Eastward bound...

Greetings and salutations.

We have jam packed a fair bit into the last few days, starting with a trip to the Napa Valley on Friday morning. First winery stop was at a perky 10am, with six different wines to get through. Next winery, three more wines and then a pit-stop for lunch. Thank goodness for that because "perky" wasn't quite the word for how we felt after all those tastings! Funny how it never looks like a lot when they're pouring but down a few in a row and you could almost start singing. To top off a fine afternoon we made one more wine tasting stop and then we each hit our own personal "snooze buttons" for the bus ride home...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

The Bagna Calda

That night we ventured to the highly recommended Stinking Rose restaurant http://www.thestinkingrose.com/, which specialises in cooking with garlic. Our entree was what they called a Bagna Calda, about 50 roasted garlic cloves with olive oil, a dash of anchovies and some parsley. Oh, and there was bread; you had to eat it somehow!

Main meal for Leo was half a cow with garlic spinach and garlic roasted mashed potato whilst my lovely piece of Sole Fish was buried somewhere, under about 40 of my own cloves of garlic *burrrrp*...mmmm, garlic.



The freaky white alligator!

Saturday saw us vist the California Academy of Scienes - OMG, what an aquarium they have in there. It was absolutely spectacular and something my photos will never be able to do justice.

They also have an albino alligator which is freaky (to put it nicely) and a funky planitarium which gave me motion sickness so I "watched" most of the movie with my eyes closed!

A postcard of Lombard Street
because none of our photos
look this good!

On Sunday morning we found Lombard Street, eight tight hairpin turns on a 16 degree incline and us, smart as we are, decided to go UP the damn thing instead of down it. IDIOTS. Nothing more to say.

After that we were "kinda, sorta, just a bit" tired so decided it would be a good idea to just relax and stroll around Union Street, maybe do a bit of shopping *cough cough*. I think our poor little credit card nearly had itself a fit after just the first stop. We found the Armani Exchange and so did our plastic haha! Then we hit up Macy's and just when Mr Plastic thought he was safe it all started again! Chi-ching!



Rule #5 at Alcatraz, a good
one for those of you with kids!

 Today we caught the ferry over to Alcatraz, a.k.a The Rock (and no, I don't mean Dwayne Johnson).

Interesting place Alcatraz and jails in general; no one ever wants to go to jail and yet, when they close down everyone wants to peek inside. Boh. Anyway, it was a good history lesson over there and another tick on the map.



Cherry Blossoms at the Japanese Tea Gardens

Somewhere in this past week we also visited the Japanese Tea Gardens; it was like our little personal ode to Japan, the place we missed on our travels this time around. The gardens were beautiful and peaceful and just left us hanging for more. Now we really can't wait to visit Japan one day.



We also found IHOP, the International House of Pancakes and mmmm-mmmmm, they make the best blueberry pancakes I have ever tasted in my life.

And so we've reached our final night in San Francisco. What a wonderful little city which, oddly enough, lends itself to being more like Perth than a lot of other places I have been to in my life.

The biggest surprise for me here has been the homeless people. There are lots of them and whilst I'm sure some have caused their own homelessness it still breaks your heart to see them laying on the concrete, in the cold, clothes torn and with nothing to eat.

Then there's the crazy people - one in particular is a guy who hides in a rubbish bin on Fisherman's Wharf and then, as unsuspecting people walk by he waves a cap at them and shouts "white trash"! I spent I don't know how much time just watching this guy and the reactions of the people he scared (myself included, of course)!

The best thing about the city has definitely been the amazingly friendly people, Fisherman's Wharf and a nice warm Starbucks vanilla latte when the wind chill is making your face look like a dog with your head out a car window!

So, start spreading the news people, we're off to the Big Apple tomorrow where we will look for Lady Liberty, watch the Easter Day Parade, visit Trump Towers, Bubba Gump, Rockefellor and Empire State, hope to see a broadway show and maybe, just maybe, get Mr Plastic out of hiding again.

Not sure when I'll next be able to post so, if I don't get to it before, Buona Pasqua a tutti...take care over the mini break and, a presto!

Px