Wanderlust

Wanderlust

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

I didn't quite leave my heart in San Francisco ... But I can see how people do


My last day in San Francisco was actually my first day by myself well some of it as by myself.
I had a few things to do today, the first pack and check out, then find a post office I had a few packages I needed to send. My first stop was Walgreens to find some envelopes, followed by union square as I was informed there was a USPS downstairs in Macys. Though I hit a problem besides the rain, which by this stage is really not unexpected. Macys didn't open till 11am and it was currently just on 9am.

So it was plan B, a quick wander through union square then I jumped the cable car to fishermans wharf, not the one I put the picture up of the other day, but the old traditional people standing on the outside cable car. The hills are fun, and it was a good thing to experience and I also used it for the remaineder of the day as well 



At fishermans wharf I wandered, I knew I wanted a hoodie from San Francisco as it was freezing and I don't have many jumpers with me. So I wandered the stores until the rain got to be too much and I decided it was time for my first hot chocolate of the trip.

I went to Bourdains which is known for its sourdough bread, I had toast and a hot chocolate complete with whipped cream on top, it was fun people watching and also watching the bread making process. Some of the bread they make was fantastic shapes like turtles .


The candy store was a store in the wharf area, this introduced me to salt water taffy, they are chewy lollies made with salt water, the locals say they can't taste the salt because they are use to living so close to it, I couldn't taste a lot of salt when I tried them. What did amaze me was the variety of flavours some examples include: butterpopcorn, caramel cheesecake, cotton candy, root beer float, lemon meruigne, cupcake, maple bacon and the list goes on.


After that I went to pier 39 and wandered the shops, this area would be so pretty when it is a. not raining and b. when lit up of a night. I ended up getting my jumper and a tshirt. Also stumbled across a usps place so sent off what I needed to and continued on my merry little way.
I ended up at Musee Mecaniqe, it is an arcade/museum for really old arcade games, the games were interesting and covered a range of different games. The one reason I wanted to go there was a scene from Princess Diaries where Anne Hathway and Julie Andrews arm wrestle the machine and use the photobooth, this was where it was filmed and both things are still in the arcade. 




After spending some time here, I decided as much as I could spend the day on the wharf it was time to go and explore the shopping, I hadn't been to the shops except Walgreens until today. I caught the cable car to the other end and then the fun began. Sephora was my first stop, though I didn't buy anything and I know for a fact there will be purchased made eventually. I then explored forever 21, victorias secrets, bath and body works, and several shoe shops. Some purchases were made, but not much due to needing to keep the luggage wait down.

All shopped out I headed back, the city was slowly getting quieter as the play off was on and being played at candlestick park. I ran into Amanda again who wanted to check out an old style diner we had stumbled across the day before, so I decided to join her.
Loris diner was everything you would expect it to be, completely adorable the bar seating, little booths, the fun music playing. We both ordered burgers again, they were much better than in-n-out, but as always huge and I couldn't finish it. I did love however that it came with sweet potato fries.





It was then time to farewell San Francisco... slowly very slowly. The traffic was terrible, with everyone leaving candlestick park after the game. My pick up time was 8pm I arrived at the airport closer to 10pm. The airport was ful of NY Giants fans stressing they were going to miss their flights as the game went into overtime, and security was going so slow. This was also my first experience of the body scanner machines, though it ended in a pat down. They didn't like the zippers on my trackpants and flagged them as potential danger. 


Then the fun begins, the flight is delayed. The plane is ready, the piolt is set but we have no crew, they are delayed on their incoming flight so we have to wait for them. The flight is full and we run out of room for all the cabin baggage, so it becomes extra squishy with bags shoved under seats.
I couldn't sleep on the flight I was really hot and uncomfortable but I did get to watch some impressive lightening happening around us as we flew, the plane also had free satelite tv so I got to watch some tv and even the news couldn't put me to sleep. The delay meant I missed my connecting flight by 5 mins - we managed to make up a lot of time in the air. Alot of people missed their connections as well, this is where I learnt that politeness and understanding pay off. I was upgraded on my connecting flight to first class.
So I am typing this from the gate waiting for my new connecting flight, I can't wait to arrive and get checked in and hopefully have a room, try and power nap before I hit the parks.

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