At home, thoughts on vacation

We managed to get out of Heathrow within about an hour and had booked a taxi to take us home, we finally arrived home about 5pm then Jane had to go down the shop because we didn't have any food or milk in. Looking back at it now we really did have a fantastic time away, the beggars could be a bit of a pain as there where so many of them and some of the main shopping areas could do with being cleaned and have the rubbish picked up but in other parts, there was no litter at all. No complaints about the weather, in the 13 days we spent there, there was no rain at all, most day's the temperature had a real feel of over 20 degrees with clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine. I think it would have been worth the money to go just to escape the cold and wet weather that they were having here over Christmas. We both really enjoyed our time in San Francisco and seen some spectacular sights from natural landscapes, formal gardens, man-made structures, and the local wildlife. It’s strange to be standing outside of somewhere that you've seen many times in films on TV and even though some of these films were made years ago nothing has changed in all that time. Some of the best days that we had were the ones where we didn't do much at all, like the day we sat on the wall overlooking Ocean Beach.
Although we didn't get to see everything we wanted to see we got through most of it, in the year or so that I had been planning the days out I'd prepared for all types of weather in case of rain or cold weather so some places we deliberately missed out because the weather was so nice, and one other thing we did get to see that you normally don't were the big fire trucks that turned up one night just as I was coming back from the pub all parked outside the hotel; turns it was a false alarm. We also had a good view of the San Francisco Chronicle offices across the road from the hotel.
So where to next time, Chicago maybe?

Goodbye SF

We didn't get up till about 9:30 this morning, there wasn't much point, we weren't going anywhere this morning, just packing a few last things in the bags and making sure we hadn't let anything in the drawers. You didn't have to check out of the hotel to midday and as the flight home wasn't till 7.30 in the evening, so we ended up leaving about 11.30, we only have to walk around the corner to BART station. By the time Jane had worked out how to use the machine that you get the tickets from it was still only midday, not much good me trying to do it because I'm useless with them sort of things. After a 20 minute wait for the train, we were on our way to the airport, is only about a 35-minute journey so had a few hours to kill before we checked the bags in.

We ended up just sitting outside the front of the airport for an hour or so catching the last of the Californian sunshine on what was yet another gloriously sunny day again with temperatures in the mid-twenties now. Now was a good time to get some stamps for the postcards, this time I would get the right ones so it wouldn't take months for them to get delivered. After checking in the bags we went through the security and into the terminal to spend the next five hour's waiting. There weren’t many shops in there; in fact, there were only two and two bars so after getting something to eat it was time to just sit in the pub drinking. That passed the time and they had free Wi-Fi in there as well, nothing like being on the internet to waste time. We left on time at 7.30pm for the 10-hour flight back but with the eight hour time difference, we didn't land until 2.30pm the following day.

Fort Point

And so today is our last full day here, Jane wants to go round the shops and start packing and I want a "ME DAY”, again to visit some harder to get to places, what a brilliant day this turned out to be. First of all it was a walk up through Union Square to catch the number 30 for the 15 minute ride down to Washington Square Park, from here you are at the bottom end of little Italy so there plenty of places to grab a large coffee and sit in the park for a while admiring the old " painted lady houses" and the church of Saints Peter and Paul that is a across the road from here and just wander around the side streets looking in some of shops that you never see anywhere else. From here you get some excellent views up to Coit Tower and the surrounding roads that go up the steepest hills I've ever seen, I'm surprised most of the cars make it up the hills let alone the buses. 

After spending about an hour and a half round there it was time to get on the bus, it was still going to be a long walk when I got off at the Palace of Fine Arts where we went a few days before but that was the nearest stop to Fort Point which is underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, if you get the bus to the top of the bridge the walk down is even further so after spending the best part of an hour walking along Golden Gate Promenade on a lovely warm clear day I finally arrived at Fort Point. During the War of 1812, the British landed in the Chesapeake Bay and marched straight into the nation’s capital. To prevent future embarrassments, President Madison ordered a new system of forts (known as the Third System) to guard the nation’s seaports. Completed in 1861 at a cost of $2.8 million, Fort Point was the only “Third System” fort built on the Pacific Coast. During the Civil War, 140 soldiers manned Fort Point, which was armed with 65 heavy artillery cannons, four flank howitzers, and five coehorn and six siege mortars. Although Confederate forces never attacked the fort, its walls could have theoretically withstood the impact of 10,000 cannonballs 

before giving way. However, the invention of rifled cannons—capable of breaching brick walls—rendered the structure vulnerable. After the Civil War, Fort Point was intermittently garrisoned and saw its last active duty in World War II. It’s very similar to the forts round where we live but a lot bigger, it always amazes me how these places were constructed in the first place, is free go in and there are a few exhibits in the old officer's quarters. Spread over four floors and being directly under the Golden Gate Bridge you get a different perspective of the bridge. When you get out onto the very top floor there are some brilliant views across the bay. The only downside to being here was that even though it was 20 degrees or so on the walk up it must have only been about 8 degrees inside, after spending two or three hours in there I was absolutely frozen so it was time to walk back along the shore from the fort and watch the sea lions swimming out in the bay.

It was going to be a long walk back to the bus stop so it was time to go in the aptly named Warming Huts about halfway back to grab a coffee, it’s a shame there is no seats inside so had to find a spot in the sun to sit and warm up while admiring the view over the Bay on a day with no wind. It seemed to be a lot further walking back but after about an hour I made it to the bus stop. By now the traffic had come to a standstill around most parts of this area so rather than sit on the bus I thought it would be quicker to get on one of the cable cars instead, not sure if it was any better doing it that way as the queue massive so had to walk up a couple of stops and get on there but once I was on it I was back near the hotel in about 20 minutes so dropped into the pub for a well-earned sit down with a couple beers. Jane had had a good day going round the shops, when I got back it was time for a sleep for an hour or so, by the time I woke up it was around 9.30 and we were both hungry, time for a trip up to uncle Vito's again for a large pizza between us then it was time for bed as tomorrow we were heading back home and that was going to be a very long day.

