San Francisco with Mum and Jan....and another climb in Colorado.

After an easy flight (taking in the Rocky Mountains from the window seat),

I met mum and Jan in San Francisco at the airport..I hadn't seen mum in over a year so it was such a blast to finally see her.  We were picked up in a flash car and driven to the hotel which was near Union Square.

It turns out Hugh Jackman stayed at the same hotel a few years ago when he did his one man show, as the theatre was just down the road, so I knew we were in good company!! And the view from our room was pretty good too!!

 We had 8 days in SF and we were blessed with magnificent weather.  We booked a few days on the Hop On-Hop Off bus which is a really great way to see the city and I think by the last day I was so familiar with the commentary, I could have done it!

We were down at Pier 39 on a glorious day, the seals were out in force..noisy, smelly and fascinating to watch....

and we decided to take a boat tour around Alcatraz, under the bridge and around the Bay. With the Govt shutdown, all National Monuments, Parks etc were closed, so we weren't able to go onto Alcatraz, but the boat did get pretty close.

Stu and I had visited San Fran about 5 years ago, and had hired a car and driven over the Bridge.  Most of it was covered in fog, so to be able to see it this time, in all its splendour was a spectacle.

Walking through Fisherman's Wharf,

we came across Musée Mécanique, a Museum of antique arcade games.  You could drop a quarter in and they did their thing....it was lovely to see it, particularly  now in this world of technology...how simple entertainment was!

 We walked through China Town at night,

 after a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant as recommended by a taxi driver....

ate Italian another night, American, seafood one night, places Stu and I wouldn't normally go to, so a great experience for me.

Jellyfish hanging off the ceiling

 We queued for a while to catch one of the famous cable cars up to Lombard St (the World Famous "crookedest street in the world"....just for you Jan)...

and walked down it....I'm so glad we did it as we didn't go there last time, but I couldn't imagine living on that street....lovely views, but the constant traffic and people would drive me insane.

 We took the bus over the bridge,

to San Sausalito and we spent a few hours wandering around there, checking out the shops, the scenery across the Bay,

 and I watched the Rock Man create one of his rock sculptures.  He's pretty amazing.

The architecture throughout San Francisco was fantastic...

and I loved the artwork on the buildings too....

We also did a night tour and got to see one of the bridges all lit up.

One thing I found was there were more Australians in San Fran than probably in Australia. I heard the Aussie accent more here than I have in all my travels throughout the US, and it was kinda nice to hear it....and something that nearly bought a tear to my eye was driving amongst the eucalyptus trees, seeing and smelling them....such a strong reminder of home.  It was beautiful.

 I really enjoyed spending time with Mum and Jan....it was lovely to have the opportunity to sit with Jan and chat and get to know more about her, and to hear mum and Jan's stories of how they met and how their friendship has continued over all these years.  Thanks Jan and Mum for inviting me, for all the organisation and lots of laughs....it was great!
While I was in San Fran, Stu and Josh were back in Denver where they got their first light snow (I was a bit jealous not to see it!!)

 So over the weekend I was away, they went for a drive up to a State Forest on the Saturday, to take in some snow, views and animals.

but this is probably what I was most jealous about....not seeing a PORCUPINE...in THE WILD!!! How good would it have been to see it.  Joshuah and Stuart said it was about the size of Lua and it burrowed its way through the snow and then climbed a tree.  How cool!!

If you had read any of my previous blogs, you may remember my mini "melt down/panic attack" when Stuart climbed a 14'er on his own and a mini blizzard set in (OK, a slight exaggeration!) We decided the new rule was if he was going to climb another I didn't want to know about it till he returned safely!  So me being in another State was probably a good time to take on another 14er.  He had arranged with some other people to join him, but that fell through, so he went up on his own.  Morgan and Jakeb had climbed it just before they left and Stu was itching to get up there.  So he left early on Sunday morning to climb Mt Bierstadt on an absolutely perfect Autumn day, and here are the stunning pictures he took. (oh and Stu says half of Denver was up that mountain on that day, so he was safe!)

The track up

What an amazing country the US is!