San Francisco

What do tourists do in San Francisco?

You start with alcatraz...


Then go and see the sea lions...



You take a picture of the golden gate bridge...


You have lunch at Boudin's with chowder in a sour dough bowl...


You get a snack in china town...




You go to the beach and take another picture of the golden gate bridge...


You punch your friend...


They punch you back...


You walk up and down hills...



You admire the locals parking abilities...


You take a break in your fabulous hotel...




You switch hotels...




You stroll along the waterfront and watch the old streetcars go by...





You climb telegraph hill and visit the local parrots...



You admire the view...see the crooked street?


You walk down the hill towards the crooked street...admiring the pretty houses along the way...


You join the hoards of people taking pictures of the crooked street...



You look back and marvel at how much walking you've just done...(the white tower is telegraph hill)


You visit the cable car museum...

...and watch the cable cars go by...


Then you sit down for a rest, enjoy the view and look for sea lions playing in the harbour.

Monterey Aquarium

Monterey is a few hours from San Francisco - a few hours in no traffic, more than a few hours if you happen to be in rush hour.

The Kelp forest is the truly unique attraction here, they pump in water from the bay into the kelp forest and then the water flows out of the forest into other exhibits. The kelp forest also requires a ton of attention as it grows about 6" a day.

Kelp Forest from above (behind the scenes tour):



Kelp Forest from below:




Pretty Aquarium Shots:

Sunny Seattle and Mount Rainier

Mountain Views






Pretty Flowers



Snow! in July?

Mount Rainier has a few places to visit: Sunrise and Paradise
Technically some of the roads don't open until July, we didn't do our research properly but luckily the road to Sunrise opened 2 days before we showed up. Ironically Paradise had more snow than Sunrise, but be warned if you want to go hiking bring walking sticks and something better than running shoes or you won't be getting very far...

Wheelchair accessible?




City Views







Spooky Underground

So...long story short...Seattle was built on a beach. After it burned to the ground the planners decided to rebuild it a bit higher so they could bury things like water and sewer pipes. Unfortunately doing something on that scale takes time and the local townsfolk didn't want to wait. The compromise: everyone rebuilds and adds an extra level to their building, the town then comes and builds a road that just happens to be 8 to 35ft above the sidewalk level. After a few years they figure that having the sidewalk and road at different levels is a bad idea so they cover over the sidewalks and voila! spooky underground city.

Skylights



Flying Fish!
If you're lucky you might see some salmon flying through the air in the market (sorry wasn't quick enough with the camera). If you aren't in the mood for salmon there is a lot of other yummy stuff for sale.


Pike Place Chowder - not far from the market, really tasty stuff. Highly recommend the clam and scallop chowders, but if you can't make up your mind you can always have a sampler.


Happy Hour and Oysters
Everyone in Seattle has happy hour - which means cheap seafood and booze between 3 and 6pm every day! (well mostly monday to friday but that's still pretty good)
Elliott's is a great place to go with 50cent oysters starting at 3pm, even Shuckers at the Fairmont has a good deal of oysters for a buck!


Of course Happy hour is much more than oysters...



Parting Shot - on to San Francisco!