Garden Ramblings: Maree and Kate's visit...

On Sunday, July 31st, Peter's niece, Maree, and her friend Kate, arrived from New Zealand!

Maree is going to be doing an exchange semester at a university in Indiana and decided to take advantage of the trip to the US by spending some time in San Francisco and Anaheim. Her friend, Kate, took some holiday from work, and joined her.

The girls arrived about 10:30 am on Sunday, after a 13 hour flight from Auckland. They had not slept at all on the flight over, so they were looking a bit bleary-eyed when we met them at the airport.

They were staying in SF, at the Stratford Hotel, right at Union Square - an excellent location! Their rooms were not going to be ready until 3:00 pm so the hotel stowed their luggage for them. While waiting, we went for a walk around the area including China Town. We also went to Westfield Shopping Center, where we had a snack, and it was clear that some serious shopping was going to be done on their trip!

We got them into their room, and made plans to meet up on Tuesday morning for some sight-seeing by car. We drove down Lombard street, and then Maree and Kate walked down. Lee drove us down some steep street - don't know the name, but the road falls away from under the wheels when you start down! Very startling!!

We visited Coit Tower. Maree, Kate and I took the elevator to the top, which I had never done before. We had been blessed with a beautiful, clear day, and you could see forever from the tower. We were able to see Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and where they would be leaving on their Alcatraz tour on Wednesday.

After Coit Tower we drove along the marina and had a wander around the Palace of Fine Arts. It's such an amazing building! The swans were out and there were lots of turtles swimming and lying in the sun.

Next stop was Chrissy Field for a picnic lunch, and then a walk over to the bridge. We had lots of good photo opportunities, there. Then we drove up to the start of the Golden Gate Bridge, where they have the section of cable on display, and the walk across the bridge begins. There were lots and lots of walkers and bicycles on the bridge that day! As we were enjoying the beautiful weather, and watching the sailboats in the bay, we noticed some very different water craft out just beyond the Golden Gate, sailing in. So, we stayed to watch them come through, since they were so unusual. Maree recognized the New Zealand flag on one of them. More about them, later!

We drove across the Golden Gate bridge, through Sausalito, and then back to the parking area near the Maritime Museum, where they have 4 hours of free parking - quite unusual in San Francisco! This seems like the perfect time to mention that we had excellent parking karma that day! We quickly found a parking spot every where we went!

We walked into the Fisherman's Wharf area, saw where the cable cars end and begin and visited Ghiarradelli Square for a chocolate sample. And we introduced them to Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

We returned Maree and Kate to their hotel about 7:00, and made plans to pick them up on Thursday, bring them and their luggage here, and then head off to Santa Cruz. It was cold and foggy and drippy here on Thursday, so we had our fingers crossed that the weather would clear as we went south - and it did!!

We had a beautiful day in Santa Cruz - we camped out on the sand with a picnic lunch, and Maree and Kate rode lots of rides. We had dinner on the wharf that evening, then back home to do a load of wash before bedtime.

Friday morning was all go - we left here about 9:45 am to take Maree and Kate to the airport to catch their flight to Anaheim. They had a 5-day park-hopper pass to use, so they have been enjoying Disneyland and the nice warm weather that you get in So. Calif. this time of year.

We really enjoyed meeting Maree and Kate and spending time with them. We sure hope that they will come back and visit again, soon!