dinner. You will be pleased to know that we found the proper supermarket today, and will only have cereal for breakfast from here.

We have had to get an American Phone as they were unable to unlock either of ours and roaming for this trip may have broke the bank!! Anyways, you can’t do anything without data, so a new phone we have.

We have 5 more days here and have plenty more to explore. Let’s hope the gorgeous weather continues.

Ps: it ain’t so windy in Oakland!