Woke up at 4am Friday (August 21) early morning.
Yikes, jet lag kicking in. With no chance falling back asleep, I decided to write up day 1 of my USA trip.
Last post forgot to mention I accidentally left my toiletry at home, so forgive my unshaved, big head. At least my fragrances got packed and fortunately Virgin Atlantic supplied passengers with a travel pack (toothpaste & brush).
After posting, I smoked a ciggie on my way to Starbucks to get a large cappuccino and a Subway Club sandwich for breakfast. As hard-core Mafia Wars addict, it sucks to miss my daily morning routine, which includes burning stamina. Fortunately a real life Mini-Sub floated around with a mounted Aguila HV .50 Sniper Rifle to get my bad-ass mafia fix ;-)
Good idea from non-Don Jorrit after all to walk towards the pier to check out the view on Alcatraz. If only my mafia family could explain the guy why our favorite game rocks! 
(feel free to spam his wall to finally make him join MW) :-)
San Francisco’s mornings are pretty cold and foggy as well. So before we changed outfits for biking our white Dutch asses over the Golden Gate Bridge, we took some photos of the marina and Alcatraz.
(photo of Jorrit proudly escaped from Alcatraz)
Around 11am we walked to Blazing Saddles to rent our bikes. Damn Jorrit climbed the Alpes D’Huzes a few weeks ago, so he’s still in the biking spirit. My last biking experience however, was at our company’s sport event where I won a medal for my unintended triple somersault and crashing my bike in the dirt. Ouch.
-note to self: buy stock whenever Blazing Saddles is having their IPO
Almost every mile we stopped to enjoy the great views the Bay Area offers (and for me, just to smoke my well deserved Marlboro :)
Our first stop at Municipal Pier stunned me: dozens of seals surfaced every minute. That’s so awesome!
Bypassing Americans kindly offered to take a photo of two Dutchies in their dorky outfits (yeah, i still gotta do some shopping for new shorts & shirts, oh well)
After our stop, a huge sloping hill stared laughing at me. Whoever says cigarettes kill you, try biking that slope uphill first, okay? We continued our biking trip to finally arrive at the top and beginning of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Amazing how fast fog can spread around, isn’t it?
After biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, we ended up in Sausalito; a picturesque place with amazing architecture and nice restaurants serving great food. We ate delicious salmon and I finally drank my first rounds of beer (yay for Coronas). Since I could barely feel if my brain was still communication with my big body, I really wanted to take the ferry back to San Francisco.
We ordered drinks at an outside pub around the corner of our hotel. Apparently Jorrit felt tired too, since he went back to his room after not even finishing his first (and only) Heineken of the day. Isn’t that a frigging felony?
Oh well, I decided to drink a couple of beers with friendly Canadians at the bar who told me how their relationship is with Americans. When it turned from funny to politics, I thanked them for their interesting stories and went to the hotel :)
Day 2 ended in Ciopinno’s, probably the best Italian restaurant on the Wharf. They serve delicious pasta and their deep fried calamari was a godsend.
Only the portions their friendly staff serves is huge! Even a big guy like me, couldn’t finish my plate, no matter if they’d put a gun to my head. Fortunately the waiter kindly offered if he could put our leftovers in a take out bag.
So there, our first doggy bag experience :-)