Moose on the Move!

Yes, we thought we would break it up a little so you could take a break if needed.

So, wednesday we thought we would take it a little easier, Chris wasn't feeling too hot (thinks he is getting a cold) and I was tired too, from another night on that crappy matress. So (after quite a late start) - we decided that going for a walk around our local area would be a good idea.

On the way out of the Hostel Elke went and spoke to the guy on the front desk to explain our general dislike of the mattress we were given and explain how poorly we had slept the last couple of nights. The guy, with cool dredys, said no worries, they would change the mattress over for us while we were out today. Excellent.

We stopped in by the Yerba Buena Gardens, a lovely inner city spot that is proabably even nicer in summer and then headed around the corner to find the Ansel Adams Centre. It is meant to be a centre dedicated to photography as an art form and to Ansel Adams in particular. We couldn't find it. It just wasn't where our six year old Lonely Planet Guide said that it was meant to be... bugger.

So we figured that the Museum for Contemporary Arts would be a good substitute, a bit of pop art and that stuff. But they are closed on Wednesdays...bugger.

So then, after a coffee in Starbucks to get over so much disappiontment and double-check our guide, we headed a few blocks to the south to find the Asian Art Museum. This proved to be an excellent choice - A) we could find it - there was a very large red dinosaur outside, B) they were open and C) the displayed work was an excellent range of stuff and just so damn old. They also had an interesting display on about forensic testing of artefacts to determine if they really are old or not.

Pretty cool stuff.

Ever since we arrived in the US Chris has been talking about Quizzno's, it is a subway type takeaway store that he discovered when he was living in Chicago a couple of years ago. So tonight was the night to hunt down this illusive store and see if all the stories are true. It was ok. Actually it was pretty good and certainly filled a hole. Then it was back to the hostel to meet some more of our fellow 'packers' and hear a little about their stories.

Our mattress hadn't been changed as promised, so we organised to change rooms with the (different) guy on the front desk. This room has a mattress that, under the protector, feels as though it is covered in vinyl. It squeeks slightly every time either of us rolls over. Or breathes. Ahhh ... youth hostels!!

Thursday started out looking gloomy and overcast. Just as they had predicted. And actually that is how it stayed all day. We caught a bus towards Golden Gate Park. It is huge!! It took a while to work out why our map seemed to show a relatively square shaped park when all other maps we had seen showed that the park is infact about three times as long as it is wide, (the makers of our map had seen fit to squash the western side of the peninsular so that it fit better on the page).(In their defence there was a small box on the map explaining this - but we've never seen it before) It is a lovely big park and contains within it the San Francisco Botanical Gardens. We went for a wander between all kinds of very familiar trees and shrubs, we were in the Australian section of the garden and it was so nice to see paperbarks, gums and kangaroo paw!! It was a bit spinny then to see squirrels running up and down a New Zealand Pohutakawa (sp?) tree. Kind of neat too. They were very hungry and not shy in the least running right up to us and climbing all over the bench we were sitting on. Squirrels really like cashew nuts.

This evening we have spent a great deal of time in the internet lab, updating this blog (twice, because Elke didn't save it the first time and closed the application - good work Ms Media Teacher!! :))and trying to get the new photos onto the site.

Now we are heading back to our room with the sqeeky vinyl mattress to re-pack our bags and get ready for the next leg of our journey - north to visit Elke's Oma, Uncle and family. It should be a bit colder up there (we have been easing into it slowly) and hopefully the week after we will see snow.... fingers crossed.

Chris is concerned - Let us know if these are too long for you to be bothered reading. We can try to cut them down. Also there is a link you can click on at the bottom that lets you comment on each post. We would love to hear back from you... hugs.