Ocean Beach & Sutro Baths

Jane was feeling a bit better today so we decided to go out for the all American breakfast, we had passed this place the other day when we went to the zoo but I forgot that it was closed on a Monday so it was time to jump on the L Travala tram for the 30 ride down to John's Ocean Beach Cafe. This place is just like you see on the TV programmer’s from the fifties, it's not a theme restaurant it’s just never had anything done it for years. When you walk in it's like going back in time they have Formica tables, imitation leather seats and the stools at the counter that spin round. The walls are covered on signed posters of jazz musicians from years gone by and they still have an original duke box that plays records, and it still works. Is a fairly big place inside that must hold around fifty or sixty people but on the morning we went there was only half a dozen or so there. The waitress was really friendly and got us both a couple of drinks, I do like my coffee, and then brought is some menus over. The choice was vast is all I can say, I'd never seen so many items on a menu in my life considering they only open from 7:30 to 3:30. In the end, we both decided to have the scrambled eggs which come with two slices of toast and a pile of pan-fried potato chunks that were perfectly cooked. It took some eating but it was helped down with the free coffee top-ups that just kept on coming, all this for around $20 including the tax and a good tip. Best of all they only take good fashioned cash.

Now it was time for a walk before we both fell asleep in there, it was only a short walk of about 5 minutes to the beach so we headed across the sand dunes that pile up on the pavement's around here and crossed the road to Ocean Beach. Jane couldn't get all the way onto the beach because her sticks would sink into the sand so we sat on the wall of the car that overlooks the beach and spent an hour or so just watching the surfers in the water. The waves are absolutely massive they must be around the 15-foot mark all of the time, it was so good just to sit there and do nothing but relax and watch the people enjoying the beach on a lovely warm and sunny day and the surfers.

With that Jane decided she wanted to head back to the city then on to the hotel as she wasn't feeling too good again now so I went back with her for a bit. After making sure she got back OK there was another place down near where we had just been that I wanted to visit but it was a bit of a walk to it, I caught the N Judah tram to the north end of Ocean Beach which is a couple of miles up from where we were in the morning and started walking north along the sand, to Hell with it I thought, time for a paddle so took my shoes off and walked in the water. It was a very warm day by now, up in the mid 20's at least, so I stuffed my coat in the bag and went in the water; it was very cold to start with on my old feet. I never would have thought before we came here that I would be wearing just a T-shirt and having a paddle on Boxing Day (they don't have Boxing Day here like we do), I was even starting to get a slight tan on my arms now. When you reach the top end of the beach you have to come back up onto the roadway because the cliff face comes right out over the beach and the tide was starting to come in so I dried off and went up to the top of the cliffs via the road, what a fantastic view south you get from here, there is literary miles upon miles of beach stretching into the distance, a truly incredible sight.

At the top of the cliff is Cliff House which is now a fancy restaurant but use to be one of the pump houses for Sutro Baths which was located below it in the cove. The Sutro Baths were a large, privately owned swimming pool complex inbuilt in the late 19th century. The building housing the baths burned down in 1966 and it was abandoned; all that is left is the ruin. On March 14, 1896, the Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The baths were built on the sleepy western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894–1896), Adolph Sutro. The vast glass, iron, wood, and reinforced concrete structure was mostly hidden and filled a small beach inlet below the Cliff House, also owned by Adolph Sutro at the time. Both the Cliff House and the former baths site are now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and operated by the United States National Park Service. A visitor to the baths not only had a choice of seven different swimming pools—one freshwater and six saltwater baths ranging in temperatures—but could also visit a museum displaying Sutro's large and varied personal collection of artifacts from his travels, a concert hall, seating for 8,000, and, at one time, an ice skating rink. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the two million US gallons of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a cave at sea level, could be switched on from a control room and could fill the tanks at a rate of 6,000 US gallons a minute, recycling all the water in five hours. At the Sutro Baths, Sutro also maintained an extensive collection of stuffed and mounted animals, historic artifacts, and artwork, much of which he acquired from the Woodward's Gardens estate sale in 1894. The baths were once serviced by a rail line, the Ferries and Cliff House Railroad, which ran along the cliffs of Lands’ End overlooking the Golden Gate. The route ran from the baths to a terminal at California Street and Central Avenue. The baths struggled for years, mostly due to the very high operating and maintenance costs. Shortly after closing, a fire in 1966 destroyed the building while it was in the process of being demolished. All that remains of the site are concrete walls, blocked off stairs and passageways, and a tunnel with a deep crevice in the middle. Looking down from the top of cliff over what is left of baths and out to sea it must have been an idyllic place to be at any time of the year unfortunately when you get down into the ruins and start to explore them you see just how much rubbish gets dropped here, it’s a real shame to see something like this in such a beautiful location, how hard can it be to take your trash up to road and put it in the bin. After having a look in the cave that housed one of the pumps I discovered it now houses a vagrant and is also full of trash.

Time to head up the very steep pathway onto the tail at the top and followed it along north along towards China Beach the plan being that as it was starting to get late in the afternoon I would get some good photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge from the other side with the sun on it. A mile or so along the top path I come across a brilliant view point a few miles away from the bridge with views over the top end of the bay, the bridge, and across to Marin County hills on the other side in glorious late afternoon sunlight. It was rapidly heading towards sunset now so it was time to head back the way I had come to get some sunset photos over the Pacific and try some time lapse

video as the sun finally set on a perfect afternoon out. By now it was dark but a warm evening and there was still lots of people down there on the beach who had started to light fires on the beach, what a perfect way to spend the evening but I had to keep on moving, it was a two three mile walk back to the tram stop but I got there just as one was about to leave so was back in the city by 6 o'clock.

Now it was time for a couple of swift drinks down the pub before heading back to the hotel to see how Jane was doing and sort out something for our dinner. Jane had started to feel better now after having some sleep in the afternoon but didn't fancy going out to eat so it was time to head to Uncle Vito's Pizza in Powell Street after going for another swift drink on the in Johnny Folwies Pub as it was on the way, it would be rude not to. When I finally got to uncle Vito's there was a very big queue but they were all waiting for seats inside as it was packed but they do takeaway pizza's which is just what I wanted, so I ordered one then did a fast walk back to the hotel before it went cold, turns out it was a bit further than I thought it was to get back but it's all downhill so it was still hot by the time I got back. The pizza was lovely and only cost $13.50, by now it was about 9 o'clock but this had been the best and warmest Boxing Day I've ever had with the spectacular views, warm weather and some good food throughout the day to keep me going. You couldn't ask for any more than that today I think.

