The land of the killer hills!

We awoke in Merced and raced off to San Francisco. I didn't realize how much my huge fear of hills would be challenged. Steve drove us to the Coventry Inn, a step up from our recent motel stays. Our room was huge and very clean so we quickly spread out for our 2 night stay. At this point we adapted to our nomadic lifesyle.

Where do you even start in San Fran? We studied the map and chose to walk down to Fisherman's Wharf. One of the piers had docks full of wild sea lions laying down and also playing. They were adorable! An hour later we were at the top of Coit Tower, the highest viewpoint of the city. We saw the pacific, Alcatraz, downtown and all the steep hills across the city.

We then walked down and back up the hills to Lombard Street, known to be the crookedest street in the world. On our way, I photographed the Real World house which was gorgeous. A few more steps up and we made it to the famous part of Lombard. Because this particular hill is so steep, they carved a zigzag in the road so it wouldn't be so harsh. On the edge of the road, there were rows of flowers, making the street very classy. I loved it! It must have been quite a challenge for the architects to build this city. The parking signs on the hills read 'park at a 90 degree angle' and the houses are leveled out on an angle. It's mind blowing!

That evening we freshened up and decided to eat at a Greek restaurant we found online. We started walking and realized we had more hills to climb. They really make you work for it in this city! By the time we made it, we weren't even that hungry anymore. It was tough finishing our grub.

The next day we rented bikes to go explore. We followed a bike path past the ocean, up more hills and arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge. There were many pedestrians and bikers with our same agenda. The bridge is really spectacular up close, especially because it's so clean. It is constantly painted red to keep its appearance up. We biked on through for 15 minutes and then to twisty downhill roads and arrived at Sausalito. What an adorable seaside town! We walked around, but after a 3 hour bike ride, we chose to take the ferry back into the city. We had so much fun exploring this way.

We quickly freshened up at the hotel and went back out. This time we went to Chinatown. We had loads more hills to climb. I don't know where we found the energy because we were so hungry! Chinatown was what you would expect but actually bigger than many other ones I've seen. We walked through into little Italy and ate at the most delicious Italian food.

At 8pm we were sitting at Cobs Comedy Club to see the show we booked. We started chatting to a local couple in their 50's who moved to San Fran years ago for, as he put it, drugs and rock and roll. The 1st comedian was hysterical, the second was ok and then Jeneen Garofalo came on. She was really good and certainly had us howling. It was a great night!

The next morning, I had to see postcard row, so Steve drove us up those very scary hills and down those very scary hills. On our way down I felt sick to my stomache at how steep they were. I was panicked that our breaks wouldn't work but luckily we made it to Alamo Square. This area is popular because of its Victorian houses and the street is always photographed. Specifically it's the starting shot of TV show Full House. And that was the end of our visit to the city. To the Pacific Ocean we went!