Dec 2006

With our early morning start (3.15am!) we arrived at the airport to absolute nothingness. Not a single airport person in sight so we collapsed on the couches and chatted with another passenger who was catching our flight until we were able to check in. It turned out the lad was actually a chef in the airport restaurant so after we checked in we headed to her restaurant for breakfast and much needed coffee (for Kylie!). We flew from San Francisco to Denver and both slept the whole way as our flight was very empty and we spread out across vacant seats to catch up on some much needed sleep! We arrived in Denver and waited approximately 45 minutes before catching our connecting flight to Pierre the Capital of South Dakota and then onto Brookings South Dakota. The plane was incredibly small and we were situated in the 9th row which also happened to the last row of the plane. Definitely an experience!

After arriving in Brookings we met with the Thomsens (Kylie's American Family) before going to Burger King for some much needed food! We caught up on all the happenings of the family and Katie met the rest of the Thomsen / Rue clan later that night at Supper (dinner). We played cards until late in the night when we headed to bed.

This morning we caught a cable car down to Pier 33 where we caught a ferry across to Alcatraz Island. We took an audio tour of the island which used to be a prison, a fortress and is now a historical site so it has a huge history. The tour was fantastic and very informative. We walked around the grounds for a while before heading back to the mainland and onto Pier 39 for some slight shopping. After Pier 39 we headed up to Lombard street - the crookedest street in the world. We caught a taxi up to the top of the street and then walked down to the bottom where we were accosted by asian tourists who took our photos! We then caught a taxi back to Chinatown and walked the streets before heading back to our hostel to pack and go to sleep as we had a 3.15am start in the morning to catch our plane! Sob sob sob.

Today we spent decided to check out Haight Street which is San Francisco's hippie area full of second hand stores and hippie memorabilia! After a much needed sleep in we headed caught a bus over there. After spending the entire afternoon strolling up and down the streets we went to the Thai Stick located down the street from our hostel before retiring for an early night.

After finishing our tour we spent as much time as possible in our hotel before heading to our hostel. We had a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel before we lugged our bags to our hostel which was surprising much better than our last hostel experience! After checking into the Hostel we headed down to Union Square where we met up with some contiki members and then headed down to Westfield Shopping Centre which in comparison to ours in HUGE! We had lunch at a lovely little bakery where we sampled the famous San Francisco Sourdough bread which was a great change from the sweetness of the normal American bread. After lunch (which was quiet late!) we headed back to the hostel to change before we went to a NBA basketball game in Oakland where we watched the Golden State Warriors play against the Milwaukee Bucks. The bucks won. It was Kylie's first NBA game and Katie's third but a great time was had by all.

This morning we made the short drive from Bass Lake into San Francisco arriving over the Oakland Bridge. We had a short tour of the city before being dropped at Pier 39 where we had lunch overlooking the water. After lunch we started our city tour again driving through such areas as the Marina District, Lomard Street and North Beach (or Little Italy as it is known) before heading to the Golden Gate Bridge and then back through Golden Gate Park before heading over to the Twin Peaks and seeing the Painted Ladies, the beautiful Victorian Houses that also featured in Full House for the avid fans out there! We arrived at our hotel (our last hotel for some time! sob!) before we went to dinner in Chinatown with the contiki group for one last time. Dinner was fantastic! We then headed our to a club just around the corner to say our goodbyes to our contiki friends.