(Belated) Halloween Holiday Throwback Part 1: Exploring San Francisco

Welcome back folks, and a belated Happy Halloween! For this blog post, I have decided to mix things up a bit and try something new. For my (late) Halloween Holiday Throwback, I've decided to add a spooky twist! For this adventure, I'll be splitting it into 2 separate blog posts with each blog post covering one of the two weeks I spent away. These blogs will be a holiday throwback to my trip to California which has been my favourite holiday I've been on and I cannot wait to go back. In order to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, we made sure to pack as much sightseeing and different activities into our busy schedule. These included visiting San Francisco, Yosemite, the Golden Gate Bridge, Lake Tahoe, Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods and a trip to Oracle Park, home to the San Francisco Giants.

San Francisco

For the first week of our trip, we stayed in a lovely apartment in San Francisco that was reportedly worth over $1 million! Despite staying in an apartment that I can only dream of affording one day, we used this week to explore the city and do a lot of sightseeing (even if I wanted to stay in the king-sized bed all day and drown myself in American junk food). On the first day, we headed downtown into the city and spent a lot of time exploring the financial district of San Francisco. With a number of impressive high-rise towers and skyscrapers that contain multiple Fortune 500 companies, the most impressive piece of architecture was actually Salesforce Park. Salesforce Park is a public space that has been elevated off the ground to create a rooftop garden that is home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants. This garden offers a break from the walls of skyscrapers and office blocks and allows people to sit out and enjoy the scenery while in the middle of the city.

Golden Gate Bridge

During the week, we ventured across the city to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. This iconic landmark is one of the most popular tourist attractions in not only San Francisco but the whole of the United States. Its iconic orange/red colour has made this bridge widely recognisable and as a result, this bridge has been featured in over a dozen movies and TV shows. Unofficially, it holds the record for the most amount of times a landmark has been destroyed in film and has become almost an ironic joke among filmmakers as despite being 87 years old, the Golden Gate Bridge has never even come close to collapsing.

Oracle Park

Despite being an avid fan of many different sports, baseball was never one I took an interest in. Despite this, when given the opportunity to go see a live game, I couldn't possibly say no. Our seats were located in one of the top rows of the stands which some people might've been disappointed with as it's quite far away. However, I couldn't have asked for better seats as I spent the whole journey to the stadium worrying that I'd be hit in the face with a baseball! Unfortunately for the San Francisco Giants, I wasn't a good luck charm as they ended up losing the match however it was very entertaining and I would love to go back and watch another.

Alcatraz

Finally, we took a ferry ride across to Alcatraz Island, home of the maximum security prison that housed inmates from 1934 to 1963. Some of the most well-known prisoners that were locked away here included Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert Stroud "The Birdman of Alcatraz". The self-guided audio tour allows you to walk around the prison and see what life was like for those locked away there. After visiting the prison and taking a look around, I certainly wouldn't want to spend a night in one of those cells, even if you gave me a $1 million apartment in San Francisco!

Alcatraz - visitcalifornia.com

That brings us to the end of part 1 in California, I had a brilliant time and I cannot wait to go back. Part 2 will be on the 2nd week of the trip where I explored the likes of Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Muir Woods. 

Thanks for reading folks, all the best!