Rod, who was hanging off the side of the Cable Car, took this photo of a street in San Fransisco's Chinatown district. The Golden Gate Bridge is out of view further to the left of the photo.

From Fisherman's Wharf you get a great view of Alcatraz. Tours to Alcatraz are so popular that you need to book a day in advance!! We didn't, but next time, look out for some photos of 'the inside'...

This is also at Fisherman's Wharf, you can take scenic tours by horse and carriage (we didn't but maybe next time says Karen).

We had a return ticket for the Cable Car but decided that a $5/each LIMO ride was much more stylish way to travel. Picture taken as proof!! People were walking by trying to gawk inside in case any famous bods were in here...oh well, just those white-legged tourists from NZ. For the fare we also got a short guided tour.

We went to the Winchester 'Mystery' House in San Jose. 20,000 square feet of house, 160 rooms (50 unfinished) and the smallest stairs you have ever seen! It was built onto an 8-room farm house and building went on for 38 years - 24/7 - being remodeled about 600 times. Sarah Winchester was a superstitious woman who was VERY VERY rich...!

Here is a staircase that leads to the ceiling, one of the many oddities in the house, others include doors that open onto brick walls and windows in really odd places. She was also obsessed with the number 13 so almost everything comes in that many, eg windows or coat-hooks in a room. There is even a room that has ONE entry and THREE exits.

Speaking of windows, these were the feature that impressed me most about the entire house, here is a collection of windows that are priceless today, and cost megabucks even back then in the late 19th century.

An example of one of the bedrooms, with period furniture. The owner's heiress hocked off most of the furniture so these pieces aren't original but are from the same (Victorian) period. The furniture, when removed from the house for sale, took 8 trucks working 24/7 for 6 weeks to empty the house! Of course, trucks were somewhat smaller back in the 1920's...

This beautiful window is the most expensive in the entire house, it cost $1500 to make back in the late 19th century. You can multiply that by 100 to give some estimation of its making cost today. The green wall covering is made of pressed wood-pulp and today goes for about $500 (US) per square foot...

This is a view into one of the courtyards. It was taken through mesh screens which were over most of the windows.

Another example of the amazing windows in the house, this was in 'The Daisy Bedroom'.

Another set of similar windows in the same room, one that had only recently been added to the tour we took. Unfortunately you couldn't get any closer, would have been nice to get one looking straight on to it. The windows really were very beautiful! Other than that the rooms in the house were generally kind of pokey and all the staircases/hallways were only wide enough for one person at a time. Still, the owner was a towering 4' tall so I suppose that had some bearing on it... !!!!

This weekend we went to Six Flags Marine World with Mr Tim McCarthy and his family, Tim is a work collage. This is the front door sign for the marine park. The cost to enter the park is about $44US per person but after that all the rides and shows are free. You can often get discount vouchers we used a $10 per person discount voucher show we paid about $34US each... It was a scorcher of a day and got up to about 37 degrees C (and there was no air-conditioning there either...!)!

The first show we went to was call Ski Extreme. This was one of the opening Acts. Of course, it was accompanied by gobs of 'God Bless America' music.

I guess this is why they call it Extreme I've never seen this done on a jet ski. This guy did a hand stand on his jet ski after launching it in the air. He was from Australia that says it all...

This photo and the next two were a very graceful display, on a ski with a swivel foot mount thingy. Apparently it's a lot harder than it looks!

This was the same lass doing more graceful maneuvers and wowing the crowd...

The second lass did pretty well too, we managed to get a photo that looks like an almost-wipeout (but it wasn't really!)

The finale display in Ski Extreme! This was VERY impressive, we had not seen this done 'live' before and you got to see them make and unmake the pyramid.

The next show we saw was a seal show done in the style of Gilligan's Island, quite funny and the seals were amazing. The obligatory seal-balancing-a-ball photo...