Australia Attempt #1

We planned for our trip to Australia for months.  We printed out confirmation papers on each flight and hotel, set up Australian visas for our stay, and booked multiple events in advance for each day of our trip.  A few hours before our flight to San Francisco, we got a call that the Philly to San Fran leg had been cancelled!  We frantically called the airline and tried to find another flight that would get us there in time to make the plane to Sydney.  An hour later, we got word that the issue had been taken care of and our flight to San Fran was all set.  Little did we know, this was just the beginning.  

 
We made it to San Francisco on time and made our way to the international terminal.  Once there, however, the lady behind the counter informed us that there had been a problem with Alex's visa and he could not go to Sydney!  We had the confirmation papers for the visa, but for some reason it was not going through!  She tried calling the Australian Embassy and made multiple attempts online, but it would not work.  Finally, after a near heart attack for me, the visa went through and Alex was cleared to go.  The only problem now was the terrible rule that the flight becomes restricted one hour prior to boarding. It was fifty-eight minutes prior to boarding at the time we finished with the visa business.  They would not let us go through to the flight because we were two minutes late due to a problem we could not have foreseen!!  

    

We were extremely upset.  The lady behind the counter rescheduled our flight for the next night and waived the crazy fees they normally charge because she felt bad for us.  We had left our phones in Philadelphia, thinking we wouldn't need them, and this created a whole other mess of problems. We had to make hotel reservations for the night in San Francisco and try to call over to Australia to cancel the events we were going to miss that were already paid for.  After much time spent on the pay phone at the airport and on the internet at our hotel's business lounge, we were able to move around a few of our reservations.  

 

Our trip to Australia did not start out the way we had planned, but we decided to make the most of it.  Our hotel had some brochures about different tours in the area so we woke up early and booked one.  Off to downtown San Francisco it was!

    

We took a hotel shuttle back to the airport in the morning and then hopped on the BART rail to get downtown.  Luckily, we did not bring a lot of luggage on our trip!  Once downtown, we got on a street car to take us to our tour departure location.

 

Street cars!

  

After we finally made it to our tour site, they informed us that the 11am tour we scheduled had been cancelled.  Just our luck.  There was another one leaving at 2pm that they could rebook us for.  It was going to cut it close, so they agreed to drop us off at the train station at the conclusion of the tour.  We rescheduled and hoped our luck would not get any worse.  In the meantime, we went on our own walking tour.  First site we could see- Alcatraz!

  

Alcatraz Island is behind us in these pictures.

 

We headed over to Boudin Bakery for lunch.  What is that in the background?

 

 A bread koala!  Not quite the type of koala we had intended to see, but it would do.

  

Amazing sourdough bread for lunch.

 

We walked through Fisherman's Wharf to go see my favorite little friends, the sea lions.

 

They were still as cute as I had remembered.

 

Pretty view with Coit Tower in the background!

  

We did a little California wine tasting.

  

Fisherman's Wharf

 

Ghirardelli Square

 

I just had to get a chocolate croissant in Ghirardelli Square.  

  

 We did finally go on our motor coach tour of San Francisco.  It was great!  We stopped at the San Fran City Hall.

  

 The inside was pretty.

  

Our bus drove up to Twin Peaks to give us an aerial view of the city.

 

It was windy and chilly!

  

Pacific ocean

 

We stopped at the Golden Gate Park to explore.  Last time I was here, my family and I went through the Japanese Tea Garden.  This time, I learned that the Japanese Tea Garden is where the fortune cookie was first invented!

 

Golden Gate Bridge!  After the tour, the bus dropped us off at the train station and we made it back to the airport with much time to spare before our flight to Sydney.  It ended up being a great first day of vacation after all :)