Farmer's Market at Fisherman's Wharf - SF

I am a sucker for any farmer's market anywhere - even if it turns out to be nothing more than some trestle tables with bits of old cheddar and pork pies somewhere off the M1.
But we were in SF and heading towards Fisherman's Wharf to the Ferry Building where every Saturday from 8am to 2pm there is a huge and varied market both inside and outside the building.


After perusing through the various vegetable and salad carts, we wandered around inside - there were numerous gourmet stalls inside that seemed to be minature versions of real shops in San Francisco.



After the obligatory macaron, we ventured outside into the baking sun to try some Hog Island oysters.
Being a bayside town, oysters in San Francisco are numerous and cheap. Most places did them at $2 a go (about 120 english pennies) so we could try them a couple of times in the course of the trip.

Customer service in America is amazing. It doesn't matter where you are or how much you're spending your're treated like a king. It could be something to do with the tipping system or they could just love their jobs - either way we were feeling good by this point so we wandered some more in the baking sun until we got too damn hot - and thought we'd go for a cocktail ! Enjoy !

PN

Brenda's French Soul Food - San Francisco

So you know sometimes you're walking down the street and you feel like all the tramps are walking with you and the rubbish is getting worse and it's actually kind of creepy and you stop for a minute and say "why am i walking down this road ?". Well this time the answer was going to grab some outrageously good breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food - yes french food and soul food - intertwined.

The doorway was so unassuming that we almost went past it but in we did go and found ourselves in a bright clean room with about a dozen tables and some very friendly staff.
Upon arrival we were given two cups of very good coffee and the sort of menu that makes you want to eat the paper it's written on.

Rob went with the cheese and andouille sausage omelette with toast and hash, and i went for scrambled eggs and bacon - boring you cry ! But it was the side dish that i wanted to try - Grits.

Now being English, my only experience of grits was watching movies where burly blokes in diners wanted "more grits"...but try it I did and it was goooooood. Buttery, salty cornmeal fashioned into a sort of porridge which went  incredibly with my eggs n' bacon.

We were absolutely stuffed but both agreed that if we had been staying in SF for longer we would have been back to sample more.

PN

Brenda's French Soul Food

A View From the Bridge

After sharing a few bagels and coffee with a lovely, yet very burnt Dutch couple, we decided to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The sun was shining, we were fully energised with all the brekkie and besides the couple had said it was 'a reasonable walk'.

We grabbed the map, filled the water bottle up and set our sights north east... kinda. After walking around the block twice we found ourselves walking in the right direction and with great enthusiasm and a slight sense of fear we walked on.

We saw some great sights along the five hour 'reasonable' walk to the GGB, like this place below, where we had a carvery dinner (between two pieces of bread!). It's world famous i've been told, not too sure about that one, but boy, was it some good meat.

After filling up and realising that we had only gone a quarter of the journey, we hit the mean streets hard at a pace even Mr Motivator would struggle to keep up with. We made some good ground up and found ourselves strolling though a neighbourhood where no house looks the same and all live on 45% angles.

Then we hit the woods and this was when it all began to pay off... we could see it! Through a crack in the tree and with a bit of squinting there it was, the Golden Gate! 

 We flew through those woods and got a little bit lost, but it was all good baby. We could almost reach it. Then we realised we'd strolled slap bang into the middle of an army base. Alright granted it was an army base for the civil war and was more a memorial ground now, but it felt dangerous anyway!

By this time it was just a walk under the freeway and possibly a mile to the left, across the ever decreasingly temperatured sea front. Within 20 minutes we were there at the gate of the Golden Gate bridge. 

Now the fatigue didn't matter, it was pure jubilation and a massive sense of desperation to take a photo of every angle of the whole bridge. It was a great feeling to be there and one we'll remember for a long time to come.
PS

First DAY !!!!!!!

TOO EXCITED !!!!!!!

That's pretty much the expression that was on our faces from the minute we got to Heathrow to the minute we got to our hostel in SF. (Imagine a monkey trying to hold it's wee in and that's the sort of face).

Even though we were in cattle class, Virgin Atlantic do try and make the journey as enjoyable as possible.

Before you ask, Rob had the chicken and I had the beef....

Actually we ended up being awestruck by the everchanging landscape below. I don't know if you've ever flown over Greenland but it's like another world - here's what we saw at 37,000 ft.

It wasn't until we saw the Golden Gate Bridge that we realised we were really beginning our trip of a lifetime.

We'll try and keep you as entertained as possible with this blog and will put up a selection of the best photos and things that we did. However I will send you my flickr account if you're ever suffering from insomnia and want to look at ALL the photos !

Toodlepip for now.

PN

The Goodbye

So....here we are in San Francisco. We spent so long talking about this trip that now we're here this all feels like a dream !

We enjoyed an amazing sendoff with a huge number of people and a huge amount of rain.

However we ate, drank, ate more, drank even more and spent a bloody lovely time together.

I have to say - towards the end we didn't even notice the rain....

Anyway, before i get way too soppy and get funny looks from the other people in the tinterweb cafe...we just want to say thanks.

PN

My Third Eye (not that one!)

I have a brand new camera - not just any camera, but thanks to my sister I have a D-SLR to play and experiment with as we wander around the world.

I have spent almost the entire wkend so far taking pictures of anything and everything i come across like a deranged brown Annie Leibovitz.

I don't know if it's the camera or me but suddenly the tiniest detail is interesting even a bit of old paper.

Here's some photos what i took - promise they'll be more interesting in the next few weeks !

PN

Feed me MEAT (and rice and possibly some other things)

Ever had a craving for meat that was threatening to turn you into that cute dinosaur with the fancy neck from Jurassic Park ?

Try Korean - even though you may have no idea what you're ordering, it will defintely be MEAT, SPICY, RICE - mainly in that order.

Oh yeah and proper well good.

PN

Pack it in, pack it in, then we begin...

In just over two weeks time, we will be frantically shoving those last few 'must-have' gadgets and creature comforts into our bags and hoping that we've packed enough undercrackers and socks to last us as long as possible before we have to do a dreaded sinkwash in our hostel!

What is it about packing for a holiday that induces a state of dread in us? I've been a victim to it myself, panic buying dresses and tops before a beach holiday and then wearing the same three things all week interspersed with a couple of bikinis.

We've decanted various liquids into 100ml containers (it's the most annoying airport rule ever!)and we've got our ear plugs cos we're decidedly grumpy when we get woken up out of a deep sleep so all that's left is for us to get on that plane to SF on the 15th.

Overstuffed Suitcase --- Image by © Tim Pannell/Corbis

PN