Day 28.

Our final stop! I can't believe how quick this has come round, it feels just like yesterday my mum and dad were dropping me off at the airport and now we're here and it's only a few days until I jet off completely on my own! As scary as it is, it's the most exciting feeling I've ever felt!

Our taxi dropped us off at SFO at about 7:45am, we didn't fly until 9am so we had plenty of time, after figuring out the self check in and checking our bags were decided on an obligatory airport Starbucks!

We didn't start boarding until 8:30am so we figured we'd walk over to the security gate at 8:30am and just walk straight on, well, they had a different plan. As we were stood in the security gate queue, we heard an announcement 'FINAL BOARDING CALL FOR GATE 56A'... What!? We have loads of time yet!? Apparently San Francisco airport is super punctual! SHIT! We could do nothing but wait in the queue until we got through, luckily we both sailed through. We then ran (in true American film style) through the airport to our gate, the woman waved us over in a 'get a move on' fashion. Bitch please, what do you think I'm doing!? Thankfully the rest of the flight went very smooth, it actually only ended up taking us 50 minutes! 

We'd landed in LA! As we flew in we could see the beaches and nice flat landscape, a nice change from San Francisco! I couldn't believe how easy LAX was to get out of though, compared to JFK where we spent 3 hours queuing to get out, LAX we literally just walked out, no gates, no security, nothing! We also saw a man with an Emmy! Like an actual Emmy award! As obnoxious as it was he was pretty cool just carrying it in his hand... We grabbed our luggage and walked out the doors into LA air.

We'd wimped out in New York and got a taxi in after such a long day, so LA we were going to prove it to ourselves we could master public transport to our hostel, well it almost worked!

We had to get a shuttle bus from the airport to the metro line, a metro train to a bus stop, a bus to another metro station then a metro to Hollywood. Now this was all pretty simple, with the help of a few police men we figured all this out. Now it was when we left the station it all went a bit pete tong... It was either left or right on Hollywood boulevard, we guessed left as the map didn't really show much. Well it was wrong, with a huge backpack and 2 smaller backpacks, jeans and a mid day LA sun, it was a terrible mistake to make. Fliss asked for directions in a shop who told us, it was a few blocks the other direction. Great.

You know the saying 'everyone drives in LA' well they say that because they do! It was certainly not a few blocks, it was about a 40 minute walk! The worst of it was, even once we made it to fairfax ave. we needed to be at 603, well we were at 1600. That's 10 blocks down... And LA blocks are not New York blocks. New York blocks you can walk, LA blocks go on forever! In total with 3 bags all hooked onto me, it took us 2 hours to walk all the way to the hostel! Why do we insist on being able to walk everywhere!? When will we learn!?

We both collapsed on our beds. Immediately regretting not booking another hotel, it wasn't that it was bad, just it would of been nice to have a private room after being so used to it on the trip!! But I got to get used to this!!

No rest for the wicked! After a quick 5 minutes we were back on our feet and out the door. Beach. The beach has to be our first stop in LA especially after this morning! We hopped on a bus marked Santa Monica and watched LA pass out the window. The bus went straight down Santa Monica Boulevard, we passed so many places that were just adding to our LA list. We even passed PUMP bar which is Lisa Vanderpump's bar which I desperately wanted to go to and a little further up we passed the infamous Beverly Hills sign and caught a glimpse of Rodeo. I could smell the money!! Our bus finally stopped off at the beach - oh what a beautiful place! I've missed the beach so much! Deserts may have sand but it's definitely not the same!!

I'd been nominated for a bloody ALS challenge by Tom so I figured while I was here, what better place to do it than on the beach!? Now, surprisingly Santa Monica doesn't have many beach shops. Don't think it's that kind of beach town... So I had to improvise, where would I get a load of water?..... On a beach?.... OF COURSE! So instead of using a bucket of water I'd just run head first in the waves! (Video on my Instagram: jlowther)

After getting thoroughly drenched I had to warm back up and dry off so I baked in the late afternoon sun for a while until we decided we were hungry. Now, it's too tempting seeing those life guards sitting up on their towers to not go over and speak to them, so we did! We had a craving for sea food, whether that was because we hadn't had it in so longer or just because I had a mouth full of salt water, so we asked for recommendations thinking they would have loads by the beach, what does he recommend? A Mexican? Seriously! I've eaten enough Mexican on this trip to last me a lifetime!! We could see Bubba Gump from where we were and I'd heard it was good so we made our way over to it.

