Day #9 - San Francisco

San Francisco had Jarrod Hayne, the great Quarterback Joe Montana, and the 49ers, Giants and Golden State Warriors. but this year's The Southport School's Business Study Tour has been in the past one of the best TSS Tours every offered…. The trip itself so far has been busy high paced and we have fitted a lot into the program. It has been a high packed tour so far and looking at my iPhone app that measure walking distance, we have covered over 94 km in seven days. A huge amount of load on the boys and staff, no wonder at nighttime they are exhausted. I might even returned to Australia fit and slim?

After a lovely breakfast, we all pilled onto a bus for a 2.5 hrs drive around some of the wonderful sights here in San Fran. Unfortunately, and I'm sorry ive said that a couple of times over the past week, we struck a 'foggy' day, and this hinded us seeing many of the sights in all their glory.

First stop, we went and looked at the world most picturesque bridge, the Golden Gate. A big photo opportunity for all of the boys as they lined up to get there shot in front of this magnificent structure, from an unique advantage point, from under the bridge, due to the fog. that was all we could see.
It was a busy place and on a foggy day like it was, thankfully we could see some of the red lines of this magnificent bridge.

Following this we went back into downtown San Francisco and looked at one of the  windiest street roads in California Lombard Street which again is a huge tourist attraction for many visitors coming to the city we then proceeded downtown and saw a row of typical South San Francisco Victorian homes called the 'other painted sisters' (located near Haight St). A lovely row of houses in a typical architectural setting with big bay windows overlooking the city skyline. We went to the tiled stairs of San Fran, and climbed them, to then look out over fog once again. Look at the detail on Flickr…San Francisco again was one of those wonderful places to visit and unfortunately, it's a shame we are not staying longer.

A short pitstop for lunch before we visited Alcatraz the US penitentiary prison that closed in the late 60s due to Robert F Kennedy's proclamation that the place was an unfit for human living standards. As you walk around it and feel the history, the hardship that some of these prisoners must've gone through it is a testament to themselves for surviving. The likes of Al Capone and the Birdman of Alcatraz stories were heard by all boys and interest of them greatly, giving them an insight into what life is like on the rock.

After returning to shore, we walked down to Fisherman’s wharf followed by an experienced that many of the boys enjoy which is catching the cable car from downtown all the way over the hills to Market St and experience with some got the opportunity to lead out of the car and get their photos as they climbed up and over many of the hills here in San Francisco.

Then dinner and a little bit of shopping in the Westfield shopping centre in the heart of San Francisco is downtown area


The day ended about 8.30 PM with everyone returning back to the hotel and basically going straight to bed. Tomorrow Am we are off to Stanford, and then catch a plane down to LA for the final few days.