San Francisco

And we're back in the USA! The past 4 months in Oz feel like a blur and it feels good to have a change from the van life haha.

Our 10am departure from Sydney had us arrive in San Francisco at 6am local time giving us the whole day to get out and explore the city. With only 1 night stopover before our flight to Seattle the next evening I'd booked a hotel close to the airport to make our arrival and departure nice and easy.

After dropping our bags at the foyer we found the nearest train station and made our way into the city centre. It was a gorgeous day and despite having not slept for the last 24 hours we loved being in the sun and catching some fresh air.

Our first stop was to Embarcadero along the waterfront. A bustling tourist strip lined with piers and notably the ferry port for the many boats and tours that head out to Alcatraz Island prison. Made famous by movies like The Rock and Escape from Alcatraz, and once home to the notorious Chicago crime boss Al Capone, it is now a museum and one of the major tourist attractions of San Francisco. Without having the time or money to book a tour, we checked it out from the pier and continued our sightseeing.

From here we caught an easy bus out to check out the "other" tourist attraction - the Golden Gate Bridge. We'd been told that San Fran is famously always covered in a low smog and were surprised by the blue sky we'd had so far. However, once we made it to the viewpoint the reputation came to reality. The cloud had mostly enveloped the bridge giving us just a tease of what it was.

By now the lack of sleep was kicking in so we made our way back to the hotel to settle in for the night.

The next day we started at Pier 39 which is like an amusement park for shoppers looking for souvenirs. After checking it out we wandered around the streets finding cool views and the historic trams that still function as a part of the transit system.

Probably the third most famous attraction in San Fran is its Chinatown. Apparently the largest Chinatown outside of mainland China it only seemed appropriate to find some lunch somewhere amongst the mayhem.

Content with a solid effort on our stopover, we made our way back to the airport ready for our flight to Seattle.Read more