WELL, what a place! The restaurant was sat on the famous pier, it overlooked the entire beach and had to cutest waiters ever! I swear LA is a fictitious place, nothing is this good!? Our server was Brad (how American, especially when Chad is fliss's tattoo) and he was delicious, he started talking about cocktails and we ended up ordering the first 2 he said! We then ordered Shrimp Mac'N'Cheese, a Grilled Trio of mahi mahi, prawns and prawn skewers with a side Caesar salad - WOW! Such a good meal!!

As we finished our meal the sun was just beginning to set across the beach and was flooding the restaurant with orange light - selfie time!!

We finished our night with a walk along the pier and continued to watch the sunset, which, after all the sunsets in all the places I've seen this entire trip, Santa Monica Pier sunset tops them all! I've never seen a sky so pretty! The neon lights of the fairground rides on one side and the sunset on the other, LA was serving up a real good time considering it was our first day!

As we walked to the bus stop we couldn't help but eyeball all the restaurants scattered along the promenade. Then we saw it. I'd been waiting this whole month for a steak, then there in from of me was BOA, a fancy looking steakhouse! I love steaks and I love fancy places!! I was definitely coming back here for our last night in LA!

After spending what felt like an eternity on the bus (which everyone, including us, seemed to nod off to sleep on!?) we reached our hostel. Now it's been a really long day, we were up really early, flying, walking, beaching, eating! Surprisingly, if takes it out on you, so all I wanted to do was sleep. OH NO, not in this hostel! Full blown party going on right outside our door! Thanks to Linda, who has my back and got me well prepared, I have a bag full of earplugs ready and waiting for this moment! After that, slept like a baby!!

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Day 27.

Final day in San Francisco!

We were up mildly earlier than yesterday, we're still catching up on sleep! But we still had a full day ahead! We'd planned to go back to the apple store for a wire, get a tour bus for the day then Alcatraz on the afternoon! That was the plan...

We left the hotel and consulted my map! It was just a left another left and straight down, pretty simple. EXCEPT we had to walk through the Tenderloin district. Surely it wouldn't be bad during the day I thought, surely even crazies need sleep and being awake all night, they'd sleep all day, right? No.

It. Was. FULL of crazies! I haven't seen a city with such a large population of homeless, it's really sad actually. We walked past a food bank which had a queue right to the end of the street, people sleeping in doorways and people begging for money. It really made me think how amazingly lucky I am to be able to do this once in a life time trip and see the places I've always wanted to see and places I never thought I could see and there's people who are struggling for 1 meal... It didn't stop one guy owning the sidewalk, if you've ever heard of a THOT walk this guy was the queen of it (if you haven't, YouTube it!) I've never seen someone WERK a sidewalk like him, now I don't know whether he 'owned' it or not because he was walking up and down it like it depended on it and he was looking at practically every man passing!? But that's just my guess! At one point we thought he was coming over to us! We almost died!

After making it through Crazyville we reached the apple store, I didn't know iPhones automatically connected to their wifi!? Fliss bought a charger wire but her phone was dead, so I worked on a blog post while we waited for her phone to charge in the store. Well about 30-40 minutes later with a bit of battery we set way for Union Square. After speaking with one of the bus guys we figured we'd actually seen most of the landmarks from just walking around! The final thing was the painted ladies which is the row of coloured houses with the San Francisco skyline in the background. So we decided we wouldn't bother with the bus tour and instead, guess what!? WALK IT! Again, yet another mistake, honestly I'd like to say this is the last time, it's not.

Thankfully this walk was directly past Crazyville and through quite a nice residential area. We walked past the opera house and through an area filled with shops and restaurants. Thankfully only up 1 hill and we were there! Well, it's possibly the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. We'd had this iconic image in our heads of this landmark associated with San Francisco and I promise you, it could have been any row of houses in the entire city. They were opposite a large park and the park was surround by these types of houses, we even walked round the park because we weren't sure the houses we'd seen were even the right ones!? We took an obligatory picture anyway, but what a shame... Especially after walking it!!

