Our last holiday photo from Santa Monica Beach

Last day in America

Today was our last day in the USA and we finished back where we started in Santa Monica, on the beach.

We stayed overnight in the Embassy Suites hotel overlooking the airport which apart from giving me a great view of the flightpath into LAX didn't offer much else.

We played on the beach for a bit, packed, dropped the car off and are now in the airport trying to encourage a very excited little girl to go to sleep. 15 hours on a plane await us. Apparently it's not very full which is a plus, and we have a row of 4 to ourselves, so we'll see how we go.

It's been the best 2 and a bit weeks that I could have asked for. I cherished my time with Carla and Mandy alike, we learned so much more about our little girl and we hope that this exerience will grow her as a person and us as parents for the future.

Giants Stadium, Mythbusters and Sausalito

Today was a great day. A really fun day and a good way to end our week here in San Francisco.

We basically did a big lap around the city. We started out by driving along Lombard Street (that really famous windy one) down to the Embarcadero then round the edge of the bay to AT & T stadium again.

Here we stopped not for the shop but to take some photos of the stadium. On the left is one shot, showing the large stone baseballs that lead you towards the stadium just the other side of the water. I am very keen now to see if I can get to watch the 2009 MLB season back in Australia now. I'll have to find out if you can watch it live on the web and hook it up to our TV perhaps... anyway, on with the trip.

Next we drove down 3rd Street to Cesar Chavez and left on Missouri St to the home of Mythbusters. I’ve always been a huge fan of the show since the early days when Buster used to get blown up and thrown off the top of the M5 Industries building, so I was understandably eager to pay a visit to the location where it all started.

The building was a lot smaller than I imagined, and despite the lack of any actual Mythbusters and shutters down on the doors and windows (well it is Sunday) there were still some tell-tale signs that Mythbusting had happened around us.

Firstly the M5 Industries sign gave our location away, but I was also very happy to see the ‘Mythbus’ standing outside. Upon closer inspection inside the bus I could see some equipment still in there including a motor from what looked like a household drill with the name “Savage” written in permanent marker on it. So nice to be so close to something that Adam and Jamie had built and something that I will now be searching the internet for videos of.

After a little walk around the lot we got back in the car and drove North towards the Golden Gate Bridge to make our way back to Sausalito where we were yesterday. On the way Carla fell asleep in her chair still holding the avocado and sardine sandwich that she started back at M5.

Over the bridge and down the hill and we were back in Sausalito. We found a great little café on the seafront and enjoyed some hummous dip and a couple of sandwiches, with a side of fries of course. Carla had a little bit of everything, and then most of our strawberry smoothie as well.

After that we had a little tour round the shops, bought some lollies for the trip tomorrow and then let Carla have a run around the little park and fountain in the middle of the main street and parking area.

We took a walk down to the seafront and posed for a few final photos (shown here) which will probably be our last here in San Francisco. The weather was perfect for it - clear blue skies and a cooling breeze off the ocean.

All in all a really perfect day to end our week in this city that we have quickly grown to like a lot. If Sydney ever doesn't work out, or if aviation requires a US base then we would be over here like a shot.

Tomorrow we're driving back to LA.

Bike the Bridge

Today we hired some bicycles from a place called Blazing Saddles in Fisherman's Wharf for a ride around the city and over the Golden Gate Bridge.

We decided on one of those kids trailers for Carla which she liked at first, but did get a little uncomfortable in. However regular bribes of apples and grapes along the way and she was fine.

We rode for a few kilometers around the edge of the bay along Marine Drive until we got round to Fort Point.

After posing for a few photos we then rode for about 10 minutes up what was probably quite a small hill but being a little out of shape and with Carla the back it was quite a workout.

However eventually we made it to the top and were rewarded with some more vistas of the city and bay area.

Once we got to the top of the hill we turned the corner and then were on the bridge itself. It was a beautiful day and the views over the water were great. It was a little noisy though and for Carla at ground level I think she found it a little scary with all the cars whizzing past so close to her. 

However the ride over the bridge didn't take all that long and soon we were descending towards Sausalito.

We passed the Bay Area Discovery Museum that we visited a few days back but decided not to stop there again and continue down the hill.

We freewheeled down the hill to the very picturesque town of Sausalito and stopped along the waterfront again to take in the views. This is where Mandy took this photo of me and beautiful Carla with the San Francisco city skyline in the background.

Luckily we only had to wait a few moments for a ferry back to the city. Carla enjoyed a couple of avocado and banana sandwiches along the way (Mandy's idea) and enjoyed looking out the windows at the boats, seagulls and sea-lions (sea-dogs).

About 20 minutes later we docked at the main ferry terminal where we had walked to on the first day.

