Saturday 30th October - Chicago - San Francisco
Our mid-morning flight meant a relatively early start - we found security at the airport to be the tightest yet - though we've noticed on more than one occassion that American Airlines 'secure zone' for luggage is anything but, with it being very easy to plant something in someone else's bag should you so desire! The windy city finally lived up to it's name as there was a howling gale blowing as we took off which delayed us by 40 minutes . The flight was half empty an the journey took a mere 4 hours. As we caught the 292 downtown the blue skies were breaking overhead and with steam rising from the 'manhole covers' in the ground and the hilly surrounds of the area it made San Fran feel just like we'd imagined it might be. It was time to do some washing at the end of a long day and we managed to use the only machine that didn't work (we discovered this after 40 minutes of waiting when the clothes came out wet and smelly)! We crashed early as the last 2 nights and a bit of jet lag caught up with us

Sunday 31st October - San Francisco
Like everyone else we availed of an extra hour in bed this morning. After a visit to the info centre we decided on a trip to the rodeo - not what we expected here but why not have a look we thought ?! The bus to the suburbs made it feel more like we were in Bejiing or Acapulco due to the crowds of Chinese and Mexicans aboard. At the 'Cow Palace' where the rodeo took place we were surprised at how few people were in attendence . The show was billed as a 'horse, stock and rodeo event' and even managed to include a sheepdog demo for the locals who haven't ever seen much of it. There were horse parades, barrel racing (women only on horseback) and bucking horses (excuse our language!). The grand finale was the bucking broncos where the bulls had a go at mauling somebody - one guy we saw was very lucky to escape when he was flipped over by the bull's horns after falling off. It was a great afternoon's entertainment. As we waited for the bus back to downtown a friendly black man told us 'you be careful round here, there's been murders here only last week' - we didn't argue and got straight out of there. One the bus, the streets were boneshaking (memories of Cambodia!) and roadworks seemed to be everywhere. We had hoped to go to an evening Halloween street party but alas when we headed up there nothing was going on apart from a few locals here and there walking around in face masks and girls dressed in stockings and suspenders. So we settled for a late night ride on the 'cable car' - great journey up and down the steep hills of San Francisco, but a curiously named form of transport we think as we know it as a 'tram' (cable cars leave the ground don't they ?!

Monday 1st November - San Francisco
We'd booked our tickets to Alcatraz island yesterday and headed to the Fisherman's Wharf area of the city to catch the ferry boat there . Normally there's a wait of at least a week to get tickets but as it's November it's not so hard though saying that there were still hundreds of people there today - maybe the blue skies and temperatures in the 70s had something to do with it ?! 10 minutes after leaving the bay we were there. Alcatraz housed people of notoriety in the 30s such as Al Capone, 'Machine Gun' Kelly and 'Birdman' Robert Stroud. It opened as a federal prison in 1934 and closed in 1963 - before all this it was originally an army prison. We started with a self guided audio tour through the cell block telling tales of escape attempts and day-to-day life. That was followed with a talk about the FBI and how Alcatraz came about - a brief history of 20th centry America, if you will. We ate lunch in the sunshine before coming back to the mainland. We embarked on an afternoon of 'cable carring' up and down the hills of San Francisco. Along the way were some great views and Lombard Street aka 'curved street' - presumably shaped like it was to avoid steeper gradients . Hanging off the side of the car is allowed though you have to watch out for oncoming cars the other way and poles which can clip your legs if you're not careful!

Tuesday 2nd November - San Francisco
On election day in the US ('Dont's forget to vote' say the ads - how the hell could you unless you've been living on Mars recently!) we voted to go on a cycling trip accross the Golden Gate bridge. Another cable-car trip took us to the harbour front where we hired bikes and hit the road on a gloriously warm November day with blue skies surrounding us. We passed San Francisco harbour front on our way to the only real climb of the day up towards the start of the Golden Gate crossing. Bikes are definitely the way to cross this defining monument of San Francisco which is 1.5 miles long and actually is a reddish colour rather than the gold you might expect or imagine. With the wind in our hair and a downhill slope in our favour we made it to the picturesque town of Sausalito passing marshy land on the way . We stopped for lunch before pedalling onwards and downhill again all the way to the port of Tiburon. It was a great way to spend our day. After an ice-cream we caught the boat back to San Francisco pier. This evening we went to Chinatown and wound up in a bar talking to a self confessed womaniser and an Asian man with 'bad memories' of Vietnam (don't ask!).

Wednesday 3rd November - San Francisco
Every once in a while you need your own space so we decided today would be a day of solitude for each of us - for a while at least. We have been together now pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 8.5 months - we still get on amazingly well considering! Sue lined up what she thought was an afternoon appointment with a hairdresser close by only to discover later the guy was untrustworthy, so she cancelled. She spent the afternoon shopping instead, picking up some bargains in the designer department stores. Derek was free to try and sort out car rental details and walk the streets at his leisure . The location of our hotel very near Union Square is great with all the main places and attractions only at most a few minutes away. There's an Indian restaurant that we love so we returned to it for the 3rd time since we got here! Sue has got a bee in her bonnet about some pictures in the gallery next door to where we're staying, of the Rolling Stones that were all painted by band member Ronnie Wood - Derek remains unmoved.

Thursday 4th November - San Francisco
Sue finally found a hairdresser that she trusted so she headed there for a morning appointment - he changed the colour but not the style and she was pleased with the outcome. We caught the bus up towards Golden Gate Park - we got off slightly too early and ended up walking through the original 'hippy hangout' of the 60s - Haight and Ashbury though the only signs of it today were a few retro clothing and pipe shops doing business. We paused for a pancake and walked into the park but were soon on the bus back to town as it started raining. It was time for some more late evening shopping with socks high on the list for both of us. A new hair brush and a road map of the United States later and we were done. We spent 'happy hour' in a blues bar around the corner and caught the cable car one last time up the hills of San Francisco. The hotel workers are still protesting here for equal rights, whilst the number of homeless people in and around the city is substantial. We've loved our time in San Francisco and will miss this place