Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: Redwoods and train ride

I woke up with fright and thought three things - What time was it? Should we be packed by now? WHEN WAS THE BUS GOING?? Seems I don’t back up as good as i did when I was on 21 on Contiki! A strong cup of coffee and some streaky bacon later I was feeling at least functional. Our family was the last on the bus that day but as our track record was pretty good after our first mistake it didn’t really matter (well to me anyway) Anna and Miguel had taken the position of late family for most of the trip so they would have been glad they weren’t last that day.

I have to mention that I haven’t felt hungry once in about 3 weeks - that is disgusting. I think, I’ll just have a big breakfast and skip lunch and then we are somewhere with the BEST lunch so I’ll eat that...and so on and so on and so on. There is just so much fresh and amazing food wherever we go that you just have to try it! Even though i have walked and walked and walked, I’ll be straight on a diet when we get home and I’m VERY glad i had my gallbladder out before the trip!

Our last day of the tour was a trip to see the California Redwoods. These trees can grow 100ft high and are just so amazing - some of the trees date back BC. We walked to the start of the forest path and there was a sign about mountain lions - rare but still had to be cautious.....the kids kept close the whole time! A steam train then took us further into the forest which of course we all loved but Will especially. I hadn’t told him about the train trip so he was super excited.

On our way into San Francisco there was a small traffic jam - we soon saw why - dozens of police cars had surrounded a building, cops were everywhere. We googled the buildings’ name from the bus and found out that there had just been a shooting - two women killed and then shooter ran out of ammo and handed himself in. It’s scary when you here something like that but (apart from the mountain lions and bears) it was the first time I’d felt a little nervous here.

The tour came to an end and we had to say goodbye - half of the tour were dropped at the airport and the rest back to the hotel. Pat and her granddaughter Alexandria were shedding a tear - we had all had such a great time! All the kids exchanged email addresses. Now even though our guide Patrice did warm to me (a little) I’d never seen her so happy than when she waved us goodbye!

Back at the hotel, we ended up planning drinks with the couple from Melbourne, Geoff and Ruth. They were the couple that lent us the adapter. They did end up telling me on the last night I could keep it but we were lucky enough that when we got back to the hotel the adapter was there for us! To thank Geoff and Ruth we took them up to the Regency Club overlooking San Francisco Bay and bought them a few drinks. We have loved the Hyatt - and they probably loved us - tipping them well after a few drinks. I would highly recommend the hotel, by the last day we were familiar with a lot of the staff.

Our family then headed around to Perry’s for one last dinner there - I just had to have the Buffalo Wings one more time. Our waitress recognised us and remembered that I had loved the wings and how i hadn’t tasted that taste in 16 years. Our waiter gave me a copy of the recipe with their secret ingredient at the end of the night! Woo hoo!!

We were leaving San Francisco after that last night and we just loved our time there. The only thing was we did see a lot of homeless people which is confronting and sad. There was one young girl in particular that i have been thinking about. They all have their signs out the front of their cup asking for money. One guy’s sign read, ‘Why lie - I am going to buy beer’.

Goodbye San Francisco - watch out LA, the Marlboroughs are coming.