San Francisco

Bit of a gap in the blogging due to being in the desert, more later. So San Francisco, I found San Fran a  good base for exploring other places and have therefore kept returning after trips away. Currently this is the third time I've been here and will return once more before finally leaving the West coast.

In the first instance I had arrived from Portland on the Amtrak before my Yosemite adventure, I was please to find some welcoming dorm room mates and spent the next day cycling around the city which turned out to be a epic ride of 50 miles around the city. We cycled over the Golden Gate bridge along with about 500 other people, and to a little town of Sausalito which is a bit posh and there's an ice cream shop that sells 'ice cream sandwiches', so it's not just an Android operating system. We found a nice cafe to have lunch before catching the ferry back to the main city and then cycling through the city business and shopping districts to the main parks and opposite coast, and finally back to the hostel after probably cycling every hill San Fran has to offer, although after Wellington, it was a piece of cake.

I returned back to San Fran after my Yosemite trip to catch up with Kath and Andrew who happened to be there before they finally flew back to New Zealand after their epic cycling touring trip through various countries, Kath had a mission of going to Oakland to a particular diner a friend of hers had spoken about that sold a local delicacy of fried chicken on waffles with maple syrup. I opted for a lasagna as the combination didn't really sound so appealing, as I thought it was rather odd. Someone just thought if they made the signs big enough and repeated them enough, people would believe. It was a popular place so the marketing clearly was working.

I then had to fly to Las Vegas to pick up a Green Tortoise Canyons of the West tour for a week before returning to San Francisco again. The final time will be after visiting the coast just south of San Francisco to Monterey, Montara and Santa Cruz.