No visit to San Francisco is not complete without a visit to Guiradelli’s to load up on all those carbs and sugars. We headed there after the Cable Car ride to have a large fudge each – some with choclate, caramel and peanut butter. Yummmmm.

After managing to force the fudges down it was Coit Tower to get a view of the city. We got there and could see Coit Tower OK but the trees have grown and it is hard to see the city. Oh well – did manage to grab a cache GC136C – WPArt: Lillies Cache.

Next on the to do list was a ride on a cable car. We were fairly lucky as we approached someone gave us their tickets as they were sick of waiting to get on – there was at least an hour wait. We grabbed the tickets and walked up the hill to the next stop so that we could jump on as they went through.

We missed the first one but were surprised as we tried to get on as we were greeted by “What are you doing here” – it was Mike Sard and Family from Eden Hills. Only had 10 seconds to chat then the Car moved off.

We grabbed the next one OK and took it to downtown. Our tickets were never checked so they were good for the return journey. Before heading back we grabbed some pizza from Blondies Pizza and made the return journey but had grabbed the wrong one as we ended up at Fishermens Wharf instead of Hyde Street. Oh well some more walking.

After getting back from Alcatraz Island it was amazing to see how big the crowds had increased as there had been virtually no-one around in the morning.

We then headed to Musée Mécanique to see the world’s largest (over 200) privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition. (You can play them!).

Last time we saw these they were at the Cliff House which was a bit out of town. Spoke with the owner and he moved it into town after his father died and he inherited it. It now actually makes money.

The kids had a ball squashing pennies and they now have quite a collection of squashed pennies at 51c each.

Once again, grabbed a couple of caches GTJT6J – Piering Around and GCBD0A – Laughing Sal

11:30 am was our allotted time for the Alcatraz Cruise and visit. Lucky we booked before leaving Australia as the next available tour was Wednesday. It was a little rough and windy heading over but at least it was a sunny day.

We had a great time touring all over the island and going through the cell block. Even the kids had to admit it wasn’t a boring jailhouse tour. The Audio tour makes all the difference. In all, we spent 2 and a half hours on the island and we managed to escape without the security detector going off.

After breakfast we headed down to Pier 39 and checked out some of the shops and the sea lions as well. Rachael had a chance to have a fresh nectarine which she has been hanging out for since our summer.

It was a little quiet with the sea lions as not all the residents were in but of course managed to grab a geocache there – GCMKWT At the Pier.

Monday was our day in San Francisco. Left relatively early for us around 8:30 am expecting some heavy traffic but we made the 60 km journey in 40 minutes to Pier 39 which was good.

The plan for the morning was to meet up with Paul Sequeira ( a friend of Joanna’s we met on 4th July) for Clam Chowder at his cousins restaurant called Guardino’s at Fishermans Wharf for breakfast. Paul’s cousin Mike set us up with some chowder, crabs, beer, soda and prawns and we headed around the corner to a private dock for our morning feast. Awesome.

Also managed to grab a cache while here. It was Panning for Gold – GCF6BB

17 years ago, Jenny and I spent a weekend with a family of a Benicia Firefighter. He had only met us a couple of days earlier and invited us to stay with them at Yosemite on the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t know you had to book or anything. That weekend was a highlight of our ’92 trip so we needed to catch up with Dave and Lynn Botz.

In 17 years, their kids Cara and Chris have grown up and moved to Washington State and Dave (although still working as a Benicia Firefighter) have moved to Foresthill about 170 km away.

It was an uneventful drive until we got to the Auburn Ravine Bridge. The bridge was closed and there were cop cruisers all over it. A phone call to Dave and he said that the bridge was a popular bridge for jumpers – both BASE and others. As were we on the phone, the jumper was in cuffs and we were on our way.

The weather was certainly warmer than Benicia. Their house was great and we had a good afternoon catching up with the kids throwing some horseshoes as well. We lost track of the time and soon it was 8:00 pm and we had at least a 2 hour trip home in the holiday traffic.

On the way home, we took the old Auburn-Foresthill Road to look at the Ravine Bridge from the river base. Grabbed a geocache as well (GC19J44 – Species: Heteromeles arbutifolia). When we got there, once again there we lights of police cruisers on it as well as a helicoptor idling at the bottom waiting and quite a crowd as well.

A great meal was prepared, plenty of good company then it was time for some household sparklers for the kids before the town fireworks which could be watched from just about the front door.

After a drive in great weather once we left San Francisco we arrived at Joanna and Jiana’s house at around 12:30 pm. It was if we had only been there recently even if Joanna is doing a little renovation at the moment.

After Jiana being the perfect hostess and telling us all where our rooms and facilities were, Joanna’s mother in law Shirley and brother in law Jim arrived to meet us as well. We all chatted for a few hours then the wall hit. It was time for a lay down for an hour to recharge us for later.

At around 5:30 friends of Joanna’s arrived for a typical US 4th of July “cook up” party. Names were relatively easy with just about 2 of everything. 2 X Scott, 2 X Sharon, 2 X Debbie, 2 X Steve and a smattering of other names.

I also managed to introduce some of the assembled to Geocaching as there is a cache no further than 30 metres from Joanna’s house. It is GCW9KH – Waters Edge.

After 13 and a half hours and a couple of circles just out from SFO we arrived to a funny sort of day. Coming in to land, we passed over miles and miles of cloud just waiting to come into twon but at the airport it was warm and sunny.

A fairly quick trip through customs and immigration where we all got finger-printed and photographed except for Rachael (she was too young), then a quick grab of the bags and off on the Air Train to the rental car.

After deciding that the car we originally booked would carry the bags we upgraded to a Dodge Charger (Hey Charger). It was then off for a quick trip through town and over the Golden Gate Bridge as it may be the only time we can see it without fog. I remember Mike Lyons saying 17 years ago, if you see the Bridge without fog, take a picture.

We couldn’t stop anywhere as all the car parks were full because of the holiday weekend but got some pictures as we went over.