Eating Our Way Through San Francisco

After what seems like many months of waiting for this day, we are finally in San Francisco! San Francisco is one of my favourite cities and I could not wait to show Jords around all my old haunts – which mostly consisted of places to get some classic American food!

We arrived at 6.45am (meant to get in at 8am ish!) so thought we might be a little stumped as to what to do until we could check into our hostel. As I previously said, my tour of San Francisco for Jords mostly revolved around culinary delights and we have sampled many old favourites. Lori’s diner is one such place and it saved us on the first morning! The diner was open early so we popped in for some pancakes, french toast and lots of coffee! It was quite a trip down memory lane as Lori’s was often frequented by my friends and I when we lived out here.

On our first day we explored downtown and then headed to one of my favourite places to eat, which was a pizza place called Milano’s. We stopped off at Yancy’s Saloon near Milano’s to enjoy my first legal beer in America – finally!

Milano’s was visited on average once a fortnight by the English crowd (at least it felt that often) and we’d always have fantastic pizza. This was number 1 on my list of places to take Jords and we certainly did it in style on our first night. We ordered a ‘largest’ pizza which was absolutely huge and just as good as I remembered.

Jords was in a state of shock that we’d actually had to box up a pizza for once – we had officially been defeated!

After stuffing ourselves senseless we thought it only right to get a donut to utterly finish off! We grabbed a couple at ‘Donut World’ and headed to my old local beach – Ocean Beach – for one of it’s notoriously stunning sunsets.

The weather for the first half of the week was absolutely stunning, more like weather associated with LA rather than San Francisco and we were certainly not complaining! On our second day we went to visit my university and I have to admit I was just a bit excited to be back.

We enjoyed some cheap and healthy smoothies and basked in the glorious sunshine. After a brief stop at a mall next to campus we were on our way to revisit my old house!

It was strange to be back but awesome at the same time! It is all as I remember it, even the next door neighbour’s truck with a skull hanging from the rear view mirror! We picked up a takeaway chinese (another fave just up a block from my house) and took it to Golden Gate Park to devour!

On our third day we walked the Golden Gate Bridge which was tiring (especially since we walked from downtown ALL the way there and back)! The Bridge itself is a mile long (I think) so a pretty intensive day of walking was had, but we were treated some some awesome photo opportunities along the way!

Proof that we made it ALL the way across! I can’t believe I hadn’t walked the entire length of the bridge in my year out here!

On our fourth day we did a walking tour of San Francisco through Chinatown all the way to Coit Tower. The views of the city from there were pretty cool.

Later that day we had an essential stop in Macy’s to get some classic San Francisco chow – soup in a sourdough bread bowl which I had enjoyed with my housemate Claire many a time! Jords went for clam chowder whilst I stuck to an old friend tomato soup.

After stuffing ourselves senseless (again!) we jumped on an F car (tram) to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked to Lombard Street – the ‘most crooked street in the world’ apparently?! We admittedly only walked DOWN the street but the hills to get there were pretty impressive for San Francisco’s standards!

We also found some time to fit in a cinema visit (bit of a regular occurrence on this trip!) and enjoyed killing time beforehand by reading in front of the Martin Luther King Memorial Fountain.

By our fifth day the weather had turned in traditional San Francisco fashion, the fog rolled in, so we rolled on out! We decided to head across the bay to Sausalito, a more sunny alternative to San Francisco on foggy days! Here you can see quite how miserable SF looked as we were leaving…

But Sausalito itself was quite a different matter. Blue skies and sunshine – even nice enough for an ice cream (or 2….Jords the pig)!!!

On our final full day in San Francisco we revisited Lori’s Diner to enjoy her classic milkshakes, which are actually like a meal in themselves! Jords was suitably impressed!

Scuttlebutt Sam ey?! Think we have the same motto of not wasting food…must be something to do with the name!

After enjoying some morning walking we decided to spend our afternoon exploring the Castro and a final ‘must-see’ on my itinerary – Haight Ashbury. The Haight is where the San Francisco hippy movement of the 60s originated and you can still see the influences on the area now. It is a cool place to stroll around and shop although we refrained on this occasion! One thing we did buy, however, was an absolutely amazing burrito. It is another of my old haunts. The burritos are still as good as I remember and their weight is comparable to a new born baby!

Look at the size of that thing!!!

Regardless of the size Jords managed to finish his burrito and the silver foil is all that was left. In fact, he also managed to finish mine too as I was struggling somewhat! We finished the evening off in style with another visit to Ocean Beach for a final gorgeous sunset and a cable car ride back from Fisherman’s Wharf which treated us to some stunning views of San Francisco at night.

It is our final day in San Francisco today and we’re catching a bus all the way to Vancouver at 3pm. A 25 hour bus journey…it’s going to be interesting! I have thoroughly enjoyed being back in San Francisco again and we have gorged ourselves stupid! Right now I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t eat for a week! Pretty sure Jords enjoyed himself here too and he was certainly impressed by the food selection! Now we are just excited about getting the awful bus journey over and done with and hitting Vancouver so Jords can take over the role of ‘tour guide’!

