Day 31 - San Francisco

Today we started the day by taking Chris and Al to Loris Diner for breakfast. As we suspected, they loved it and have decided that they will need to return to try the lunch and dinner menus as well. On my recommendation (from yesterday) they and Brett had "San Franciscos Best Corned Beef Hash" for breakfast and I had a California omlette - which was an omlette with a filling of smoked chicken apple sausage, avocado and tomato. Not somethig that instantly appeals I'll grant you, but as it was our last day, I wanted to try something local and unique so I gave it a go and found it delicious. Lori's Diner is on Powell Street, one block up from the cable car turnaround and if you want good service and a breakfast that will see you right through the day, go there when you are in San Francisco.

After brekkie, we joined the already huge queue to ride the cablecar to Fishermans Wharf where we would take the ferry to Sausalito. It took a bit of waiting, but was something that was a 'must-do' in the short amount of time we had in San Fran. It was so worth the wait too, the whole experience is like being on an adventure park ride. The banter and work of the conductor and driver, the steep streets and the history and sheer fun of it made it so much more than just a famous a way of getting across town. We started off with ladies sitting and guys standing beside us on the running boards, but about halfway along, Brett and I swapped. That meant that I was hanging off the right side as we rolled down a ways into a sharp left hand turn, so much fun that a big woohoo just had to be let out!

After walking the couple of blocks from the end of the line, we caught the ferry over to Sausalito. It is a shame that we couldn't take the planned bike ride, but it was a cool boat ride across the harbour and we managed to at least get close to Alcatraz on the way over.

Sausalito is a lovely little place. It is filled with galleries of all different kinds of art and crafts - although not an 'artsy crafty' kind of place, everything is on the higher end of the scale rather than the market end. We had a lovely time fossicking through the galleries and wishing we had the gazillion dollars that it would have taken to purchase and ship some of the beautiful things, before grabbing a takeaway late lunch to eat in the shade by the marina. After a wander around the boats, it was back to the ferry wharf for the ride back across the bay. That was the scene for our goodbye to Chris and Al - they went off to check out more of Fishermans Wharf while we headed to the F train to get back to the hotel.

The last leg home was a 13 hour flight, so we had upgraded to premuim economy. To start off on the right foot and to finish our trip with something lovely, we took a 'black car' limousine to the airport. It was only slightly more expensive than a taxi and seemed a fitting farewell to our dream of a holiday. Lovely.

Here we are at the airport then, ready to come home - see you all soon!