25 July 2016

Jetlag is sometimes a blessing. Woke up at 4.30am, and finally gave up hope of going back to sleep by 5am, so updated the blog with some photos and planned our final morning in San Francisco.

We packed up our room, and made our way back to Powell to catch the bus to Haight. An area which seemed to be mainly residential, full of the most amazing Victorian buildings, and no tramps! Andrew found us a small coffee shop/cafe called The Alamo, which was decorated like a little ranch, and we had a most pleasing breakfast, with the BEST coffee. I had a nutella bagel, Andrew a ham and cheese croissant, and Oli's day was made by them selling English breakfast muffins with bacon.

We then walked to 'The Painted Ladies'. This was a recommendation by my friend, Jason, and I had no clue what to expect. Oliver said "so we are going to look at a bunch of houses?"..er, yes.

They were beautiful. All in a row, on a hill (duh, it's San Francisco), and at least 50 people opposite taking pictures. I think it gets pretty busy, but as it wasn't even 9am (you see what I mean about the benefits of jetlag), there were just a few of us.

We caught the bus back to Powell, one final browse of the shops, and then it was time to check out of the hotel and collect our car. We left San Francisco behind, the noises, the smells and the terrific ding-ding-ding of the cable cars, and crossed the Bay Bridge, heading for Yosemite National Park. It was always going to be the single longest stretch of road we'd cover in one hit, so it was quite boring! We managed a burger stop, which was delicious.

The landscape was dried fields, and farmland, with the the odd pocket of shops (despite calls to stop at Walmart, Andrew ploughed through), but we were rewarded as we neared Fish Camp, where we are staying, with the smell of pine trees and a sense of calm.

We freshened up in the hotel pool, sat on sun-beds for an hour and ate pizza in the hotel restaurant, by which time we were struggling to stay awake. Looking forward to the National Park tomorrow.