20 March to 21 March

We’d obviously spent quite some time planning this trip around North America, but secretly this was the bit we were most looking forward to. 24 hours just us, whilst Jo and Jay looked after the kids (let’s face it, the girls were looking forward to it as much, if not more than we were). 

Alcatraz was great, lunch was fine, but we couldn’t wait for Jo to take the kids back to San Jose so we could enjoy some time together, reflecting on the massive rush that had been the last 3 months. 

Our first stop was Golden Gate Park, which we naively thought we could wander around on foot. It turns out it is some 4 times bigger than Central Park in New York and needs a car to explore fulsomely. We were so focussed on moving on from Fisherman’s Wharf that we had not done our best researching effort here. 

A solid tram ride later and we found ourselves back in the Union Square area and went to explore. Wandering around San Francisco, it is impossible to not notice the blight of homelessness so visible on it’s famous streets, along with the obvious fact that many (more than other places we think?) of the people are stoned. Like San Jose, we struggled to reconcile this with the otherwise beautiful city, with it’s striking skyline, remarkable hills, historic trams and beautiful gardens. 

We explored Salesforce Park, a 4 block long urban rooftop garden perched 5 stories above the Salesforce Transit Centre in downtown. It is peaceful and beautiful, and feels very far removed from the more conflicted vibe we felt on the street below. 

From there we wandered up Market Street to get to Charmaine’s Rooftop Bar where we planned to have a few well earned, pre-dinner cocktails and watch the sunset. This street borders the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, which doesn’t have the best reputation – and it felt like we were in the minority of people we saw without the trolley holding all our belongings. 

It was genuinely confronting, even more so when we got to our chosen bar, went through a velvet rope and 2 levels of security and popped out at one of the loveliest rooftop bars we’ve ever been to, and enjoyed some of the best cocktails we’ve ever had. It was so difficult to reconcile with the world on the streets below. 

From our rooftop bar we shifted gear to a fantastic dinner and some great wine at Bix piano bar before heading home. An awesome night which had also provided much food for thought. 

That night the rains came, and didn’t stop again until we got to LA. 

The next day we decided to get out of San Fran and explore the areas to the west and south – by car this time.

We started at Golden Gate Park (better by car, not so good in the rain), across to Ocean Beach (as an Australian beach lover, not the nicest beach we’ve ever seen), then down the coast road towards the pretty Half Moon Bay before looping across to Silicon Valley.

We had lunch in Palo Alto, and watched the latest winter storm tear through, knocking down trees and shredding café umbrellas. We visited Google’s Mountain View campus (with no visitors centre unfortunately – currently under construction) and Apple’s Visitor’s Centre (read: Apple Store) before we turned back to San Jose to rescue Jo from the kids. 

NB below is Ellie’s post on the kids time in San Jose while we were goofing off in San Fransisco

Freedom, that’s the first feeling I felt when I woke up on a rainy morning Tuesday, the 21st of March. As a slowly woke up and checked my phone, I groaned, realising that it was 5 in the morning and that no one would be awake. Feeling defeated, I lay back in bed. I then realised what Aunty Jo had said the night before, she had said if there was anything I needed I could go ask her, I then decided I was going to ask for her to turn on the tv (for my daily dose of television (or at least the version where mum and dad weren’t here)) So I stalked into her room, to only realise that she was on her phone and most definitely awake, I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things due to the fact that it is 5 in the morning and if I was not jet lagged I would get up at 5 for a million bucks. I climbed into bed with her and I got some good pats from Abby and we made a playlist for the massive drive we were about to partake. The girls slowly woke up and we had the breakfast of champions, 2 strawberry pop tarts while all getting some good tv time. Thats when Aunty Jo got a call from mum and dad who very sadly told her that we were not going to the muir woods. We silently thanked the rain god and watched more tv (with face masks this time).

We then decided that we would go to a classic American mall with some birthday money. On the way to the mall we listened to the massive playlist we had created, so it would get listened to. The mall was freakishly massive, not like Macquarie centre or top Ryde. We started off strong, heading into old navy, getting some cool shirts and a jumper. We then looked around for a while but we were unsuccessful with purchasing anything. So we decided to get a quick snack, including a really good, really sugary Cinnabon that was apparently much liked by uncle Jay and a very disappointing Starbucks due to the fact that it had caffeine in it so that I couldn’t drink it, but I got the whipped cream, so everyone was happy. We then went to Miniso in pursuit of a watch for Sena, this was unsuccessful but Jessie got a panda-penguin. We then proceeded to claire’s in one last attempt to find her a watch, successful!!! Sienna was satisfied, and decided that she was done shopping. On our way down to Din Tai Fung, we saw a face shop. I had been looking for face masks so we went there. I bought 15 face masks (I’m sorry, they were on sale!) We then went to Din Tai Fung which disappointingly was a 30 minute wait. Upset, we skulked to the food court to find something else we could eat. We found a place that sold different types of meats and vegetables. We decided that it would be a good fit for our lunch, and when we tried it, it was surprisingly good. Satisfied, we tried to navigate our way out, and after spotting the exit and walking towards Jessie said, Wait!!! I want to go back to Lovisa to buy that necklace. So we then took another 10 minutes trying to find Lovisa, which in the end was right next to the place we had started. Jessie then bought the necklace and I bought the hair claw. We were all happy with Jessie and Sienna having spent all of their money and me having 20 dollars left (which dad used to tip our tour guide in antelope canyon). We then went home and played VR which was really fun and heavily encouraged by uncle Jay. Mum and Dad then came home from their time in san fran