Fog to Smog Blog

3^rd September 2011 – 10.30pm

This is going to be a long one – I’ve got a couple of days to catch up.

We got to Alcatraz on Thursday. It was a bit creepy over there, and crawling with tourists. We did an audio tour of one of the cell blocks. I think you can go and explore the rest of the island if you want, but it really isn’t a nice place to be! The prison itself was quite interesting – decrepit buildings and stories of the inmates that have done time, like Al Capone, and amazing stories of how prisoners tried (and mostly failed) to escape. The tour was boring though and pretty poorly laid out. The place is packed and everyone is criss-crossing and running into each other. It also back tracks quite a few times and you don’t get to see much of the cell block. The Fremantle Prison Tour is better by miles. Or kilometres! On top of that the view of the bridge was lame because of all of the fog.

ONE OF THE OLD BUILDINGS ON ALCATRAZ

We went for a wander down Fisherman’s Wharf after we escaped from Alcatraz, and had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. It was packed and one of the very few empty tables was the Beatles table, what luck! Americans eat big, so we can pretty much split a meal and both be full as eggs.

After a HUGE day we went out with Carmen and Adam to a pretty swanky restaurant called Range. It’s pretty amazing to see how these places have to use what little space they have to jam a lot of people in, and they do it really well, the place was packed… SF really likes to eat out! The food was delicious and it was a really fun night out.

On Friday morning we headed out to see Lombard Street, San Francisco’s Crookedest Street. It’s a fair bloody hike to get to that thing. Again, the hills killed us. It’s the kind of hill that takes a couple of pit stops to conquer. The top of Lombard Street was really beautiful with an amazing view of San Francisco City. The houses and gardens are all very pretty and again the place was jam packed full of tourists. I was about three steps from the bottom when I passed a very (very) old Japanese lady who was on her way up. I rated her chances little to none to make it past the first house!

LOMBARD STREET

 

Because we are suckers for punishment, we hiked up another hill and a few hundred steps to the Coit Tower in another attempt to see the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog had other ideas! The Golden Gate acts like a tunnel for the fog so while it’s a clear day, there is a massive trail of fog rolling in that completely swallows the bridge. And it moves pretty fast. It’s quite bizarre. 

 

VIEW FROM COIT TOWER

 

 

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

In our very last attempt to get a look at this bloody bridge, we decided to walk across it. We only made it to the first pylon because it was just so windy and the visibility was really poor. It was cold, people everywhere but well worth the effort. While you’re in the tunnel of fog, it feels like it’s a miserable, windy, dark and cold day even though it’s not!

On our way home we saw a Jeep smash into the driver’s side of a BMW. We noticed NO ONE was on the phone, just gawking, so Matt called 911 and reported the accident. The driver was trapped but appeared to be okay, some kind onlookers were talking to the lady to keep her calm.

Sorry… this is a long one…

Supermarkets here are CRAZY. The one we went to had a Starbucks INSIDE the supermarket, a pharmacy and even a bank. You can buy any brand of mayonnaise in a tub bigger than your head. We got some Twinkies. I can report that they are foul – Matt can fit a whole one in his mouth! YAY! Hershy’s chocolate? Also foul.

So our time in SF is over. It was great to see Carmen after so many years. We flew out of the fog this morning, and if we ever go back, we might make it later in the year to avoid it..

We are now in Los Angeles, kicking back in our dingy hotel room after an afternoon exploring the city. We had lunch at a very old authentic American diner that could be on a TV show. It was pretty cute and the service was awesome. The service everywhere is awesome. We checked out the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is a pretty spectacular building and saw a commercial being filmed. Security assured me it was “nothing good”.

In the early evening we visited the Grammy Museum which has a John Lennon exhibition at the moment. We saw hand written lyrics to songs like Give Peace a Chance and Imagine. I loved it. We saw the white suit that Michael Jackson wore on the cover of Thriller (it was the real deal!) and handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan and NEIL DIAMOND.

Best pizza ever for dinner… We are both really hurting from all of the walking that we are doing every day. I’m aching all over from that damn pack, and Matt has some blisters giving him grief. We’ll toughen up as the weeks by!

That’s it! Well done for getting to the end. Matt is laughing hysterically at some stupid American TV show. It’s like Australia’s Funniest Home Videos except people are REALLY getting hurt. It’s called World’s Dumbest Daredevils…

Santa Monica, Hollywood and Beverly Hills tomorrow.

Amy