EVENING TIME IN SAN FRANCISCO

Here are a few more photographs of San Francisco as we walked all the way back to the apartment from the Financial District on one of the nights as the cable car was packed. As we wandered back the sun slowly set on us producing some beautiful scenes. The streets were mostly empty but in contrast the street corners became these bustling pockets of activity filled with colourful lights.  

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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!
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SAN FRANCISCO PART II

Wow! We have had a fantastic Memorial Weekend. San Francisco was an amazing place and neither of us really wanted to leave. We did so much exploring but there was so much more to do, we really only scratched the surface. As a result you will now be subjected to quite a few posts showing you some of the many things we did whilst there! This post is going to cover some of the places we went to visit, but not the Golden Gate Bridge as that gets a post all to itself!

So the first place I want to help you virtually tour is the area we were staying in. It is called Russian Hill and is in the north of the city. Its got a lot of the steeper streets there including the one we stayed on which was quite tough to climb after a hard day of travelling. Amazingly we were staying very near to the world's crookedest street, which attracted a lot of tourist attention. We have both walked and driven down it. It looks pretty but it wasn't a favourite spot for me. Here are some pictures of the street and others of the Russian Hill area.







The next place I want to show you is the Fisherman's wharf. This area isn't too far from Russian Hill but was so crowded the whole time we were there. It was worth a look but quite touristy so we didn't spend long there. We did however have a look round the USS Pampanito which was fascinating. The Second World War is a topic that I enjoy learning about so I was thrilled to have a look round it, especially as I was given my own personal tour by Andrew with his ever increasing fount of crazy knowledge! 







The cable cars were one of the most enjoyable parts of San Francisco. We left riding them until the last day, not out of choice but just simply because we were too busy exploring all the areas. We did enjoy going from one end of the city to the other, following the insane ups and downs of the streets. Here's a few snaps of those. 





The last place I'm going to show you is the Golden Gate Park, which oddly is not located next to the bridge. It's a huge park that spans quite a big of San Francisco. We didn't spend a lot of time there as we wanted an overview of the city, but we did spend the morning in the California Academy of Science. It was an amazing place with all kinds of exhibits, including an aquarium and planetarium. We spent most of the time in the aquarium. Here's a few snaps of what we saw.








So there we go, there's a few snaps from San Francisco. Well there's the first part, more to come later in the week!

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MACINTOSH MONDAY

Today is the last Macintosh Monday where Macintosh himself is actually on the other side of the pond. He hopefully arrives into the US on Wednesday and we are rather excited about it. We have enjoyed the small break from his insanity but we are rather glad that he's going to be here soon. 

Now as you all know from the posts on here Macintosh is a bit of a crazy dog and he does some pretty weird things. But very few of you have actually seen him in action. Whilst we have been away Mum and Dad have been showing us what he's been up to and there's rather a few clips of him doing something silly. I thought it would be a good opportunity for you to see his madness and for us to be reminded of all the craziness that will shortly arrive into our lives again!

So without further ado, here is Mr Macintosh in all his weirdness! Isn't he adorable! 

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VASQUEZ ROCKS

Last Saturday after the excitement of the cycling Andrew and I called in at a place called Vasquez Rocks. It was absolutely stunning as you can see. 



It is a Natural Area Park and has been used in a variety of films and TV shows due to its rather unusual look. For those of you familiar with 'The Big Bang Theory' it is used in the episode 'The Bakersfield Expedition' where they are dressed in Star Trek costumes and on a road trip to ComicCon. They stop to take photos as it looks remarkably like another planet only to have their car stolen, leaving them stranded. It was rather exciting wandering around thinking that the cast had been there once before!

We really enjoyed our brief time hiking there and its definitely somewhere we will take Mr Macintosh as he would love it. Due to the heat on the day we went we didn't fully explore but we did go out towards the boundary and ended up crossing over the Pacific Crest Trail. That is something we want to walk, or at least walk parts of, so it was exciting to see the first bit of it. 

I'll leave you with more breathtakingly beautiful photos as I've got some packing to do. We are off to San Francisco for the Memorial weekend. We'll check back in next week with some photos!








KING OF THE MOUNTAIN

When heard we were posted to California we knew we would miss a lot of things, one being hanging out with the Snuggs family to watch the beginning of Le Tour de France power through the Yorkshire hills. 

This Saturday however we got to see The Tour Of California as the cyclists climbed up to Mill creek summit on day 6. Not as great as Le Tour I know but great to see some live cycling and cheer them up the hill. Obviously supporting Wiggo who then went on to win the tour.

Here are some photos of day. 
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Team Woodruff un-officially sponsored by VW Rabbit and Nature Valley Trail Mix.