Huntington Park Christmas Day

Well, today is Christmas Day not that you would really know it because it's about 22 degrees with brilliant sunshine and most of the shops are open apart from the big department stores like Macy's. Jane is just as bad today so we just had a short stroll around some of the shops again till lunchtime then walked back to the hotel for some lunch. After that Jane just wanted to have some sleep as her cough wasn't getting any better so I thought I'd go and walk to some of the out of the way places that were worth a visit but not the sort places that you would spend hours there, plus they tended to be a bit spread out, but the best way to find some good spots off the beaten track is to wander the side streets.

I started off at the bottom of Market Street where the cable cars turn round then headed east to California Avenue where the other cable cars are then headed straight up California Avenue, this is one of the steepest roads in the area and climbs about 500 feet in a couple of miles but it's when you look back down the road you've come up you realize just how high you have climbed with some fantastic views down to the bay. After about an hour of walking, I finally reached the top and my first port of call, Huntington Park, it’s not very big but it's the most peaceful and beautiful park I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in for an hour so. This is a brief history of how Huntington Park came to be:-

In 1872, on this site, at the corner of California and Taylor, railroad attorney, General David D. Colton, built one of the most elaborate residences ever seen in San Francisco. The classic white wooden mansion featured an entry flight of marble steps leading to a great portico of Corinthian columns. General Colton, his wife, and their two daughters entertained in the mansion with style and splendor. General Colton died in 1878 and shortly thereafter his widow, Ellen, closed the house and moved to Washington DC. In 1892, Central Pacific railroad baron, Collis P. Huntington, purchased the house where he lived with his wife, Arabella, until the time of his death in 1900. Mrs. Huntington occupied the home until its destruction in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Mrs. Huntington donated the land to the City of San Francisco to remain in perpetuity as a park for all the people of the City to enjoy. The Fountain of the Tortoises, a replica of one in Rome, features a mélange of cavorting turtles and nymphs and is lit by eight underwater halogen lamps that, during the holidays, are changed from clear to red, amber and green and is sighted in the center of the park.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the park became a continuing restoration and preservation project of the Nob Hill Association in cooperation with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.

After watching the hummingbirds fly around for a while, taking in the air and sitting in the sun in the quite of the mid-afternoon on Christmas Day what more could you ask for. Just across the road from the park is Grace Cathedral which is one of the largest cathedrals on the west coast. The inside is massive and the stained glass windows are some of the biggest I've seen and the detail on the stonework on the outside its fabulous, is hard to imagine how much time, effort and skill went into this building. The area around here is called Nob Hill and is a fantastic mix of old shops and houses from the nineteen twenty's, is not only litter free round here is also beggar free as well, I think that has something to do with it being an affluent neighborhood though.

After spending some time wandering around taking photographs I headed back down Powell Street, it’s just as tough walking down hills this steep as up them, looking for a pizza restaurant that I wanted to try before we went home. Eventually, I ended at Union Square so it was time for a sandwich for a late lunch. It was still only about 3:30 so jumped on the bus that was going past to Powell Street station then caught the first tram that comes along that was going outbound, luckily it was heading to the beach so 30 minutes later I was strolling along the

sand until I came to Cliff House, by now the sun started to go down and I was a sheer pleasure to sit there and watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. I then ended up walking back up the beach and passed people who gather here on warm evenings and light fires on the beach until I got to where the other tram line ends and jumped on one there back to the city. Even on Christmas Day the trams and buses still run a Sunday service but that's a higher frequency than a normal weekday here, plus there were a lot of people using it but I think it is the second warmest December on record had something to do with it. I finally got back to the hotel at about 6pm totally knackered and in desperate need of a tin of beer. Jane was starting to feel a bit better after spending the afternoon in bed so we had something to eat and spent the rest of the night watching the TV. It had been a long day with a lot of walking for me but it was worth every step I think, maybe my legs wouldn't agree with that.

Union Square Christmas Eve

So it's Christmas Eve now and we have no plans at all for today, Jane seems to be getting worse so it's probably going to be best if she just has a short walk for some fresh air then get some sleep. I don't really fancy doing too much myself today either. We had a bit of a walk around then headed up to the Cako cupcake shop, apparently, they have the best cupcakes in town and they're not wrong. We only got a couple of chocolate ones to try, at $3.50 each they're not cheap but it was something we had to try out, they even put them in a little plastic holder inside the bag so they don't get squashed together. We had them later on in the evening and they tasted lovely, so light and fluffy.

Jane came back on her own and I had a walk up to Union Square to take some photographs, you wouldn't believe how many people were round there doing the last minute Christmas shopping, you could hardly move there was that many people about. The queue to get on the ice rink was massive now not that I was going risk it at my age. It was all starting to get to busy out around here now so I cut through the side streets to go and have a look at the Transamerica Pyramid which you can see from any high point around the city but I wanted to stand at the bottom of it and look up. There's no public observation deck here anymore sadly but standing next to it is impressive. As this place is located in the financial district plus it being Christmas Eve there was hardly anybody around here so I thought I'd drop into Murphy's pub that was only a short walk away. It was around 4:30 now and most of the shops that were around was starting to close so the pub seemed the best option, there was only about four other people sat in their drinking but people kept on coming in asking if they were doing food and were surprised when told the kitchen was closed and so would be the pub at six. I stuck it out to the bitter end along with the four others in there until six o'clock then walked it back along Market Street for a bit till I got fed up and caught the bus the rest of the way back. By now it was around seven o'clock and most places were closed apart from the Apple shop, I don't think they ever close, so had another look in there then back to the hotel to see how Jane was. And that was our Christmas Eve.

