one last photo from our train journeys!! this is the view we woke up to of the sierra navadas not bad when just looking out the window!!

next stop: SAN FRANSISCO!! we really enjoyed san fran, we were there a few days so could chill a bit a do things a little at a time after the frantics of chicago and denver! the first day we went to golden gate park and i still swear it only looked about 2cm on the map the fact that it took us 4 hours to walk up and down the hills to get there was not my fault!! oops! oh the san fran hills! the walk was quite cool, apart from the hills we walked past the city hall and buildings like that and then along Haight street and went to the famous haight and Ashbury junction - pretty much just a load of junkies, junky shops (legal to by cannabis in CA if part of some club), books shops, we actually walked past a pool of blood nice! but the park was worth it as soon as we stepped in it we could smell all the lovely scents! we walked around a bit more and then found the place you could hire bikes so to give out feet a rest we got a tandem! it was a lot of fun but very scary for me as i had no control over the bike and i couldnt see where we were going - just gavs back! gav controlled the speed, the pedalling, the direction it certainly meant i had to put a lot of trust in him especially when we went down a really steep hill and he let go of the handlebars!! still it was fun! we cycled along ocean beach and saw our first surfers and they looked quite good!

the next day we did a walking tour of the city where we walked for about 6 hours up and down too many hills! we went past cathedrals, russian hill, nob hill, we got views of the bay and golden bridges, we walked down lombard street the famous wonky street (pic of us at the bottom above), we went to fishermans wolfe and pier 39 where all the arcades and touristy stuff is - i had my palm read, im going to live a long life but have a serious illness at 50! we saw the resisdent sea lions about 300-400 of them, wild, just hanging out by the pier! we then went up the coit tower over looking the city (pic of city from top) which was nice, could see for miles! then on the way home we went through little italy and chinatown - were we saw everything from live frogs, turtles, fish, crabs in buckets you can only imagine the smell! a good day of taking in the sights of san fran!

the next day we met up with one of my girls from camp becca and spent the day with her! we went on every form of public transport there is the bus (muni), a boat and the metro (tube)! we went up the pier 39 again and randomly bumped into one of the lifeguards amy from camp too so theres a picture of us looking shell shocked at seeing her! we got the most delicious ice cream in the world from ghiradelli a belgium chocolate brand, and being english i used the english card and got a few brownies chucked on top for free - god it was good and worth every calorie!! ive put on quite a lot of weight since camp - hopefully a few jogs along the beaches of the east coast will sort that out! and gavs loosing weight all the time which doesnt help! back to san fran! we then took a cruise along to oakland and went to berkley for a mexican lunch and gavs stomach being true to form had thrown it back up with 30 mins!! we walked around Berkley uni (biggest in CA) and went to the football stadium where some of the jocks tried to teach me and becca to throw a ball - didnt work but it was fun! we then went back to hers for dinner! a good day and made me wish i had met up with more of my buddies from camp! was cool just catching up and reliving camp times!!