Leaving the heat of the desert made entering the cold of San Francisco a bit sad.

SF is a nice city and pretty tightly packed which made getting around easier. By easier, I just mean I wore my shoes out walking an inordinate amount every day. I had to buy some new sneakers whilst I was there! 

SF also happened to be my first hostel experience. The first thing to note, breakfast was bagels everyday so you can bet your bottom dollar I ate allllll the bagels in my six days here #noregrets. In true US style, the only options for spreads were cream cheese, peanut butter and jam (jelly). I had so much PB&J, it was getting ridiculous BUT breakfast was included so had make the most of it! My first hostel went smoothly albeit a lot of broken sleep with people coming and going at all hours of the day and night. I did get my fix of social interaction which was the whole point. Travelling solo is fabulous for setting your own schedule and doing only the things you want to do. But, as an extroverted person I do also need some human interaction to keep me going. I did also meet some aussie guys whilst there which was nice to get some AFL chit chat in and complain about having to tip 20% etc etc.

Getting good coffee has been a bit of a bug bear for me the whole time. For some reason, many American’s happily drink large quantities of brewed coffee. Now, I’m not saying its awful to drink but I am saying that there’s just no point drinking it. You need 20oz minimum to get any caffeine at all and its not that tasty. Silly American’s measure coffee sizes in ounces. I don’t know how much an ounce is, but I have come to learn that 6oz is the equivalent to what I have at home. And that 12oz is the standard coffee size here, so that’s problematic. The only properly good coffee I have had was a café in Ocean Park in LA! 

My SF highlight reel included:

·       Alcatraz – as interesting as you’d think.

·       Food – Many seafood options (I will shortly detail my crab chowder experience) and     Little Italy is brilliant here (I ate a lot of types of pasta). I found it really hard to eat a     decent amount of vegetables here though. I have to be intentional with what I order         to get appropriate nutrition in. This usually equates to ordering a side of veggies             with meals. I'm looking forward to being able to cook more meals in the future.

·       Napa Valley and Sonoma – wine country. I did a super boujie wine trip day and it         was abfab.

·       Yosemite National Park – I did a very big day trip here. The national park is             spectacular. I adventured all day with a new friend from South Africa walking the trails and taking 1000 pictures! I am finding day trips a great way to meet people and get lots of travel tips!

I do need to talk about my chowder. I went for dinner with my new wine trip friends at a seafood restaurant in the Marina District (boujie AF). The signature dish was crab and corn chowder so that’s what I got. The menu had two options: soup bowl and bread bowl. I thought the bread bowl just meant it came with bread. And that bread would be in a bowl. I asked this out loud and my new American friends were utterly gleeful to explain that, in-fact, the soup comes in a bowl MADE OF bread! Say whatttt. Anyway, the bread bowl was great – basically a cob loaf but I wasn’t going to bring that up as I didn’t have the energy to explain cob loaves to Americans. The chowder was delicious, by the way.

SF is a great running city assuming the cold and wind and rain doesn’t bother you. I was bothered by it notgonlie. I left Tasmania to avoid this nonsense! I survived though. The Embarcadero (basically the waterfront) is great, flat and pretty along the water and views of the bridges – avoid peak hour or when a large ferry has just docked – learn from my mistakes! You can run right through to the Presidio Park which has great Golden Gate views. Presido Park has heaps of paths too, many kms to be run here. I twice went to Kezar Stadium to utilise the public track. The stadium is also in a park, Golden Gate Park, which also has a whole heap of paths. Kezar track was fun, lots of people running around (despite the rain) and school action every afternoon. I got a couple of good sessions in here. It was fun to do some faster running again! I am on Strava too if you're interested.

Leaving SF on yet another rainy day (byeeeeee!) I ventured east to Washington DC. It was warm as soon as I landed despite being around 8pm. Thank god.

I have really loved my time in DC. Along with great weather (days usually mid twenties) the city is beautiful. It’s the first place I have been, so far, that I have thought yeah I could spend a while here. I stayed in what I can only describe as a fancy pants hostel, which does sound counter intuitive but it’s really quoite noice. It’s part of the Generator franchise and I will look out for their other locations during my travels. Its trendy and viby and there is a great Mexican bar/restaurant selling the strongest marg’s I’ve ever had. Winning! It’s also much quieter than my hostel in SF so sleep has not been an issue.

Every building here is stunning as are the monuments (and made of marble, often inclusive of a rotunda, dome or artistic columns), streets are tree lined, the public transport is a breeze and I haven’t met a single rude person, however I haven’t come across any politicians so I’m sure they’re out there. Funnily enough I have been asked twice here for help with the Metro (lol), I don’t know if I look approachable, like a local or like maybe I just know what I am doing (can't be it) but it’s been nice to help some people even though I am also just winging it. The Metro here is super easy and fast. Way better than LA.

If I didn’t know better (because I’ve done all the appropriate sight-seeing to know better, my selfie stick got a good workout) I would have guessed this city was designed with runners in mind. Wide paths and lakes and rivers and parks and monuments just everywhere. You could easily combine a run with sight-seeing. I’m sure people do. It’s been nice to run in warmer weather again too. Big tick for running here.

I continue my journey in a north easterly direction, my next stop is Baltimore followed by Philadelphia to lick the Liberty Bell (IYKYK) on my way up to NYC!