Hello friends! The Husband and I have made it to Australia From where we left off, we left Las Vegas Wednesday morning and flew to San Francisco.  Once there, we checked our carry on bags at a convenient store in the International Terminal, jumped on the BART (San Francisco’s metro system), and headed into the city with plans of exploring.

We were impressed with the advertisements in the BART, boasting of all of the events one could take the train to, including a restaurant week of sorts.  Too bad we’re a few weeks late!

Upon debarking in the downtown area, I saw my first cable car!  When it reaches the end of the street, guys actually have to spin it around on a lazy susan of sorts

As we explored, I found all sorts of fun looking transportation.  Classic buses..

Little cars… all with their wheels turned toward the curb to prevent runaways.

The Husband and I love just walking around a city.  Luckily, we have a similar attitude toward travel and as long as we have good walking shoes and a general map (in our case, our gps in the phone, to double check whether we should head north, south, east, or west), oh and of course a camera, we’re set! All that stopped us along the way were photo ops We loved the architecture of this city!

We were impressed with the steepness of the hills Got ourselves a good workout before sitting on a plane for 15 hours! We got a good view of Lombard Street where the road is so steep, the cars don’t go straight down (look toward the top of the photo).

Colorful houses and apartments.  (Anyone watch Full House in the 80s? Don’t these houses remind you of theirs?)

Beautiful churches interweaved between more modern buildings.

After finding Chinatown for lunch (post coming later today!), we headed toward Fisherman’s Wharf.  We arrived at Pier 39, which the Husband mistakenly thought was Fisherman’s Wharf, and we explored what they had to offer.  Before we realized our mistake, I was quite disappointed in the commercialization of the pier.  Once we realized it though, I found it to be quaint

As we headed west along the water, we happened upon the actual Fisherman’s Wharf.

We saw a great view of Alcatraz (definitely on my list to visit the next time we’re in San Fran).

Next on my list was Ghirardelli Square.  Thanks to the big sign, we easily found our way!

The target audience of the square was clearly my demographic

While we worked up a sweat climbing the hills, the breeze chilled us near the water so we were craving some hot chocolate.  We made our way into one of the Ghiradelli cafes, got a free Caramel Chocolate sample (yum!), and ordered hot chocolates.

The Husband ordered the Drinking Chocolate (I think!) and an almond biscotti.  His drink was rich and delicious, but a bit much! We shared it and couldn’t finish it.  I ordered the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.  It was so good! I love salty and sweet together and highly recommend this.  Oh, the almond biscotti was heavenly.  This was a perfect treat to warm us up!

After Ghirardelli Square, we continued exploring the city as we headed back toward the downtown area.  We had planned on getting a drink and dinner downtown, but neither of us were hungry.  We settled on a drink (another post later today!), before heading back to the airport.  After a bit of train confusion (we got on 2 wrong trains before getting the correct one to the airport), we headed through security and settled in at the gate. 

We were able to use miles to upgrade to business class (yay for frequent travel!) and had a wonderful flight on United to Sydney.  We were able to sleep, ate good food, and enjoyed everything the flight had to offer.  We arrive in Australia refreshed (minus needing a shower!) and are enjoying catching up with the Husband’s brother Stay tuned as we start our awesome vacation! (With San Fran eats coming up later today!)