We Should Never Have Left…

Well, it’s a good job I took pen to paper last night (greyhound terminal … ), otherwise this might have proved the most costly blog entry in history. For the life of me I could not think how to start. The most likely explanation for this is the previous day spent in a Los Angeles theme park – my brain was hungover, my capacity for thought diminished. Indeed, there is nothing like a half dozen rollercoasters to shake up the ole grey matter. However, the g-force, twists, turns, loops, swoops, etc., etc. weren’t the half of it. No no, it was most definitely the harrowing experience of a day spent in the presence of several thousand American teenagers, from which my addled brain has been slowly recovering. Several thousand screaming, preeening, self -confident, self-righteous, “look at me!!” American teenagers. Several blows to the head with a blunt instrument would have been less debilitating. Why oh why oh why did we only stay in Fiji for 4 days … ???

Fiji was fantastic. Everything about our resort was spot on – our bure, the staff, the pool, the food, the beer, the activities and, belatedly, the weather! For two of our four days it rained. Actually, on our first day it rained. On our second day the heavens truly opened. We’d defied the weather on the former, pretending all was well and making the most of the facilities. On the latter, such behaviour would likely have got us drowned. Thankfully though, just when our spirits were threatening to ebb, out came the sun and we able to conclude our short stay with two days of gorgeous weather.

Our resort was called the Funky Fish – a budget, quasi-backpacker joint that, frankly, we’d booked with our eyes shut and fingers crossed. Immediately upon arriving though, it became clear that any reservations had been completely unnecessary. Our beach/pool front bure was basic but bright, clean and comfortable. Our first one did leek, admittedly, but we were swiftly rehoused!

The staff were ridiculously friendly, going above and beyond the call of duty from the minute we’d stepped off the boat to the minute we’d done so again at the other end. The food was unbelievably good, exceeding even the fine fayre we’d enjoyed on the Whitsundays. And the beer that came with it wasn’t half bad either. Fiji has three beers, Gold, Premium and Bitter – we befriended them all. The pool was ours for the duration and not just when it rained.

It was bigger enough to swim in although Anna preferred to splash and do bombs.

In terms of activities, we were spoilt: we were treated to our own personal snorkelling trip out to the nearest reef, which included a stop on the white sands of a nearby sand bar;

we played beach volley ball with the staff, to which the cry “one more for the laydee” was heard frequently, whenever either one of us served into (or below … ) the net; were taken on a break-of-dawn hike to the island’s highpoint;

drawn into some crab-racing – my own performed pitifully, never threatening to get out of the blocks, let alone the bloody circle; and, as an introduction to Fijian culture, were treated to a Kava drinking ceremony, which culminated in three cupfuls of muddy tree water – interesting faces were pulled.  Sadly not captured on camera out of respect to the ceremony but take my word for it, Anna’s face as she downed her first cupful was priceless!

Quite possibly the best was saved until last though.  Expecting to return to the mainland by ferry, as we had departed, we were instead delighted (if a little terrified, in Anna’s case) to be informed that they had booked us on a 12 minute scenic flight from the next island, direct to the airport.  And, remarkably, at just $3 more than the cost of the ferry.  The flight was in the early evening and we were fortunate enough to catch the start of the sun’s descent for the day.  It was quite spectacular and the perfect end to a perfect stay.

Our flight to LA was ok – no Nintendo games though this time, sadly.  We arrived in LA approximately 9 hours before we’d taken off in Nadi.  Quite plausibly the longest day we will ever experience.  A tub of Ben and Jerries (so many new and exciting flavours!!!!) sustained us in the final hours.

Our stay in LA was brief.  We’ve both been before and had little desire to do it again so spent a day in Knott’s Berry Farm (now three or four days a go – my brain is still slightly woosy from the occasion) and then spent a wonderful evening on the Greyhound travelling to San Francisco.  Not before we’d paid a quick visit to Downtown Disney …

The Greyhound journey was a surprisingly painless experience.  Once Anna nodded off that is.  As most of you will know, San Francisco has a very special place in her heart and, to put it mildly, was excited at the prospect of returning.  So much so that if I dare say anything of our first couple of days here she will probably do very bad things!  So, Adieu!  We will not leave it so next long until the next installment.  And if we do, rest assured I’ll be blaming it on American teenagers …

Exotic Maggots

Having recovered from my tonsillitis (with a large helping hand from Mr Antibiotic) and after enjoying a couple of days rest in Hamilton where Jords looked after me very well, we headed Waitomo to see if we could try our hand at some Black Water Rafting.