California Academy of Science Museum

A full day out planned for today at the California Academy of Science Museum in Golden Gate Park today. Is not cheap to go in here at $35 each so I was hoping it was going to be worth the money. It was fairly packed when we got inside and they were having a fake snow storm in the lobby, it doesn't snow very often in San Francisco, much to the delight of all the kids that were in there. The first thing we went to was the tropical rain forest; you have to queue up to get in because everyone has to go through an airlock so none of the animals or bugs escape. When you start off at the bottom you’re at swamp level and you can see the fish swimming around below you, then you start to follow a spiral path around the edge that takes you up through the various parts of the forest to see what type of creatures live in each part. You eventually climb up four floors past the parrots to you get to the top of the tree canopy, that's where you find the biggest butterflies I've ever seen, they must have a wingspan of over six or seven inches at least. It's really good to look down from about 70 foot up through the trees and see the birds, butterflies

and other bugs flying about. From the top you have to get into a lift that takes you down to below the forest floor where you go out through a room full of mirrors to make sure you don't have any hitchhiker's on you from inside, and then it's out through another airlock. Now you are in the aquarium underneath the forest floor where you can walk through a glass tunnel and look up at the fish above you and the rainforest you were just in. From here it takes you through to the main part of the aquarium where you are confronted by the biggest glass wall I have ever seen, it has to 25 foot high, 40 foot long and contains all marine fish. It is an incredible sight to stand here and watch them swimming, it's like being underwater, now I know why people go diving. After that it was time to get some food from the cafe in there, I wish we hadn't bothered now, you couldn't get in the main café without a very long wait so we opted for the fast service grab and go, unfortunately the service wasn't fast and when we did get served there was nowhere to sit to eat it at first. We only had a hot dog each which you would think would be hard to screw up but they did, it tasted alright but I think it had spent to many days in the steamer and the prices were scandalous at $7 for the hot dog plus $6 for a bottle of drink times 2, but it's not like you can go anywhere else to something to eat. We had a look at some other parts in there then Jane wanted to sit down for a bit so I walked over to the earthquake simulator, this was really good, after you are shown a short film you move through to the next room that is set up like some somebody's living room then it re-enacts the earthquake from 1986, that shakes the hell out of you but that's not the end of it, another short story takes you back to 1906 when the big one struck, this one shakes the room that are stood in even harder and longer, they do admit that this is not as bad as the actual 1906 quake was because they can't shake the room hard enough. On the exit from here you enter a gallery of photographs taken in 1906 and 1986, when you see the damage that was done in both of them it's amazing more people were not killed. By now it was almost time for our slot in the planetarium, even though you don't have pay to go in you still have to get a free ticket as there are only so many seats inside, it then re-enacts the 1906 one from a view above the ground and the fire that broke out afterwards that burnt down 500 city blocks (about 20 square miles in that era) and killed more people than the original earthquake, over 3000 people died in the fire that raged for the best part of a week and couldn't be put out as most of the water mains had ruptured. In the end to it was only stopped spreading further when they started to blow up parts of the city in lines to create a fire break to stop it from destroying the entire city. As most of the city was in ruins now this explains why there are not many buildings more than 100 years old here but some did survive like the Market building on the Embarcadero although it was badly damaged, in the intervening years most of the old buildings that were left standing have been retrofitted to withstand another earthquake of even bigger magnitude by basically putting the foundations on springs to withstand the shaking. As the presenter said, we are due for another big one soon but there's nothing you can do about it but prepare for the worst to happen and hope you live through it. On the plus side most of the earthquakes originate on land so there not as much chance of a tidal wave but there are air raid style warnings that go off a few seconds before they have one, we heard them at least twice during our stay but they was only testing them, it then announced afterwards that "this is only a test" after you have crapped yourself.

By now it was about 4.30pm and we had seen everything in here so we headed out for the walk across the park and back into the Sunset District to a restaurant I had all planned out, Jane was starting flag now so the first place we came across I'd seen few days before called the Little Shamrock Irish bar, as we were both gasping for something to drink we dived in. The Shamrock is just like the pubs back home but more friendly, although they didn't do food it was good just to have sit down with a beer that I desperately needed, the one thing that always surprises me is that even though there is only one person serving you still get served in a couple of minutes, there were a few people in there so I got a pint of IPA bitter, locally brewed, and Jane had a coke, at first I thought she had charged me wrong but no it was only $5 for two drinks. I just wish I'd have discovered this place earlier in our stay here as it would have been worth the 30 minutes on the tram just to get here for the cheap beer, good service, and a very relaxing atmosphere, mind you it was happy hours but the price didn't go up by much even after that had finished.

By now it was around 5.30pm and we are both getting hungry so it was time to make a move to the restaurant I had planned on going to, big mistake that was. I've always been wary of places that don't put up their menu outside and ones that don't put the prices on them, when we had a look through the window and seen that they have perfectly folded napkins tucked into the wine glasses, we realized this wasn't the place for us, far too upmarket for me. It was time now to consult the offline part of the app on my phone from trip advisor to find somewhere to eat that didn't involve any walking, as luck would have it there was another place just around the corner from us that I had missed called Milano Italian restaurant, this is what I'd had hoped to have planned, an authentic Italian meal of meatballs and pasta. This was a fantastic place to eat at, it was a bit quirky to get your drinks severed in jam jars but apparently that's the way they do it back home, there weren't too many people in here apart from the birthday bash that was going on in the back room so the food comes out in about 20 minutes and it was worth the wait, I'm not sure what type of pepper they brought out in the pinch bowl but it was amazing just like the rest of the meal, unfortunately Jane couldn't taste it as she was still suffering from her cough and lost her sense of taste now so I had to tell her what it tasted like. By now it had gone dark so after paying the bill of only $30 it was time to catch the tram back; you couldn't really get a shorter walk to the stop as it was virtually outside the door of the restaurant and only had 3 minutes to wait.

We arrived back at the hotel about seven thirty then ended up just watching some TV for a bit but I wasn't finished off for the day just yet so walked it up to Union Square area to take yet more photographs and have a couple of drinks in a bar that I can't remember what was called then got on a bus down to the Embarcadero to photograph the buildings at night and Bay Bridge, it's incredible to see all the edges of the building's lit up in the dark and the lights on the Bay Bridge look like running water, they seem to cascade down in different colours, like water. On the whole, when I look back this was another great day out for us both although it may have been too long.

