San Francisco. U.S.A.

After much deliberation and with the backing of my Mother and Sister, we decided to carry on with our travels by doing a shortened version of our original trip to America. As we all agreed it would have been what my dad would have wanted.
So we packed our Rucksacks and headed over to the U.S.A. with Sonya's brother Nigel and his girlfriend Becky our new travelling conpanions, first stop was San Francisco, home of the famous Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. San Fran is a beautiful City, fairly relaxed considering its size, very easy to get around and plenty to do both day and night. On our first full day we jumped aboard one of the old trams (the ones you always see in movies filmed in San Fran where people are always hanging off the sides) that take you up the steep hills of the city, as we come down the hill towards the bay we were treated to fantastic views of Alcatraz.
Over the next few days we did a coach tour of the city taking in sights such as The Painted Ladies ( a victorian row of beautifully painted houses, again seen in many movies) Twin Peaks (which offered fantastic views of the city and surrounding areas) The Historic China Town and the Famous Lombard Street which is the crookest street in the world, aswell as many more interesting sites. We also got a ferry over to Alcatraz for a tour of the prison, a very interesting but scary place, this placed housed such inmates as Al "Scarface" Capone and Robert "Birdman" Strauss. We did the tour at night and was completely surrounded by fog so it was a little airy. We also hired some bikes out for a day and cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge to a little town called Sausalito. As we reached the middle of the bridge i pulled up complaining of cramp, when Sonya stopped and got off her bike, i got down on one knee and finally proposed (after 4 years together) With tears in her eyes Sonya accepted my proposal, got back on her bike and whizzed off at a 100mph shouting the news out to everyone and anyone. I nearly forgot to mention, Sausalito was beautiful.

Lee