San Francisco..... baby!

Left San Diego on Wednesday morning and headed up the coast of California. Got through Los Angeles motorways unscathed and out the other side. Stopped at a few coastal towns along the way and played ball games in parks etc to break up the drive. Scoop did an awesome driving job for a total of 10 hours on the road that day! We slept in the car that night on a very quiet State Park beach front, still 3 hours from San Francisco. Woke at 5.30am by the early surfers and moved on our way.

Got to San Francisco at around 9am and checked into our hotel. Only 3 blocks from the BEAUTIFUL Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. By far the best city we have been in!! Love it, love it, love it! So much character and atmosphere.
First day we ran to the Pier so we could see the bridge - unfortunately it was so foggy it wasn't visible at all.
Could see Alcatraz and the big Bay Bridge that goes across to the otherside of the bay to Oakland. Did some shopping and eating and took in the sights. Last stop was at Jackson's favourite place for tea on the way home.......Hooters!!!!! Surprisingly the food was really nice.

Day 2 - hired mountain bikes for the day. Stuck Kenny in the front pack of Makalea's bike and off we went. They don't wear helmets over here by law, but the kids and I still wore them. Scoop for once in his life opted 'not' to wear one. Rode around 35 - 40kms around San Fran, across the Golden Gate Bridge (which felt like around 4 kms in itself) and across to Saucalito (which has now surpassed Southport Qld as my new retirement village - So pretty. It felt like you were in the middle of France or Italy)!
Caught the ferry home across the bay as the kids did an amazing job to ride so far. Once last sight to see was the AT & T Stadium - home of the San Francisco Giants Baseball Team. Took the bikes back and went straight to Ben & Jerry's (thanks Jenna!!!) - the best ice cream shop in the US of A! Next port of call was "The Cannery!".....unlike the Ballarat one, we could purchase beer not fruit.
 By far the best day we have had here yet!

Went for a walk at night to find some Pizza. First corner we turned was into a fairly ritzy area - how do I know this........?? Because there was a 'Daycare centre and Beauty Salon..............FOR DOGS!!!!'

Day 3 - Up early and caught the world famous 'San Francisco Tram Car' for a ride down to Union Square. Up and down the hilly streets. Kids loved it. Better than making them pound the sidewalks.
We then hopped in Rodger (the Dodge!) and drove about 3 blocks from our motel in Lombard Street to the 'Worlds crooked street'. A very, very windy and curly street.

We then headed over the Bay Bridge to Oakland to see the home of the NFL team Oakland Raiders, a working class part of San Fran, to us it looked like where all the freighter ships docked for the entire Bay area. We then came back across the bridge in HEAVY traffic, as there were so many emergency services on the top (police, ambulance, fire dept etc) as there was a person who had jumped out of his car and wanted a closer look at the water (emergency services were still chatting to him as we went passed). This bridge is sooo big it has 6 lanes going one way across the top and then another 6 lanes going the other way underneath it!

Then it was off on another Grid Iron Field Trip (Ben Christie - you should be here!!!) to see the home of the San Francisco 49's.  We saw this field 10 years ago and nothing has changed at all. It is still a very run down stadium but they are in the process of building a new one which will be completed in around 4 years time in San Jose.

Bit chilly here as we head further up the coast of California towards Canada. Had to buy a jumper this week. Got to around 20 degrees! Tomorrow we head off from San Francisco through the Napa Valley (wine country). It will take us around 2 days but our next stop is Portland in the state of Oregon.

Take care all.

Love from Team Connor USA.  XOXOXOXO

San Diego

Well time flies when you are having fun. Feels like we just posted when we got here, now we post before we head off in the morning. Crammed alot into the four days we had here.

Saturday we went into downtown San Diego and walked along the foreshore. We also went onto the USS Midway aircraft carrier, which has been turned into a museum, unbelievable the size of the thing, especially when you stand next to an airplane on the deck, makes you feel so small.

Drove past the San Diego Charges Stadium today - that's the second one from our list of 32!
2nd one from 32..................?????Yeah right!

Sunday was off to legoland, spent 7 hrs there and only just managed to see and do every ride, every show and everything else that goes with a theme park. The miniature replicas of Vegas, especially after just being there, were unbelievable. So much detail in every lego made building, took them something like 600 hrs for each one!!!!

Need Vegetables........went to the grocery store and bought a heap of vegetables for tea tonight! Also some chicken to put on the grill! No BBQ's - just grills. Have to build the heat beads & fuel up to a charcoal (takes around 20 minutes) then spread the beads out. Start cooking the chicken. This took about 45 - 60 minutes! Tracey.....no quick BBQ tonight!

Monday morning, we did some normal chores that just don't escape you even when on holidays....laundry & grocery shopping! Monday afternoon we went into Petco Park which is the home of the San Diego Padre's Baseball team. We took a quick detour into a little sports bar near by the stadium called Bub's. Walked in and there were peanut shells an inch thick all over the floor! Walked across these to a typical American style booth, ordered some drinks & $1 sliders (which is what we would call a burger), watched as much American sports on the plasma's on the walls - ice hockey, baseball etc etc. The atmosphere was electric!

Jackson got to play some mini league baseball before the big game started. His first 'at bat' took a few swings before he made contact then got to run the bases. His second 'at bat', he creamed it first pitch!
Two dad's in the crowd came and asked Scoop "does he have an agent?"...........Well the footy, skateboard and scooters have been put aside and we are now the proud owners of a baseball and bat!

The crowd were so welcoming around where we sitting. One man gave Jackson his 'real' baseball glove to wear. Another man caught a baseball from the game and gave it to Makalea and one security guard came and gave Jackson a real 'pitchers' game ball! We can now add that to our collection.

Tuesday - off to Seaworld. Saw three "killer whales!" What more can I say. Follow the link below to see our video we took. Before the Killer Whale show the presenters asked for all Military men & women, both active and non-active, past & present, United States and visiting from out of the crowd to stand and be appreciated and honoured from everyone else in the stadium. This just blew us away as they did it at the baseball too. We would estimate that around 100 people stood up from the crowd to be honoured. It is amazing how patriotic the Americans are. Something Australia could adopt at major events.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajd0ODjaGk

Leaving San Diego tomorrow and are heading up the coast to San Francisco. The budget is glad to leave all the theme parks behind......... or we would be home before you even get here Rose!!


Talk soon and we love to get those emails and comments!
Thanks everyone.

Team Connor USA.....XOXOXOXOX