More photos from San Francisco Part 2

And some more photos :) This set was taken on our second day in San Francisco. We booked an Alcatraz tour and caught the 10am ferry (26/06/07). Have you ever seen the movie "The Rock"? Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage is on it, hmm i might hire it on dvd and watch it again, anyway this movie was filmed in alcatraz :)

It's hard to believe that this maximum-security prison was once a home to the most notorious criminals in America, circa 1934-1963. When we docked on the island, we have already noticed that the buildings are very old, some already deteriorating, but seeing the high fences and walls, there's no doubt that this was a prison, it gave me goose bumps as it was the very first time i've ever been to one.

We did the audio tour and we were given a headset and a player each. The audio was well put together, it was being narrated by one of the prison warden, some of the original guards and prisoners, so off we go with our imagination and viola! another mind blowing experience. We were especially intrigued about the escape attempts that happened inside the prison. Have a look at some of the photos we took inside alcatraz :)

More photos from San Francisco :)

Here are some more photos
enjoy :)

On our first day, we joined a bus tour to the city. We took off from the fisherman's wharf and then drove off to the center of town. Check out the photos of some of the city structures that we saw, especially the San Francisco city hall which is huge and good enough to replace the white house. we also saw the "crookedest street", San Francisco's china town and the "gay st" where most of the gay population resides, too bad we missed the gay parade, apparently they had it last monday(24/06), which was our expected arrival, oh well... we've photographed some of the wall murals around this area, very interesting.

Eventually we stopped at Mission Dolores, it's a very old church, kinda reminds me of the church i saw from "nacho libre", its amazing how they have maintained that place. We then proceeded to Twin Peaks to see the whole city, the site was breath taking :) on our way back there was a falcon just gliding, looking for food, i think that was the first time i've ever seen a falcon up close, so that was a bonus.

Next was the San Francisco garden, they had a japanese garden there, but we had to pay to get inside! It's pretty but I still prefer the new plymouth and the hastings garden and they were free :) And finally, we drove to the golden gate bridge, and then parked at the end for some more sightseeing. It was incredible, and once again we ponder on human ingenuity, what a sight it was! It's one of those "I wish you were here" places, and i did wish you were all there with us at that time :)

After that, we decided to be dropped back at the fisherman's wharf and go out for dinner. we ordered a fish(chris's choice) and a crab(aimee's choice). the meal was very enjoyable, but eating the crab was the highlight of the night! the waiter said that he'd crushed some parts of it already so it'll be easier to eat, because otherwise they will have to give me a hammer! i guess its an embarrassing site to see a lady pounding that crab with all her might hahahha we took some photos of this crab eating event :)

Aimee gets to meet the cast of The Wizard of Oz.

As seen in the wax museum, along the boardwalk at fisherman's wharf. This was a really fun way to spend an hour. We met a lot of celebrities; George Bush, John Travolta and Bill Gates to name a few.

Chris Riding on a cable car.
Cable cars are a great way to get over the hills of the city, however you have to wait in a 30 minute line with all the other tourists, and it costs about as much as a taxi ride. But so much more enjoyable!
As you can see, Chris is holding a bag from the hard rock cafe, which we visited on Pier 39, after our visit to Alcatraz island.

Golden Gate

We're on the north side of the golden Gate bridge.
This is the final stop on a 5 hour tour of the lovely city that is San Francisco. It's a really fun place, so very much like Wellington that we don't feel too out of place.

San Francisco!!!

Well we've finally arrived safely in San Francisco!
What a drama;

Our plane was a bit late leaving wellington, the pilot blamed the fact that he received it late, bad weather in akl i think =)
But this was nothing compared to what happened next!

Our plane left Akl on time, but we had to turn around and head back, 5 hours into the flight!
Apparently Rolls Royce had been monitoring the engines, and found a good reason for us not to make the full trip, so the plane had return to Auckland for repairs with us on it. At first we all thought it was a joke when the captain made the announcement, but it ended up being real.
So we had 10 hours in the air, only to end up back where we started.

The whole thing was a bit of a farce, they even made us fill in the NZ customs arrival cards.
Air NZ did a good job in managing the situation, and fixing up people's connecting flights (fortunately not us), but it was obvious the situation wasn't part of their normal action plan.

We arrived back in Auckland at 5am, and were scheduled to get a 9am plane back out, arriving in San Fran at 2am. However the American's didn't like that idea, so while they prepared another plane for our departure at 2:30pm, we got sent to a nearby hotel for a 'day room'. We grabbed a few hours sleep, and some complimentary food and phone calls before getting back on the bus to the airport at midday.

Hehe, then while they were calling the rows of people to board, they had to stop while crew attended to 'a problem with the onboard computer!'. The whole gate lounge let out a big groan...

Our plane then left on time at 2:30pm, NZ time, 19 hours after we left the first time.

So after sitting through the most turbulent ride I've ever been on, we arrived here. We were in row 62 of 65 rows on a Boeing 777-200er (9 seats across, 314 passengers total). The tail was wagging around like a dog on speed for most of the trip.

US Customs was a real interrogation for me, what school did i go to, where do i work, how did i pay for the ticket etc... Aimee said the guy was talking to her about other things. Her American accent must be helping.
So after picking up our bags from the conveyor, it was simply a stroll to the kerb. We are so used to NZ customs checking for all these banned items it's strange when our bags don't get searched and we walk right out of the airport.

Then it was a short cab ride into 'downtown' and we've checked in a day late. Will try to claim the room (pre-paid) back on insurance.


The time now is 10:30am, so now we're taking a well deserved break and heading off for a tour of the city at 2pm.

Bye bye
Chris and Aimee

One more day

Last day of work tomorrow.
Purchased insurance today, we're almost set, just need to purchase that foreign currency before Mr Cullen has his way with our dollar.
Next week is packing and goodbyes. Who to hug, what to take, the decisions...


Need to find out when Nick's funeral is too, pay our last respects to my dear flatmate. We miss you Nick, our thoughts are with you Lisa.

Preparations

Preparations are nearly complete for our trip to Canada.
Aimee no longer works at TLC, and I've got 3 days to go at LANsmart.

We've both sold our cars, arranged where to put most of our stuff that we can't take with us and sold off what is no longer useful.

So far we have all our flights booked, 3 nights in SanFran, 2 more in Vancouver and arriving in Toronto in the evening of the 30th of June.
It's just the final packing to go really, trying to decide what we're going to take immediately and what to ship later. I'll be packing up my bike just in case Toronto turns out to be a cycle friendly city.