We shopped around but found that most of the companies operating out of Waitomo offered very similar options just in alternative glowworm caves.  We decided to go with the original – The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company on their Black Labyrinth tour.  In all the excitment of arranging our trip I had stupidly forgotten to turn Buzz’s lights off and after just 15 minutes we returned to him to find that he just would not start for us.  Oh how Jordan loved the fact that I’d done something silly too!  After a few attempts to start him up we gave up and called for roadside assistance which came within half an hour, jump started a fatigued Buzz, and cost nothing – hooray!  After that we drove back to a neighbouring village to camp for the night.

After a night of heavy rain it had been advised that we called up the BWR company to check that our tour was still going ahead – it was and I must admit after all the rain I was a little more anxious than I normally would have been!  We set off for Waitomo and within 15 minutes we were off and getting ’suited’ up.  As we were the first tour of the morning I thought we might get slightly dry wetsuits – wrong!  The wetsuits were cold and shockingly…wet!  After gearing up in many layers we were given a speech about how the most important aspect of the trip was to NOT pee in your wetsuit – we even took an oath outside the cave promising we would not soil the suits!  However, 2 Kiwi men still managed to break the golden rule on a 3 hour trip – how on earth!?

This is us and our group at the mouth of the cave, moderately wet after practising our ‘waterfall jump’ in a muddy river.  The 2 yellow helmets at the front of this picture were the aformentioned culprits!

Once inside we walked, ‘rafted’ – (which consisted of sitting in a rubber ring) and jumped our way through the cave.  At points you could see how the rain of the previous night had pushed the water levels inside the cave a foot higher than usual – scary stuff!  Our guides were great fun and provided us with a lot of entertainment but we always felt safe with them too!

I am surprised we are all smiling so much in this photo because we were all absolutely freezing and soaked through!  One of the highlights of the caving was the point at which we saw the glowworms.  We were asked to make an ‘eel’ line which consisted of you putting your legs on the rubber ring that the person in front of you was sitting in.  It was pretty relaxing and we all turned our lights out and stared at the ceiling which held thousands of glowworms.  It was beautiful but a shame to think that glowworms aren’t worms at all (in fact Jords would call them exotic maggots) – they are actually the excrement of the worm – yum!

After an hour underground and wading through water we were all suitably cold, but as this picture proves, we were all still in high spirits!

It was then time to head back to BWR’s camp where we were treated to a hot shower and a lovely warm cup of soup with a bagel!

 

Since then we haven’t been up to anything too exciting – just enjoying our last couple of days in Buzz.

<

Jordan even washed Buzz he loved him so much

Sadly we handed him in today but if we hadn’t extended our time with him we would have said goodbye 10 days ago so we don’t feel too hard done by! We were both sad to see him go but Jords couldn’t quite accept it…

No really….Jords…we have to leave him…move away from the electric fence…

Who’s farted?!

If ever you need good cover, Rotorua’s the place to be – it smells bad! But that’s not why I dragged Anna here.  Honest.

Actually, I didn’t drag Anna here at all.  Rotorua is a must-see place if you are ever on New Zealand’s north island.  Geo-thermal activity dominates and though the accompanying (and so-called ‘rotten egg’) smell is less than delightful, taking the opportunity to visit this rather unique area is well worth it.  Take below for example.  This particular bed of activity was just on the outskirts of the town centre – that is the hospital in the background!

Unsurprisingly, much of Rotorua’s tourist industry is built around its frequently bubbling landscape and you could spend your life savings attempting to take it all in.  Gathering together our pennies (or 10 cents), we opted for Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, which apart from being recommended by our trusted guide book, just sounded fun!

Well, fun might be a bit of an overstatement but it was definitely fascinating.  Undoubtedly, the highlight was the morning visit to the Lady Knox Geyser, manipulated to blow her top at precisely 10:15am every day.

After being fed a bit of soap (above), she simmered for a few minutes before letting rip.  And she didn’t stop for quite sometime – we moved on after about 10 minutes …

The rest of the park was essentially a long walk weaving among numerous different types of geo-thermal activity.  Yes, most of it went over our heads but it all looked cool and we managed to stop gagging long enough to take the occasional picture …

The champagne pools, below, were particularly attractive though their full glory was obscured by the sheer volume of steam rising from them – apparently to see them on a ‘good’ day is quite something.

And that was Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.  Unfortunately, despite the cheesy grins, Anna was at this point beginning to feel rather unwell – Tonsillitis we later discovered.  Happily, it doesn’t seem to be too serious a dose and she is well on the road to recovery but it did mean that we were unable to luxuriate in thermal spa pools later that afternoon.  Which is rather cruel seeings as it is not everyday that Anna talks my wallet and I into letting go.  I will be sure to make it up to her.  Honest.

Splash!

How did I get this wet and this happy … ?

To find out, click the link below:

<object width=”425″ height=”350″> <param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ZJEvs1MSunw“> </param> <embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ZJEvs1MSunw” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”350″> </embed> </object>