San Francisco

Hi everyone
Welcome to the final instalment of our 2007 vacation to the USA.

Tuesday morning we headed into Novato and watched Trinity at her gymnastics class. We then left them to it and drove to Sausalito, a great little harbourside town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. We wondered the streets of this pretty town, a bit like Akaroa & Queenstown combined but on steroids. Certainly a tourist town, no doubt about that but very pretty location.

For a bit of contrast we drove around to the other side of the bay to a town called Tiburon. As tourists we stood out, this is a seriously rich town that does not encourage tourism. Very small boutique stores, a private yacht club and all the usual trappings of the rich and famous. A quick look into a real estate agents window confirmed our fears that we couldn't move here any time soon. The cheapest place listed was US$1.3 million, most seemed around US$5 - US$6 million, but there were some up to 20 million.

Back to Novato in time to see James at Karate and we then went to the weekly Novato Farmers Market. They close down a street in town and fill it with stalls, at least 40 stalls, maybe around 60. Lots of fresh fruit and vege's, cherries and nectarines have just come into season. Fresh bread and preserves plus several meal type stalls such as wood fired pizza, BBQ, rotissiore chicken, popcorn and other instant delights.

Again it was a stinking hot day on Tuesday so on returning home we invaded the neighbours who had invited us over to use their pool. Very understanding folk since we totally disturbed their peice for nearly an hour. It was a perfect and refreshing way to end the day.

Today, we went back into the city. We had intended to take the ferry but the car lot was full, due to a ballgame so we drove instead. We left a bright sunny Novato and hit thick fog just before the bridge. We stopped to try and get a shot of the Golden Gate bridge cloacked in fog but it was so thick the veiw was zero.

On hitting the city we split up. I had a ballgame to go to. yep, after a few attempts I was off to see the SF Giants play the NY Mets (Baseball). The sun was shining and being a midweek, midday game the crowds not too bad. For 20 bucks I got a good seat, reasonably high up but good overview. I stayed at the game for just over an hour, 4 innings before leaving. I was enjoying the game but had the others to meet so couldn't hang around all day. I didn't understand a lot of what was going on but had a basic grasp of things so was able to get into the spirit.

My exercise of the day was the 1 mile walk from fishermans wharf where we parked to the ball park and back again, nice walk in the warm sunshine.

Rach, John & Jill in the meantime decided to be good little tourists and went on a 2.5 hour Grayline bus tour taking in the Bridge, Presidio, Palace of Fine Arts, Pacific Heights, Chinatown, North Beach, and other general sights.

So, our time here comes to an end. Tomorrow is just tidying up (buying an extra suitcase etc) and spending a bit of time with the family. Friday we fly out and get home early Sunday morning.

Thanks for reading this blog, we hope you enjoyed it. A bit of a learning curve for me with the technology, paricularlier the Mac computers but all part of the experience. We have all once again had a fantastic time here and this trip has again confirmed that the USA is a great touring destination. Not too sure when we'll be back but for sure it won't be soon enough.

See most of you next week I guess. Bye for now.

Mike