Day 361 – 365: SanFrancisco and home

We were staying is a budget place called Broadway Manor. (Curtesy of a discount voucher book, we could stay very reasonably in motels in California), which was about 20min walk from Union Square and adjacent to loads of good cafes and bars.

The first thing we had to do in San Francisco was to buy Gem and engagement ring, so for the whole of Wednesday we went round all the jewelry shops. There are a lot of very swanky shops in downtown San Fran but we managed not to get too distracted by the shiny things in Tiffany’s. By 5 o’clock, after a consultation pint in an Irish bar, we had decided on the one we wanted and went back to get it. Of course it was a totally different design that what we had set out expecting to buy but we both thought it was perfect (I guess we are a bit more traditional than we would like to admit!). Unfortunately it needed setting and resizing, so we wouldn’t be able to pick it up until Friday evening

Anyway, while we were waiting, we still managed to have a good time in San Francisco. The beautiful winter sun had gone into hiding and we were beginning to feel the cold – god know how we were going to cope back home (not well, we have since discovered, Brrrr!).

We didn’t do all the toursity things there is to do, but had a fairly good crack at it considering it was the final destination of our trip. We took a tram ride, wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf, took the Alcatraz tour and ate loads of really good mexican food (and just loads of food in general).

After our Alcatraz tour on Friday we went to the Jewelery shop to pick up Gem’s engagement ring, which was very exciting indeed, so we had to go out for a few drinks and a nice meal to celebrate.

On Saturday, we had planned to go into Chinatown and have Dim Sum for brunch. It turned out, by shere coincidence to be Chinese New Year so they had all sorts of crazy stalls and celebrations going on and there was a parade in the evening. The parade was great; of course, there was dragons, dancers and fire crackers, which all good Chinese parades should have but everyone else seemed to get it on it – all the politicians had their own drive past; Senator, Congressman, Mayor, Attorney General, School’s Board, Firemen even the Binmen were there. We gave up after an hour and a half but they were still coming strong!

So Sunday was the very last day of our trip. Although we were quite exciting about seeing everybody back home, we really didn’t want it to end. A couple of months ago I thought I would be just about ready but the closer we got to the end, the more I wanted to just carry on (or stay in the Cook Islands). Anyway, we had a fab trip and no regrets so we came home to bore everybody with our photos and endless stories…

And to tell them our exciting news!