Hello, This is day 15!

We slept in a little this morning as San Francisco is a sleepy city, most things not even opening till at least 10 and the fog (if its going to clear) not clearing for a nice day until like 11-12. we went for a quick walk around china town to waste some time before catching the bus and waiting for the Nike store to open to see if they had my shoes, we soon realised even these stores didn’t open till 10! walking back a bit annoyed some started to open and we had a quick look, so much junk! Unfortunately the Nike store didn’t have my shoes, never mind!

Getting onto our hop on – hop off tour bus (we used it as a shuttle today). The plan, heading to Golden Gate park to check out The Academy of Sciences. On the way we decided to jump off for a quick look around City Hall, such a beautiful building outside and in, and two wedded couples were being photographed there around the tourists! Running out to catch another bus and making it to the science museum we bought our tickets through the bus driver as we could save $6 each on the quite expensive $35 tickets. Whist processing our order the ticket machine ran out of paper only printed one and a tiny bit of the second ticket. The driver replaced the paper roll but the machine had reset and did not finish the second ticket. The driver said it would be okay as you could see the start of the next ticket and that it happens a lot and that they are quite understanding. We both felt uneasy about this but left ready to go into the museum. We lined up for the bus ticket to be exchanged for our museum tickets and they would not accept the second ticket as it was not a full one! Seriously when could things all go right! The manager came out and offered for us to use a phone to try and sort it out. We figured we would wait the 10 minutes for the next bus and ask them to print us another ticket as it was their fault we were in this mess anyway! After much convincing the next driver finally printed us two new tickets and took the doggy ticket as proof for them to sort out later. (he initially wanted us to get on the bus and take the 1hr and half hour trip back to the office, sort it out and then come back! This would have wasted our whole day!)

Finally getting into the museum we checked out the earthquake exhibit learning about the different ways the the tectonic plates move to create earthquakes as well as going into an earthquake simulator and experiencing parts of the massive 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1989 earthquake. There were exhibits on the Galapagos Islands, African animals and more. We checked out the planetarium, getting to lay back in super comfy seats and looking around at the images from the six protectors was very cool as it was just like looking at things in the sky! Next up we checked out the living roof (a garden on the roof) and the aquarium with many kinds of fish, jellyfish, snakes, frogs, turtles, alligators etc. Lastly we went inside the indoor rainforest, this was very cool and the temperature made us feel like we were back home, this also had a large variety of animals including lizards, frogs, butterflies, snakes, fish, and even two beautiful macaws. A fantastic place to visit! Now it was time to get back on the bus and make our way back to the Wharf for our sunset cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog had finally cleared for the day and it was beautiful and sunny. (yet still cold!) We had some time to kill and we hadn’t had any lunch so stopped at Johnny Rockets to try their famous burgers, choosing fries and onion rings as sides and 2 different burgers to share, everything was awesome and we really enjoyed the classic feel and set up of the place. We also had time to walk up through pier 39 looking through the many different food and souvenir stores. Eventually reaching the seals out on the platform, it was noisy and a bit smelly but fun to watch the bigger seals pushing the little ones off.

The time came for our cruise and we were both excited to sit back and relax on the boat for 90 minutes, this was well worth the $50 each we paid, sailing out past Alcatraz round the bay, under the bridge and then turning back for port. It was funny to watch the girls up front get absolutely soaked in the freezing water! Whilst we chilled out at the back with a great view, comfy seats, warm jackets and a little sea spray.

We got back to the Bus stop in time (after grabbing a bucket of mini cinnamon doughnuts for an after cruise snack, these were fresh and delicious!!) to catch the shuttle back to our hotel in union square, again so thankful that we did not have to walk! Macy’s was open late and I had the idea of going in to ask if they could ring another store about my Nike’s to see if any had my size so we could pick them up during our drive down the coast tomorrow. It was just my luck that they must have got more in (or the Asian guy had it out for me, Greg thinks I’m crazy) and they had my size! I was so happy, what a way to top off a fantastic afternoon and evening!

Making our way back to the closet, we hung out, watched some tv and went to sleep feeling good and ready for our trip to Santa Cruz tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!
N&G