San Francisco zoo

As Jane still wasn’t feeling too good it was going to be a lazy day for us today so we jumped on the L Traravel tram for half hour or so ride down to San Francisco Zoo. Can't remember how many years it has been since I last went to a zoo so I was looking forward to it. Is only a short walk from the stop to the gate and I'd found out that they rent wheelchairs out there so we asked about on the way in, what we didn't expect was that they would give Jane a $3 dollar discount and I got in for free to push her around, so instead of it costing $34 for the two of us it was only $14 for the both of us in the end plus the $10 charge they

made for renting out the wheelchair. It made it a lot easier for Jane to get around and we got to see everything; we never would have got around the entire place otherwise. The highlight was feeding time for the penguins, the keeper come out with a big bucket of fish and a hosepipe to keep the very big seagull away from their lunch, plus after he had made sure they had all been fed us told you all about how penguins live in the wild then answer's any questions you have about them, who would think that they live over 30 years in captivity. Even the food in the cafe wasn't too bad, you got a fair amount but it was a bit on the pricey side which is normal in most places like this. They even had a small replica steam train going round in there from the eighteen hundreds that the kids could ride, for a small extra charge of course. I think we spent about five hours in there all together and come out about 4:30pm.

It had been a long day for Jane but before we headed back on the tram we took a short walk across the road to Ocean Beach and watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. With that, we decided to call it a day and head back. The funny thing is it didn't seem to take half as long to get back on the tram as if did going. After having something to eat Jane went to bed for a bit so I sneaked off to try another Irish pub that I had found called Murphy's Bar, it wasn't the closest pub to where we were staying but not too far on the streetcar so 10 minutes later I was heading up the road to the pub. Is not a very big place inside but it's just like the ones you see on TV complete with the bartender polishing glasses when he's not severing five people at once. After spending a bit longer than planned in there and drinking more than I thought I had it seemed like a good idea to walk it back to the hotel as it was a very pleasant evening, I should have got the streetcar or a bus as I ended up completely lost and the GPS on my phone decided it didn't want to work anymore. It took me a bit longer to get back then I thought but I did get to see some of the back streets of the city with nobody else around and look at the Christmas lights on Market Street, I had to ring the buzzer when I got back to the hotel as they lock the door night if there is only one person on behind the desk to keep the odd people out that are around that area, I did find out later on that you could use your room key card to open the door but that didn't occur to me after I'd had a few beers. Time for bed then, we weren't going to do much the following day to give Jane a chance to recover plus I was starting to get a bit worn out as well now so it was time to take a day off as we hadn't really stopped since we got here, it all starts to catch with you after a bit, you don't notice it at first but going out nearly all day every day really wears you out after a while.

Ghirardelli Square

We didn't wake up this morning till about 10:30 and Jane was not feeling well at all which probably had something to do with the Chinese bloke coughing and spluttering all over the bus the day before when we went through Chinatown but she kept on going as long as she could, we had planned on going to Lombard Street which is the most crooked street in the world apparently but to get there we had to walk down into SOMA (that's south of market) to get the bus and by god does it turn into a shit hole very quickly. Luckily we didn't have that long to wait but when we got near the stop and looked up the side streets that we would have to walk up we had a change of plan, don't think Jane would have made it up there with her bad leg and it was debatable if I'd make it so we stayed on the bus to the end of the route and to Ghirardelli Square.

In 1893, Domingo Ghirardelli purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1960s, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company which moved the headquarters off-site to San Leandro and put the square up for sale. San Franciscan William M. Roth and his mother bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roth’s hired a landscape architect to convert the square and its historic brick structures to an integrated restaurant and retail complex, the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States. It opened in 1964. In 1965, Benjamin Thompson and Associates renovated the lower floor of the Clock Tower, keeping the existing architectural elements, while the lower floors of the Clock Tower are now home to Ghirardelli Square's main chocolate shop. After spending a couple of hours wandering around here and Aquatic Park Jane had had enough and was feeling even worst so it was time to jump back on a bus and head back to the hotel area. We dropped into the Walgreen’s pharmacy to get some medicine then I dropped her back off at the hotel so she could have a sleep for a bit. I think I even managed to get an hour myself as well.

I wasn't feeling that good myself so thought I would just have a potter about for the rest of the afternoon so jumped back on the number 19 bus again and climbed up the very steep street when I got off to Lombard Street. This street is world famous for being so steep, it has about ten hairpin bends in it and must drop about 300 foot in a very short distance, it is that steep it has steps down the side of it and fantastic views over the city. There are plenty of houses on this street even though the gardens are small they are all perfectly kept, the gardens for each house are in the bends of the road. After watching the cable cars go past the top of Lombard Street for a bit I walked down it towards Washington Square and picked up one of the cable cars from there back to Market Street, grabbed myself a sandwich from the shop, went in the Apple shop to play with the phones and computers then popped into the Johnny Foley's Irish pub just off Union Square for a couple of drinks, this bar was absolutely packed out but I eventually found somewhere to stand with my drink, even though it was so busy you only had to wait a couple of minutes to be served, by then I was done in so headed back to the hotel for an evening in front of the TV.

Golden Gate Bridge

As the saying goes, let's haul ass so today was going to be the highlight of the trip. We had pleasant stroll from the hotel through Union Square to Stockton Street then got on the number 30 bus into Chinatown which is nothing like you see on TV, it's a dump but had to get off there to go to the cable car museum as it was on the way. The bus can't make it the hills around there so it was a bit of a walk up some very steep roads to get there but thankfully it wasn't too far.

This place is a working museum as in the fact this is where all the cables are run from that pull the cable cars up and down the for routes that they run, this stuff has been going since the 1800's or so and most of the machinery is original, you can see all the wheels that go round that are powering the cable cars across the city then go underground, only downside to being in there is that it's in incredibly noisy with all the stuff going around.

When we came out of there it was time to eat something and quick, we were both starving by then, lunchtime now. As luck would have there was a Chinese sandwich or maybe it was Korean shop just across the road so we dived in there for a bit to eat. This place wasn't in any of the books I'd looked at and not on any of the websites so I'm glad we give it a try. Jane ordered two egg and cheese sandwiches but neither of us was prepared for what we got. The eggs were poached with the cheese melted over them and the bread was toasted, what an amazingly tasty sandwich plus they were large as well, all for $10 for the lot with a drink. We walked back down some very steep roads back into Chinatown to catch the first of two buses that would that would take us to the Golden Gate Bridge.

