San Francisco

Sunny San Francisco, her steep narrow streets and beautiful architecture welcomed us back to the USA late last week.  We spent the first evening wandering along the Fisherman's Wharf area, touristy but fun with lots of cool street performers, good food, amazing candy stores and views out across the bay.  The street cars (historic trolley cars) clattered past and the cable cars inched their way up and down the hills.
Friday saw us visit Alcatraz, an eerily quiet place despite the visitors.  We viewed the cell that housed Al Capone, talk about small, they were the width of Craig with his arms outstretched and the length of a bed and basin on the wall.  The ferry trip out to the rock saw us riding alongside Oracle as they practised in the bay, then our NZ team flew past, up out of the water with chase boats trying hard to keep up.  AMAZING!
We became locals on Saturday as we figured out the subway system and took the train south to pick up the Landcruiser we are using for our road trip.  The GPS brought us back past the ballpark where the SF Giants were playing and along the waterfront promenade full of people, markets and bicycles.
Later in the day the sea fog rolled in (common in summer) so the top of the Golden Gate Bridge was hidden but it didn't spoil our visit to one of the cleanest, laid back cities we've ever visited.