I left my harp in Sandcrabs Disco

We caught a train from LA to San Francisco - it was a fantastic trip. Amtrack trains are comfortable, clean, luxurious compared to a bus or plane and definately exceed the XPT from Canberra to Sydney. They have a formal dining room with white table cloths and flowers and table service. The snack bar food was along the lines of the World Famous Santa Monica Hot Dog but the dining room food was great. The scenery was spectacular.



We met a lovely English girl, called Hazel and spent time with her while we were in San Fran. San Francisco really is one of the most beautiful cities. We arrived at night and the skyline was sensational. In the book 1001 things to do before you die it suggests riding the cable cars of San Francisco, we did and it was fabulous. We visited the cable car museum and rode the cars up and down the hills. We also took a tour of the city by bus which was well worth the money as the driver knew every spot and showed us all the lovely Victorian buildings and mansions as well as telling us about the history of the place.



We hired bikes and I RODE ACCROSS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. Wow that was a Disneyland moment. Not only was I blown away by the fact that I was there at all but I was nearly blown off my pushie when I got on the bridge, it was so windy. I was riding along feeling so proud of myself, laughing and crying and Al was behind me going "Woo Hoo, you go girl" Fuck it was good.



Another big highlight was visiting Alcatraz. We had to book on line to get tickets but it was so interesting and worth every minute. They had a top quality audio tour with prisoners and guards talking about their expereinces at Alcatraz. Also there was a man there talking about his experience of living on Alcatraz as a child. They had a small village of guards families there.



We also visited a submarine called the Pampanito that was one of the subs that rescued Australian prisoners of war who were on a Japanese troopship that was torpedoed by the Americans during the second world war. The didnt realise the troopship was full of Australian and New Zealand POW's from the Burma Railway. The Pampanito had a crew of 83 and rescued 74 men, other subs rescued others but they were in the water for up to 3 days. A volunteer called Bill was on the sub and we had a very interesting chat to him.