In a city that is full of buses the number 28 is the least reliable one that we used, 20 minute wait for it to turn up but as they have very good real-time information at the stop I left the Jane and the big queue there and walked down to the Safeway's shop just down the road that I had gone in the other day to get some bottles of cold drinks. I got some strange looks when I got back to the stop and there still stood there dying of thrust on a warm day and I'm loaded down with ice cold drinks and some snacks. It takes about 30 minutes to get there on this bus but some of that is taken up by the bus struggling to get through the car park and into the bus lane. It was fairly busy up there but what a sight it is to see with a clear blue sky. A few facts about it are, total length of the Golden Gate Bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet (2,737m), clearance above high water averages 220 feet (67 m) while its towers, at 746 feet (227m) above the water, were the world's tallest on a suspension bridge until 1998 when bridges in Denmark and Japan were completed. Even from the car park, you get some fantastic views but when you walk round to the main viewing area is really a truly stunning sight to see. With a couple of reasonably priced coffees in hand we had a sit down in the in the plaza on the south side then walked up onto the bridge itself. I didn't fancy walking all the way across it because it's one and a half mile walk then the same back so opted just to walk to the first of the two towers were you get a real feel for just how big it is, along with the spectacular views across all of San Francisco. We spent most of the afternoon up there just sitting around taking in the views and relaxing until it started to go dark then it was time to head back to the bus stop and join the big queue to get on the bus. The funny thing was the bus goes in two directions from the same stop and a lot of people got on the wrong one so we ended up near the front of the queue fairly quickly. The second bus was almost empty plus it runs right past the hotel door in a one-way loop so it was only a matter of crossing the road when we got off it and straight into the door.

Time to nod off for a bit now so I could go out for a swift drink later on, so that's just what I did. You've got to keep trying different pubs in the quest to find one you really like, the one I thought was good was called the Chieftain Irish Bar and it was only a short walk from the hotel. It was literally only five minutes to get there. They did have a bar next to the hotel but I tried that once and didn’t really like in there, don’t know what it was about the place that I didn’t like it just seemed not very friendly plus the drinks weren’t that cheap either. So now I had had my evening beers it was just a short stroll back across the road for a well-earned sleep. Today had been a good day with some fine weather for walking and taking photographs.

Aquarium & Coit Tower

Another full day was all planned out for us but with a lot less walking so we headed off out about 10:30 and got the streetcar F line to the Market Street Railway Museum. It sounds like a large place but it's really only small museum but we spent nearly an hour in there looking at the old photos taken around the city in years gone by and reading the history of the streetcars and cable cars, plus it was free to go in.

By the time we had come out of there, it was lunchtime so as it was only a short walk across the road to the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero, it was time to revisit the pie shop in there for lunch. It was a lot warmer today too so sat out the on the Bay, very pleasant indeed with a pie and a drink. The San Francisco Ferry Building is the main terminal for ferries that travel across the San Francisco Bay, and has a food hall, and also has offices. On top of the building is a 245-foot tall clock tower, with four clock dials, each 22 feet in diameter, which can be seen from Market Street, the main thoroughfare of the city. Designed by American architect A. Page Brown in the Beaux Arts style in 1892, the ferry building was completed in 1898. At its opening, it was the largest project undertaken in the city up to that time. Brown designed the clock tower after the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain, and the entire length of the building on both frontages is based on an arched arcade. With decreased use after bridges were constructed across the bay to carry railroad traffic, in the 1950s, the building was adapted for office use and its public spaces were broken up in an unsympathetic manner. In 2002, a restoration and renovation were undertaken to redevelop the entire complex. The 660-foot long Great Nave was restored, together with its height and materials. A marketplace was created for the ground floor, the former baggage handling area. The second and third floors were adapted for office and Port Commission use. During daylight, on every full and half-hour, the clock bell chimes portions of the Westminster Quarters. The ferry terminal is a designated San Francisco landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with that we hopped back on the F line for the short ride down to the Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39.

It must be twenty years since I last went to an aquarium so didn't really know what to expect but for $17 we thought we'd give it a try. It not a huge place but it was interesting walking through the glass tunnels on the lower level and seeing giant fish and sharks swimming over your head is enough to put you off swimming around there as everything in the aquarium was caught in the Bay or just off the west coast, it's frightening when you see the size of some of the monsters that are in there and could be out there with you while you a taking a dip. They also have what called a touch pool on the upper floor where you can stroke the manta rays as well but they were having their lunch at the time so we just had to make do with the starfish and sea urchins. They have a couple of otter's as well but they had nodded off in all the excitement. After spending about 2 hours in there we had seen everything, so we came out and had a sit down on the benches out the back on the upper level overlooking the marina, the Grand Princess Cruise ship was docked just a couple piers further up and you got a good view of it from here. I thought it would have taken longer get around the aquarium so had to do some quick thinking on where to go next that wasn't too far away so it was time for a walk around the upper level on Pier 39 and look in the gift shops at all the shiny things they had, by then it was about 2pm so grabbed a couple of bottles of drink and headed out of the pier to the bus stop just outside and caught the muni number 39 bus up to Coit Tower.

Coit Tower, also known as the Lillian Coit Memorial Tower, is a 210-foot (64 m) tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built in 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest to beautify the city, at her death in 1929 Coit left one-third of her estate to the city for civic beautification. The tower was proposed in 1931 as an appropriate use of Coit's gift. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 2008. The Art Deco tower, built of unpainted reinforced concrete, was designed by architects Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard, with fresco murals by 27 different on-site artists and their numerous assistants, plus two additional paintings installed after creation off-site. Although an apocryphal story claims that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle due to Coit's affinity with the San Francisco firefighters of the day, the resemblance is coincidental. Unfortunately, the tower was closed at the moment until spring 2014 for repairs but you get some spectacular views from the car park across three sides of the city, from the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay and finally Oakland. There's supposed to be a large flock of green parrots up there but I didn't see any. As the pathways are very steep round there I left Jane on a bench and went for a look round Pioneer park that surrounds the tower, from here you could see the Transamerica Pyramid and both parts of the Bay/Oakland Bridge, it was like every few feet you walked you got another amazing view of a different part of the city and with clear blue skies on a what was a very warm day it was idyllic up there. After taking lots of photographs it was time to go and collect Jane of the bench and get the bus back down again, that was a bit of a hair-raising ride I can tell you, I've never seen a bus go up or down hills that are so steep.

