Mischief in Phoenix and San Francisco!

Well to be honest there wasn't much mischief in Phoenix as I actually went there for work. I attended an amazing training program at The Little Gym head quarters called the Training Ambassador Program. It was designed to help me train our staff at The Little Gym of Vaughan more effectively and also to be qualified to train other Little Gym's. But really the tools and skills I gained are really going to help me in any role I take on in the future. Speaking of the Future, after being immersed in The Little gym in Phoenix and also for the last 12 months in Canada, not to mention the two years in Kuwait! I've decided that I want to bring The Little Gym to Australia. It's going to be a huge effort but I'm pretty excited and up for the challenge. I am just going to need a couple of million dollars...so if any one wishes to invest give me a call :)

Any hoos, after 3 days of Little Gym mania in beautifully, gloriously HOT Phoenix (we haven't had much of a summer in Toronto this year!) I headed west to San Francisco...

Old Town Phoenix




Yup you know your in the Wild West when your in Phoenix, cowboy boots everywhere!

Even on the street lights!

San Francisco Bay

Alcatraz Island!

A hazy look at the Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Mason.

The tough life of Sea Lions in San Fran.

Iconic San Francisco.

Oakland Bridge.

Riding the Street Trolley!

Those great walking boots of mine riding the trolley!

Downtown San Fran, Union Square.

The Crookedest Street in the world!

I had a total of four days in San Francisco but honestly could of spent longer, I LOVED IT! I think it's my favourite city thus far in North America. It was American but still had a bit of a European zest to it. Although I didn't spend all my time in the city, I also headed out to Napa and Somona Valleys. A famous wine area of California. The thing that struck me most about the country side and areas around San Francisco was how the landscape reminded me of Australia. Eucalyptus trees fringe the parks of San Fran and wine country is a full of rolling yellow hills. I was expecting to see a herd of sheep munching on the dry grass! The wine was also on par with Aussie wines so for one day I actually felt like I was home!

Town hall in Somona

mmm Cheese... Somona Cheese Factory.

Down Town Somona

The Vineyards as seen through the bus window!

The grapevines of The Madonna Estate.

Where the goodness is stored

The Grand V.Suttui Winery.

The cellar at Suittui.

Wine tasting at Sutter Home...was not a fan of this wine though.

Roses at V.Suttui.

I stayed at The Green Tortoise Hostel while in San Francisco and although the hostel was in the middle of the Red Light district it was also a very short walk to Little Italy and North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf and Downtown. It was also a great place to meet all sorts of weird and wonderful people. Three of these weird and wonderful people were Andrew, Chris and Simon from the UK. They were in America as part of a Young Conservatives conference thingy and had decided to extend their stay and come to San Francisco. The unfortunate thing for these guys was that they were only 20! And since the drinking age in the States is 21 they were out of luck when it came to enjoying San Francisco's night life. So being the lovely person I am I volunteered to do a liquor store run!! Ha-ha, quite funny! They were nice young men though so after a night of drinking I joined them for a bike ride the next day to and across the Golden Gate bridge......

Remind you of Full House? ha-ha, Typical San Fran architecture.

Chris and Simon

My new drinking buddies... Simon, Chis and Andrew.... shhhh I'm only 26 not 30 okay! ha-ha

The lads with the Golden Gate in the back ground.

Me and the boys!

The zoomed out shot!

Our Destination!

My artistic shot of the Bridge.

Looking out the the Pacific Ocean from the Bridge.

Once we crossed the bridge we then rode up an enourmous hill to get a better view of the bay and the bridge!

The Lads taking in the view in Black and White.

Now in colour :-)

After another night of underage drinking we figured we'd head to Alcatraz, however we soon found that it is harder to get on Alcatraz than it is to escape from it. As there is only ONE tour company that will take you to Alcatraz! So we settled for second best which was a ferry ride around the island.

Leaving for Alcatraz.

The City from the Bay.

Boys on a Boat.

Alcatraz!

I had a fantastic trip even though it was short. Not too sure where the next one will be, since we are not getting much of a summer here maybe it will be a weekend where it's warm??? I dunno I will keep you all posted though!