From there it was a short 15 minute ride back to Fisherman's Wharf and along the way Carla must have felt quite cosy in her little space pod because she fell asleep halfway through eating her third sandwich. So Mands and I took the opportunity to get some fish and chips from one of the piers which we ate overlooking the bay.

It was a brilliant day out, and an experience that I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting this city. The company we used were called Blazing Saddles and you can pick bikes up from Fisherman's Wharf, just next to the Ben & Jerry's shop. They were excellent to us, really helpful with maps and the like. Total cost for the bikes, Carla's trailer and ferry tickets was around $100. Here are some links:

Blazing Saddles website

Blazing Saddles on Google maps

San Francisco shopping, Giants Stadium and a nice walk in Corona Heights Park

Today our objective was simple - shop, like we've never shopped before. However it didn't quite go according to plan for a few reasons:

Reason #1 - we'd forgotten that we didn't actually enjoy shopping all that much so got a bit bored pretty quickly. Reason #2 - Carla definitely doesn't enjoy shopping so we cut the day a little short to get her back into the car to sleep. Reason #3 - we were more interested in visiting Giants Stadium (aka AT&T Stadium) to get some Giants merchandise so went off and did that instead.

Oh, and also it took us about 30mins to find a place to park, and we couldn't turn left on any of the bloody main roads, but aside from all that we actually had another fun day.

So after shopping we did eventually find where the SF Giants play baseball, a brilliantly located stadium on the edge of the water close to the Bay Bridge. The Giants Dugout store was open and there was a big end of season sale on, so we got a few Giants caps and t-shirts for Summer. 

Now I was a bit of a White Sox fan after my last visit to Chicago, but after seeing the Giants stadium (and knowing that Carla has been there now as well, albeit asleep in the car) I am seriously giving thought to changing allegiance. I think I need to subscribe to the next season of MLB online, watch a few games and make my mind up. Terrible to change teams I know, I would be shocked if anyone did the same with English Premier League, but perhaps I might just do it... we'll see.

After visiting the stadium we went for a walk up to the summit of Corona Heights Park. It's a small park just down the end of our road which combines a dog park (Carla did lots of pointing and shouting "gog") and a steep climb up a hill for great views over the city.

We walked up to the top to see the sun setting behind the hills and making the sky over the city all pink. Very pretty, and a great way to end another fun day. 

Tomorrow we're thinking of hiring some bikes from Fisherman's Wharf and cycling over the bridge to take some more pictures from close-up.

Carla will love the wind in her hair on the back of a cycle, and San Francisco is really good with cycle paths all the way there and back so it should be a lot of fun.

Sausalito's Bay Area Discovery Museum

We started the day today with breakfast with an old friend at a place called Chloe's Cafe - cheesy scrambled eggs and toast with a side cup of fruit went down very well with us and Carla and it was great to catch up with someone who we hadn't seen for almost 8 years.

After that, we got a tip to visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum which we did and which Carla loved. It's basically a series of buildings each giving kids (and big kids) activities to do like art, music, play areas and more.

She enjoyed splashing around in 'The Stream' - a real flowing waterway with floating plastic fish and frogs - and crawling around in the 'Woodland' area. Plus she had a good play in the gravel pits and brought a fair amount of it back to the house in her nappy.

It was really nice to spend a few hours somewhere where Carla could just be herself and run around safely with other kids. Below are a few snaps of her doing what she does best - being a cheeky little monkey.

Alcatraz & Golden Gate Bridge

Today we visited probably the two most well known landmarks in San Francisco.

First up was a boat trip to Alcatraz Island. Fittingly the island was shrouded in fog so when we disembarked you could only just see the outline of the city, adding to the eeriness.

We followed the audio tour round the cell block which I would definitely recommend doing. Narrated by ex prison guards and convicts alike, the tour recounts stories from Alcatraz as it guides you round the prison area. Stories including some of the escape attempts, Al Capone's cell, life a a prison guard and more. We both really enjoyed the visit - it's a very interesting place.

After we got back to dry land, we had some food down at Fisherman's Wharf which is a little on the touristy side, but gave some nice views out back to Alcatraz and towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

We took a drive over to Fort Point just under the bridge but the fog had really come in so we couldn't really get any decent photos this time as you can see. But now we know where to drive to we'll come back again perhaps at sunset one day.

We did pledge to hire some cycles and ride over the bridge - apparently it's quite an easy ride - so we might do that in the next few days if they have baby seats.

Now we're back at home again. Mandy's just made Carla a really tasty looking tomato & fish pasta dish which she's tucking into. Tomorrow we're hopefully going to have breakfast with an old friend who lives here.

Another great day in the foggy city.