We ended back at pier 39 again about 20 minutes later then walked over to the F line street car stop where we ended up waiting about 15 minutes for one to turn up. As it was around 4:30 now, when it did arrive it was already packed even though it had only started from a few stops away, we both managed to squeeze on but after a few more stops it was starting to get a bit of a tight fit on there. There doesn't seem to be any limit on how many you can get on one of these things, they just keep packing them on till there is physically no more room to get on, only then is it full. Is a good job everybody seems to get off at the same place. So back to the hotel now to eat some freshly made sandwiches we got from the shop across the road from the hotel and then it was time for a bit of TV and a nap. I woke a couple of hours later and thought sod it I'll go out for a walk for a bit plus I needed to get some beer. I passed where the cable cars turn round and there was hardly anybody waiting so I decided to go and have another ride on one down to Fisherman's Wharf again and have a look at what is like a night down there, turns out it still looks like Blackpool even at night so got back on the next cable car back to Market Street and went in the pub for a swift couple of beers before going to booze shop.

Golden Gate Park & Ocean Beach

We didn't set of out till late morning today so it was going to be a rush if we wanted to go to the science museum but we ended up changing our plans for the day as Jane forgot to bring the credit card with her so we went to plan B, we got the N Judah tram down to the museum but as we didn't go in there was still plenty to see so we walked up to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park and had a stroll around there. The park is over three miles (4.8 km) long east to west, and about half a mile (0.8 km) north to south. With 13 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the fifth most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park in San Diego. The main attractions in the park are the Music Concourse Area, De Young Museum, Academy of Sciences, Japanese Tea Garden, Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, National AIDS Memorial Grove, Stow Lake / Strawberry Hill, Spreckels Lake / Model Boat Facility, Chain of Lakes, Kezar Stadium, Polo Fields, Windmills, Bison paddock and Beach Chalet Bar and Grill.

There was nowhere near enough time to get around even a few of these places and by now it was around 1:30 pm so thought sod it, we will go and get some lunch in the sunset district, I'd found a place while I was planning this holiday that I just had to try called jenny's burgers, not disappointed. This place is not part of a chain of burger joints like Macdonald's and they cook your burger how you want it. Really good prices here as well, I must say this is the best burger I've had ever, there are only about 6 seats inside but there was only one other person in there so it's not a problem. I can't remember how much it cost now for two

meals but they were less than $15 for  to two I think. With that done and no particular plan for the rest of the day, we hopped back on the N tram for a 15-minute ride down to Ocean Beach. The trams here are a bit strange when getting on and off in some places as they don't have any platforms, you just get off in the middle of the road so it's a good idea to check first that nothing is passing it or you could get flattened by a passing car or truck. The other thing is, as we got on in an underground part there is a level platform whereas when it goes out onto the streets the steps go down and they are fairly steep to get off.

At Ocean Beach it didn't look like there was much there but once you had crossed the road and walked up a bit, gone over some sand dunes you were on the most spectacular beach, Jane couldn't get on to it because her sticks would sink into the sand but it was still worth it just to see a beach this big with hardly anybody on it. Best of all there was no wind now and not a cloud in the sky, the sun was out and nearly sunset, such a peaceful place to be so we sat down there for a while, with that it was time to walk back to the tram stop to head back but at least when Jane got on there is a raised platform where they turn around then it moves up a bit and picks anyone else up from the normal stop. The strange thing is it seemed to get back a lot quicker than when we came, perhaps that's just me though.

So it was back to the hotel for a bit of rest before we went out for something to eat later on in Lori's Diner. I really liked this place as it's the all American retro dining experience, 50's style. They even have a car inside the restaurant and the waitresses are dressed in 50's style with the beehive hair do's. We both had the chicken and chips that came with the biggest tub of coleslaw I'd seen outside of a supermarket. I got a bottle of beer to wash it done with but they don't give you a glass, you just drink out of the bottle in there, just my sort of thing. It was good value as well at around $30 including tax and a tip. With us now fed and watered we had a walk back through Union Square then Jane went back to the hotel but I needed to go and get some beer and have a look in the Westfield shopping center. This is another odd place to go, it's big but not wide or long but it has about seven or eight floors to it so it's sort of a vertical shopping experience but you do get a good view when you look down through the central part all the way to the bottom which is about 150 foot below. With that done it was time to grab some tins of beer and head back to recharge my old bones for tomorrow.

Marina District

After a lazy morning in bed, it was time to get up and go out for a stroll around the shops, watch the cable cars turn round then walked up the hill to Union Square to look at the Macy's Christmas tree and ice rink. Macy's always put on a good show with their Christmas tree but the ice rink was nowhere as big as the one in New York at the Rockefeller center but there were still lots of people waiting to skate and very busy in general around there.

With that done we walked into Stockton Street to catch the number 30 trolley bus to The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District, this is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. We really enjoyed walking around here, fascinating to see such a grand structure set by the lake with no litter anywhere and defiantly no graffiti on any part of it, the weather could have been a bit warmer and not a very sunny on this particular day so we spent an hour or two here then took a short walk across the road to The Beach Hut Café & snack bar for a well-earned cup of coffee and a snack. It's a bit of an odd place this one, they're not much else around here in the way of getting food and drink and even though there were plenty of people about there was only one other person in there, it was just nice to have a sit down in the warm.