We'd almost learnt our lesson when we decided to get a bus back as we had our Alcatraz ferry at 3:50pm but this was only 2pm so plenty of time, well guess what, we ended up walking!! Biggest mistake ever! Especially when hungry... We walked down a different street we'd come up and my eyes drew to it like a magnet - 'Gourmet Burger Bar' SOLD! We sat in the courtyard near a water fountain and ordered. Again we shared! We got a steak sandwich and a Cajun chicken burger. Holy lord they were sooo good! So good infact by the time we'd finished we realised we had about 15 minutes to get all the way to the pier!? SHIT! Why do we let our stomaches rule!? We'd just have to get a taxi we thought, not ideal but it's our own fault, and the food was so good it was worth it! After speaking to the waitress, who was so nice to us! She ordered us a taxi using Uber as it's so much cheaper - has anyone used it!? It's amazing! So quick and efficient!

We got to the pier literally on the minute of 3:50 we ran around the corner to see the ferry still there and no queues anywhere! I ran over as fliss ran to get the tickets. Well, as I ran over all I heard was the start of the engine... And I knew that was the last ferry because we'd booked the latest one we could, yep, we missed it.

We went back to the ticket office and asked if there was anything at all we could do but she said the only thing we could do is come back tomorrow, problem being we left for the airport at 7, so not really an option! We stood for a moment, DEVASTATED. It was the only thing we were really looking forward to in San Francisco and now we wouldn't be able to do it. The lady looked at us for a second then said '... Two minutes'. What was she going to do!? When she came back she explained that she is NOT allowed to do this, meanwhile changing our time on our tickets, but for us to enjoy our trip with a wink. She'd moved us onto the evening tour, which was the one we wanted originally! I WAS SO HAPPY!! Things are really working out in our favour on this trip! Usually by the skin of our teeth mind! It wasn't for a few hours so we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and explored the parts we hadn't seen. We also did a bit of retail therapy. Since fliss had been snapping up novelty t-shirts all over the place I felt I was missing out, so I bought a cute California Republic t-shirt. One because it was cute and two I realised I have nothing light in my bag, it's all dark!? Shock.

We headed back super early so we didn't miss it and waited for our 5:55pm ferry. Once it set off from the dock it took us around the island and docked on the other side of the island. We got off and were greeted by our guide. She led us up the hill (yes, another hill) while giving us information on the island. Apparently during earth quakes the island barely moves, even during a bad one they had years ago when people lived on the island, they woke up the morning after, looked across to the city and it was in ruin and they didn't have a clue! 

We picked up our audio tours as the whole tour was self guided. It walked your through the entire thing and was narrated by actual Alcatraz wardens and had interviews from some of the prisoners as well which I thought was so cool and appropriate for such a place. We walked through the shower room, the dining room, the library and all 4 cell blocks including the isolation block D. I got chance to go inside both types of cells and it's just something you couldn't imagine, especially when they would spent 24 hours a day in there apart from time to shower and 1 hour a week recreation time! We then saw the officers quarters, where their families lived on the island and finally the hospital, which was the creepiest part of the whole visit! It's a part of the tour which is only open on evening trips and I can see why!

We also learnt about infamous inmates such as Al Capone who stayed on the island until it's closure due to bad weather damage and expensive upkeep costs as the whole island had no sewage or running water! We also heard about the 14 separate jail break attempts over Alcatraz's time, there's actually still 5 men who have never been caught who were the only ones to ever escape.

After finishing the tour (which I would recommend to anyone visiting San Fran just book and don't miss your ferry!!) we walked back along to Fisherman Wharf where we were meeting up with a few people from the group for a meal for Julia's birthday! The food was so tasty! I tried my best with photos but it was very dark in the fancy restaurant so I struggled but take my word for it, it was delicious!!

(Clam chouder)

(Chocolate duet cake)

We then said our final goodbyes, we've said it so many times but this was for real this time and it was emotional for some! Luckily I'm 90% dead on the emotional side so it was nice to appreciate the time we'd had together and remember our experiences without getting upset, unfortunately Fliss and Julia felt different and the tears came flooding!!

After dinner, we walked along the Wharf to Becca's hotel, she told us she had a surprise for us!? A surprise!? For me!? I was so jealous, she was staying in this really nice hotel while we were staying in Crazyville, can I stay here with you!? What she'd got us were 2 G adventure t-shirts, I begged her for one at the start of the trip, as if she remembered!! Literally my favourite t-shirt! Thanks Becca!!

It was about midnight and neither of us had packed yet and we left for the airport at 7am, so we grabbed another Uber cab! And headed back, we shovelled all our crap into our bags and separated our laundry in a bid it'll jog our memory into doing it tomorrow!

So it's LA tomorrow for 4 days, our final stop in America together until I leave for Fiji and Aus! We've got a hectic schedule so will be a busy few days ahead of us!

See you in La La Land!

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