San Francisco - Days 1 & 2

Welcome to our blog! We will be endeavouring to keep this updated while we honeymoon across the US of A.


The trip got off to a bit of a rocky start. After arriving at Brisbane Airport and showing up at our departure gate, Air New Zealand told us that our flight was going to be delayed as engineers were inspecting the aircraft. Apparently it had been through a storm on the way into Australia and had possibly been hit by lightening! About 2 hours later we were finally cleared for take-off but were told we weren't going to make our connecting flight in Auckland so would have to fly into LA instead of San Francisco. Thankfully when we got to Auckland they told us the plane had waited for us so we made our flight. It was delayed too though (paperwork) so by the time we made it into San Francisco, we were about 2 hours late.


Walking out of the airport was a rude shock - it's freezing here! We took a shuttle into our accomodation - the Hotel Kabuki - and then headed into town to buy me some jeans. Yes, it's cold enough that I'm wearing jeans. Poor James nearly fell asleep while I was trying them all on though.


For some reason the sun doesn't go down until around 7:30 over here. It's really strange! We didn't have dinner until nearly 8 o'clock. Staying in Japantown means we are spoiled for choice - so long as you think that choice means there's about 15 Japanese places to choose between!


Today (Wednesday) we got up around 7 and headed to the only non-Asian eatery in the area - Denny's. Their pancakes aren't bad! After breakfast we hiked it back downtown again (it's about 1.5k's each way). Thankfully the streets on the way aren't too steep~! We were going to jump straight on the cable cars but decided to have a look at a couple of shops first... Shouldn't have waited! Because of the Olympic torch relay (read protest) the cable cars weren't running so we were directed over to a shuttle bus. Unfortunately the bus that was there was displaying an "Emergency - Call Police 911" sign which the driver couldn't turn off so he wasn't taking any passengers. Eventually another bus showed up though so we took it instead. It was free though so it had an up-side.


We finally made it down to Fisherman's Wharf and set about exploring the shops - most of which seemed to be souvenier shops. After a bit of a wander we went and hired some push bikes and set off to check out the Golden Gate Bridge. It was REALLY windy and rather cold so it wasn't the most pleasant ride, but the view made it all worthwhile in the end! We encountered several groups of both Beijing protestors and supporters along our way, but didn't see the torch at all. Apparently they changed the route to avoid the protests. It didn't stop the protestors yelling at the supporters though. The ride home was much easier as the wind was behind us, but it was still just as cold! It was about a 10km round trip - Dave (at the gym) would be proud! We're both a bit saddle sore and a little sun/wind burnt, but it was a good day and an interesting way to see the city.


By the time we left at around 6 the cable cars were back in service so we rode one back to Union Square. It's a unique experience! Our driver was quite a comedian so the trip was far from dull and the scenery was fantastic! After a "quick" stop at Nike town we headed back to Japantown and grabbed some sukiyaki for dinner. I managed to burn my tongue so decided I wanted some ice-cream to cool it down but we couldn't find a shop anywhere. I decided to get some in from room service instead, but that was a far-from-cheap experience! With taxes etc on top, it ended up being nearly twice the already-inflated price that was listed in the menu. Even better, it took about 50 minutes to get here because the guy went to the wrong room and stood there for 10 minutes wondering why we weren't answering the door. That'll be the first and last time we do that.