Time to be on the move again now so we headed out of here and onto Golden Gate Promenade were you get some classic views of the Golden Gate Bridge to the west across Crissy Fields complete with cloud covering the tops of the pillars, to the east across the Bay you can see Alcatraz glowing in the afternoon sun that had come out now. We spent a while here watching the hummingbirds in the trees for a bit, fascinating to watch if you've never seen one before. As time was starting to get on we decided to head east and back towards Fisherman's Wharf, it turned out to be a lot further than I thought it was to walk it but we did come across the local Safeway supermarket to stock up on some snacks. After a walk up a steep hill, we came across Aquatic Park which looks like a lido without the pool but a beach and sea instead all in an Art Deco style. You can still see the old tram lines that run in front of it and then into a tunnel to Fort Mason. We were both starting to get tired and hungry now so it was only a short walk to Fisherman's Wharf and Hyde Street Pier where there is plenty to eat and drink. We didn't spend much time on Hyde Street Pier, not really into maritime history but the boats were OK to look at but wouldn't pay to go on them. Fisherman's Wharf reminded me a lot of Blackpool the only difference was that the police had guns. It runs for about a quarter of a mile along the seafront and is a bit brash but we were hungry so it was time to find somewhere to eat.

Most of the places along here are seafood restaurants and we are not into seafood but we did come across a place called Cioppino's Italian restaurant, I was a bit dubious about going in at first as this was a big restaurant but hardly anyone was in there which makes me wonder why but I'm glad we took the chance. It wasn't the cheapest place to eat but the food was nice, we ended up sharing a pizza for one between us which was more than enough for us both. I still find it strange asking for one meal to share in a restaurant but no one seems to mind over there given that the portion sizes are so big normally. With a bill of just under $20 for a pizza, beer, and coke it wasn't too bad considering the area were in.

Now we had been fed and watered it was time to start thinking about heading back towards the hotel as we were a fair old distance from it now. The easiest and quickest way to get back was on the Hyde, Powell & Market cable car which turns around from where we were. There always a queue to get on these things but it's something you just have to do if your here, turns out we didn't have to wait that long in the end with only a twenty-minute wait. It was a bit of a struggle for Jane to get on as the steps are so high but she managed to do it in the end. The cable cars don't travel that fast up or downhill but it feels like they are going a lot quicker than they are plus when you see how steep the hills are that they travel up, it feels like a slow roller-coaster. It really is something to be on one of these and hear the bell ringing and the clatter of the leavers, brakes, track and the like. It was about a twenty-minute ride to the Powell & Market Street stop which was very close to our hotel, so after a bit of effort from Jane to get off this thing which seemed harder than getting on, it was now late evening so we called it a day.

Embarcadero walk

First port of call the next morning was to get the bus passes to get us around, not a bad price at $28 each so we dodged the beggars and made our way down into the hole in the ground where the tourist information center is to buy them, after that it was back up to Powell Street for our first ride on one of the old streetcars down to the Embarcadero to look at The Bay bridge.

What an amazing sight this is to see you really, couldn't imagine how big this bridge is not to mention that you can only see half of it, the other half is on the other side of a man-made island and only visible from further up the Bay. After spending some time taking photographs of the bridge we walked back along the Embarcadero passing Rincon park where there are a giant bow and arrow half buried the green, I think it's some sort of artwork or something, still, it's impressive to look at none the less. After that it was only a short walk to the Ferry Building that has lots of small shops and coffee bars in where we got the most wonderfully tasty hot chicken and mushroom pies then sat out the back in the public seating area to eat them, defiantly worth the $7 each that they cost. It wasn't the warmest of days so we decided to head on back across the road and a bit further up toward Pier 39. So we hopped on the F line streetcar for the 15-minute ride down to the pier.

What a difference in temperature a couple of miles made it must have been at least 10 degrees warmer down this part of the Bay with no wind at all. Pier 39 is the main touristy part of this area with all the fun things that go with it. It's sort of a mixture of boardwalk and pier; jam-packed with shops of all kinds. The biggest attraction here is the sea lions, you can smell them from a fair old distance away and when you get right near them they don't half make a hell of a noise, but they are funny to watch, plus they draw a very large crowd most of the time. The sea lions camped out in PIER 39′s West Marina have been endearingly coined The Pier's “Sea Lebrities.” The boisterous pinnipeds started arriving in droves in January 1990, shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. At first, they numbered from 10-50, but due to a plentiful herring supply, available dock space and the marina’s protected environment, the population grew to more than 300 within a few months. Each winter, the population can increase up to 900 sea lions, most of which are male. During the summer months, the sea lions migrate south to the Channel Islands for the breeding season, but in recent years a small group stays year-round at PIER 39′s K-Dock. We spent a couple of hours wandering around here buying some knickknacks to take home and taking in the sea air on what was now a lovely day, it had even gone warm enough now to take your coat off so we sat at the end of the pier where you get a good view of Alcatraz.

With that we decided to call it a day and head back to the F line to catch the streetcar back towards the hotel, it had been a good day but we were both still a bit tired from the flight the day before. There was a bit of a wait to get back and I think everyone else had the same idea as the streetcar was packed and it had only come a few stops from the start of the route but we got a seat, in the end, I really don’t know how many people you can fit on one of these things but there wasn’t much room after a few more stops.

At least the stop where we got off was only a short walk from the hotel, with that it was time to get something to eat from the shop and take it back to the hotel to eat as we didn't fancy dining out tonight. So after a laydown and a bit to eat I thought I'd go out and have look at Yerba Buena gardens a couple of blocks down the road that has a big waterfall in it that is lit up at night, it was defiantly worth the walk down there. Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 1993. The second block, between Howard and Folsom Streets, was opened in 1998, with a dedication to Martin Luther King, Jr. by Mayor Willie Brown. A pedestrian bridge over Howard Street connects the two blocks, sitting on top of part of the Moscone Center convention center. The Yerba Buena Gardens are owned by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. After that, it was off to The Chieftain Irish pub to sample some of the local ale.

It wasn't a bad pub but it was very busy on this night but they did have about seven IPA ales on draught so I had to sample of them as it would have been rude not to. Unfortunately, this pub closes at 10 pm so walked about a block to the off license around the corner to get some tins of beer. A short stroll back to the hotel then to watch a bit of TV for an hour or so than a nice comfy bed to curl up in, even the sirens from the fire trucks that seemed to go past every few minutes couldn't keep me awake to tonight.h