First stop...San Francisco

First stop...San Francisco. After our 12 hour flight (I reckon I got about 3 hours sleep and James at least 7...) we arrived at 12.30pm-ish and decided to adjust to the time straight away, I've heard it helps and haven't collapsed yet!. We were greeted by our friendly beefeater at our quaint hotel, the Sir Francis Drake, and we even managed to get a room upgrade...must have been the kiwi accents ;) We wandered down to the water and after checking out a few of the wharfs and Pier 39, we made our way back UP and DOWN the hills to our hotel and nearly got blown away! No one mentioned how windy San Fran gets!

Thursday morning we hopped on the 'hop on hop off' and did a quick tour of Golden Gate Park where James begrudgingly walked through the California Science museum with me which is more for the kids, however seeing as James calls me a little kid it seems quite appropriate that I really enjoyed myself!

We also got to check out Haight Ashbury (think 'Full House') & snapped a pic of the famour painted ladies.

Thursday arvo we headed to Alcatraz...spoooky.....ok not so much but the audio tour was pretty cool and seeing the place makes you realise how Alcatraz got it's reputation, i.e. it's a sh*t hole of a place!

After a late start on Friday (I may have had a drink or two too many on Thursday night...however the place we went too, 'Park Tavern' owned by a kiwi girl was really swanky!) we set off a mission to conquer the Golden Gate Bridge by bike. Apart from the fact that the bridge can get pretty packed at times (one lady yelled at me "you're on the wrong side of the path!!!" ....whatever it's not the wrong side where I come from lady!) it is a spectacular bike and one I would definitely recommend. We biked over to Saulsalito, a quaint and historic township on the other side of the bridge and indulged ourselves with pizza, taffy and 'Lapperts Ice Cream'. I definitely deserved those two scoops of cookie dough! After a bit of coaxing, James convinced me that it was a good idea to bike back over the bridge to union square and I guess it was lucky we did because the fog had cleared and we got some nice cheesy pics :)

Saturday was the Fillmore Jazz Festival so we wandered the streets and listened to a dance jazz band called the Cosmo Alleycats while dining on some of San Fran's finest :)

We headed down to Fishermans wharf and Ghirardelli Square on Saturday arvo to finish off the trip and enjoyed some delicious sourdough Boudin bread. YUM! All in all I think I can sum up our trip with this pic...

Happy Flying :)

Back home in New Zealand...what a busy last few days! Friday night James and I both had farewell drinks at work, mine reasonably tame but James was paying for his night out on Saturday morning...all part of the journey thou :) Saturday and Sunday were spent cleaning the flat from head to toe, and man that was a FULL TIME JOB! We managed to get the flat looking pretty schmick, slightly regretting not hiring cleaners thou after the state of my poor hands on Sunday night!! Alarm went off just after 4am on Monday morning (James I'm still questioning why you booked such a early flight!!) In the taxi by 5am with our 8 massive suitcases between us (plus waaaaaaaaaaay to much hand luggage!! This pic is just James's luggage!!

Seeing as James was using up his frequent flyer points (by booking business to chch) he was able to get me into the Qantas lounge as well. Such a nice way to travel!! The Qantas lounge lady was asking us about our trip and upon finding out we were moving countries (and leaving each other for a couple of weeks) she decided we needed a champagne to celebrate...but it wasn't just any champagne, we enjoyed a glass of Bollinger at 6.30 in the morning!! Now the standard of flying is so high it will be interesting to see how the rest match up!! Happy Flying :)

Changing Address

Second to last day at work and only 4 more nights until we fly back to New Zealand! I am TOTALLY excited but also TOTALLY exhausted. It turns out moving is a lot more involved than I first thought!! Packing is going ok, I've somehow managed to pack - correction 'stuff' - the last 5 and a half years into about 4 suitcases. I even bought some of those nifty space saver packing things where you vacuum all the air out of  the bag, who knew such things existed!
Anyway the real time consumer is all the stores I've become a member of and all the clubs, banks, etc etc I've joined over the years...everything from Witchery to Myer to Woolworths somehow sends me things in the post!! I can hear James now...'Katie it's your fault that you're such a shopaholic'...Ok I'm not going to lie, I have been partial to a spot of shopping here and there over the years. But I wonder if he thinks this will stop in America...has he not heard it's supposed to be the cheapest shopping in the world!! NYC here I come!!

How not to book a hotel

First stop San Francisco...alcatraz..golden gates...fishermans wharf...cable car....finding a hotel, no problem! Actually big problem there are something like 250 hotels to choose from, then there's apartment rentals, hostels, b&bs, talk about overload. Then to decide how much to spend. What is a reasonable amount to spend per night? It's a dilemma between wanting to have a nice hotel and thinking about the fact that we'll probably be out exploring the city so won't get to enjoy the hotel anyway.
So I referred to tripadviser for ratings...straight away the top 50 or so hotels are out due to our budget...so onto hotel booking websites to check for specials....hotels.com; expedia.com.au; octopus.com; easytobook.com; agoda.com; hotelclub.com; webjet.com; olotels.com; webjet.com; you get the idea!

After spending an average of an hour per night for about a week browsing the sites, and coming up with a pretty similar price every time, I ended up going for a nice three star so we can enjoy the city without having to worry about coming back to a group of drunken backpackers every night....there will be plenty of time for that in Canada!

Couch Surfing

After a conversation with a beautiful girlfriend of mine, I have decided to join the couchsurfing network. For those of you not familiar with the idea, essentially people around the world offer anything from a coffee catch up to a room/bed/couch in their house. The idea really appealed to me because over the years James and I have hosted a number of friends (and friends of friends) and helped them settle into their new life in Sydney. Some people have stayed just a couple of nights but we had some friends who ended up staying for 2 months! 
Couchsurfers seems a strange concept at first...offering your home out to complete strangers or showing up at someones home you have never met, but there is a huge network of people out there who are not only proud of their city and want to help others enjoy it but there are so many amazing people who understand that staying in a home can make you feel much more settled in a place. I'm sure travelers out there would agree with me that after your 10th backpackers (don't get me wrong....I love backpacking and meeting people) you start craving simple things like a quiet night's sleep...or a kitchen you don't have to share with 20 other people. 
It also makes you feel like there are a network of people out there who are willing to reach out and share the love! I'll have to keep you updated but I'm looking forward to making some contacts so one day when we're settled back in New Zealand we will have made some friends who can one day visit us in the land of the long white cloud. x
For those of you want to know a bit more... www.couchsurfing.org

The town of Banff

It's FINALLY starting to feel real!

It's FINALLY starting to feel real. Visa's are submitted...although we're not sure if we're going to get them in time...but we can worry about that later. Flights are booked...San Fran first stop then onto Calgary for the 100th annual Stampede. Spoke to my (2nd, 3rd?) cousin Janice today, she was super lovely and has said we are welcome to stay with her and also her son while we are in Calgary which is amazing. It will be so good to get to know my family in Canada and find out where Pop is from. James has heard back from the ranch just out of Calgary and they have said we are both welcome to come and stay and work with them. 
James always says I stress too much which is probably true and if I'm being honest I was pretty stressed about everything but it all seems to be falling into place and it's the best feeling! Like I said it's FINALLY starting to feel real!!