Day 15 - June 22^nd 2000

Got up ready to face another day and meet in the foyer at 10. We walked up to a little diner and ate breakfast. Came back and decided that I would go and look for tonight's hotel. So off I went down towards union square. Eventually I found it, 100 meters away from the cable car turnaround on Powell St, location, location, location. I went in and asked what check in time was. The lady said hang on I will check if your room is ready. It was, cool. So she handed the key. Back to the other hotel to said bye to Dave, no rest for the wicked and picked up my bag, OK who put the house bricks in it. Needless to say it was very heavy and I had a walk of about 800 meters to carry it. The bag weighed the same as a car by the time I got to the hotel.

The plan was to meet the remaining people at fisherman's wharf. I bought my Muni pass and looked at the cable car line, DOH !! It was huge so I pulled a swiftie and walked up 2 blocks to the next stop. That is my friendly travel hint for the day. They only allow 20 on at a time at the turnaround. I jumped on the outside of the next car. Yehaaaw.We did the touristy thing down at Pier 39, looked around the shops, took photos. You could just see the bridge and goodness me there were no Seal lions. At least it did not smell. Adam, Sara and I had some Baudin clam chowder in a roll (love that chowder). The decision was made that that hill is not too big, so up we went all the way to Lombard street. Then we walked down the crooked street and took more photos. Come dinner time we needed some tucker and we finally decided on the American icon Dennys. Caught the cable car back up to the hotel. Janne had her own cable car as she was going to Chinatown, what service : )

Day 16

Today I was to meet the group at high noon at the information center. But before this I went window shopping. Cruised around for sports stores but did not find too much. My search for rollerblades would have to continue elsewhere. Well we all made it for 12 so we decided to have some brunch. After a healthy burger king start we said farewell to Yolanda and headed off to fisherman's wharf. The cable car line was same as yesterday, so up a block we went. The others got on one car and left Gordon and myself standing on the curb. We caught the next one, on outside again (real adventure freak eh).

We took the low road. As we were walking towards the wharf the outdoors store just sucked us in through the doors, it was cool. Could have given the card a workout. We meet up with the rest at the wharf, not before Gordon took a photo of a dude holding a "need cash for weed" sign. All bar Vic signed up for a bay cruise. It was still a little bit foggy, but the best day so far. So we enjoyed the informative but very windy one hour tour of the bay.

Then we caught the bus up to Coit Tower (too steep to walk). Went up the tower and took some more photos. We then walked down Filmore Steps. Second handy travel hint, don't walk up them very steep. We walked up a big hill then back down a big hill ( I love San Francisco). Found ourselves walking along Columbous Ave towards the Pyramid, through the Italian section of town. We saw a nice little Italian restaurant opposite "The Stinking Rose - A Garlic restaurant" The food was first class, Vic even pinched a mussle (oops was not supposed to tell). Then we ambled through Chinatown and made our way back to Union square where we tried to say our goodbyes, but the cable car left without Adam, Ben, Gordon, Kate and Vic. Better luck with the next one. The Phil and I went back to the hotel room and easily crashed.

Day 17

Woke up half an hour late, but we still found Ben sitting in the lobby. Had yet another serve on Burger King for Breakfast. Six weeks and did not touch Maccas once. I was proud. So I did some last minute shopping, including a new bag. I had bought too much stuff. Finally stuffed everything in my bags (to applause), arranged a shuttle and checked out. We walked to Phil and Bens new hotel, through some dodgy areas, then up to Polk street for shopping. You really have to love the cultural diversity of San Francisco. Stopped at Lomardi sports store and drooled over some blades. In the end the lack of luggage space made the decision for me.

Then we walked up to Lafeyette park, down through Japan town (had burger king again). Made our way to Alamo square ( the Full House houses) which was well worth the walk. Continued up to Haight/Ashbury to check out Ameba CD exchange. I could have gone crazy, I restrained myself and only bought 7 CDs. We then went to sit down in Golden Gate park and chilled. Caught the bus back to the hotel and ate at Loris Diner. Got bags and headed for the airport. Took only 20 minutes. Checked in and changed shirts and then the real adventure began.

Day 18.....

Well to cut a long story short, due to take of at 23:30 the plane broke down and could not take off as the flight crew had to be stood down. They rescheduled the flight for 15:00 the next day so slept in the airport. Then we had to take off by 16:00 to beat the curfew in Sydney (still not boarded at 15:30, plane on the tarmac). So we had to make for Melbourne (at least in the right continent). Landed at 02:30 then had to wait around and caught the first flight back up to Sydney a total of 24.5 hours late. But on the bright side I received a US$1000 flight voucher so I started planning the next one : )