San Francisco is Cool
I was half expecting not to get to San Francisco. I'd heard that as part of their rehabilitation when they leave prison, ex-cons get their clothes, 'x' amount of dollars and an unlimited travel pass for 'x' amount of time on the Greyhound bus network to go and make a life for themselves. When 'Bubba' winked at me to sit next to him on the only seat left, with his bald head, ZZ top beard and tattoo 'd knuckles, I knew I was in for an interesting journey. And probably some big lovin' too.
Just Kidding. It was a pretty boring 10 hours from LA to San Francisco going amongst dusty yellow farmland. The rehabilitation plan is true as far as I know, but there didn't appear to be anyone dodgy looking on the bus. Though we did all have to have our bags checked and go through a metal detector before we got on.
A couple of hours before San Francisco we passed through Silicon Valley and Palo Alto. I felt my powers of Geekness increase as I went through the home of modern Personal Computing. I suddenly felt the urge to write a business plan to open up an Internet/Games Cafe in Romford (its my Plan 'B' if I don't become a skydive cameraman). I have a great location in mind - Anyone fancy going into business when I get back?
When I got to the Holiday Inn (whoa - this place is a proper hotel! With valet parking! Im a back-packer, I won't be let in!) where I was going to meet Mum and Dad, most of the staff were on strike. The only-just-coping management almost ruined the surprise that awaited me as I got up to the fifteenth floor. Fantastic as it was to see Mum and Dad, it was even better as Dad got some extra money together and paid for a ticket for my sister to come here too. We spent the next few hours catching up on the last 7 months over a few beers, before jet lag got the better of them and they all went to bed.
Next day we did a tour of Alcatraz and the city. We started off going to Alcatraz which is one of San Francisco's two main tourist attractions. Alcatraz has been used as various things through the years, a fort, a barracks, a prison, a Native American Indian political metaphor (trust me on that one) but it's most famous for being 'The Rock' in the film of the same name starring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and the bloke from Apollo 13.
Me, Dad, Vic and Mum
At Pier 39 near the ferry terminal for Alcatraz there are tons of seals and sealions that hang around on a bunch of pontoons. They're really great to watch as they angrily make that seal noise (what do you call it? An Urlp?) at whatever's trying to climb up and onto the float with them.
We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf for a while and had lunch at one of the many fish restaurants there. (Thanks Robbie - I did have the Clam Chowder. Very Nice.) We wandered round some of the tourist-y shops, one of which had a fantastic selection of Vodka's and an even better selection of Chilli sauces.
After some crazy shenanigans sorting out which tour bus we should be on that afternoon (don't ask) we ended up on a big brass tram with wheels! We saw the Golden Gate Bridge...
...Pacific Heights, Union Square, the old barracks guarding the city, the financial district and a bunch of other places. It was a good introduction to the city, though the Mexican driver never seemed to stay on topic for more than about 5 seconds, meaning what he said only made sense if you listened and remembered every scrap of it, then thought about it afterwards. I didn't.
Not a problem though as we went exploring in all the interesting looking bits afterwards. We went back to Union Square which is full of fancy expensive designer shops. We went up to 'The Cheesecake Factory', a really nice restaurant above Macys, which specialises in desserts. After waiting for two packed lift-fulls of people to get up to the top floor, we wandered around up there looking at the expensive decor, all the people milling around and all the fancy cheesecakes. We went round a corner and saw an empty table for four so we sat down and ordered some coffees and a couple of bits of cake.
I noticed the Maitre 'd kept scowling at us as he walked passed. We slowly came to the conclusion that we'd just sat down and ordered in front of about 200 people who'd been waiting patiently with their little buzzers for a table to become free! Oops. Ah well. Cheesecake was nice.
After that little restaurant faux pas, Vicki and Mum went shopping in the fancy shops while Dad and I did some quality father-son bonding.
We wandered through China town as the sun went down, before heading back to the hotel briefly and going out for a couple of drinks down at Fisherman's Wharf.
Mum, Dad and Vicki went off to get the car the next morning (they were up as they still weren't used to the time difference). They took ages as they had some trouble getting the car they'd paid for. Dad ordered a Chevy Blazer, they offered him a Suzuki Vitara. They settled on a Jeep Cherokee. Anyway, I'd half arranged that I wasn't going to go off driving with them that day so I went off exploring some of the galleries near Union Square when they were late coming back.
I went to a bunch of cool galleries and museums, including the cARToon Museum, which exhibited all the different styles and social powers of Comics, from Marvel to Garfield to Disney to the Daily political ones. And there were lots of political ones, especially about the current government. I liked this one called 'Dubya and his Inner Circle.'
After wandering around the arts district for a while I found the 'Sony Metronome' a big entertainment complex set in fancy grounds with loads of different areas based on selling cool Sony stuff. It wasn't as chic or as well equipped as the Japanese Sony Building, but it did have more in the way of entertainment stuff like cinema's, arcades, CDs, DVDs, free internet and role play shops.
Start Geekiness- Just so you know, I can get free internet in the Libraries in the US (for a set amount of time) often on machines donated by the 'Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.'- End Geekiness
I caught the bus up to Haight Ashbury, though I didn't really know what to expect. It sounded like one of the shops Mum and Vicki like to shop in, but I was assured it used to be where all the radical hippies used to hang out. I jumped out at the top of Haight Street by the Golden Gate park, I already knew I wanted to go to 'Amoeba Music,' a massive record store I also saw in LA which buys and sells a bewildering selection of used CDs and sells them on really cheap. Mum brought out a birthday card and money (Thanks Sharon, Lloyd, Nic, Alex and Cesca) which I spent there, as it gets a bit same-y listening to the same 10 CDs for 7 months!
The rest of Haight Ashbury was really cool, like a giant version of Camden and Covent Garden all mixed into one. The teens all adopted the 'Im-an-Individual' uniform of a face piercing and slightly different coloured hair. The grown up locals seemed to do their best at being 'individual' by looking like street bums. The bums then looked slightly confused and embarrassed at being fashionable as they asked me for my spare change.
There were a couple of rickety second hand book shops on the main strip, which is always a good sign of a cool place. Then on top of that, there was 'The Anarchist's Bookshop.' A whole shop devoted to decidedly un-American activities like free thinking, free information, putting people, rather than profits first, and of course all the current and historical revolutionary magazines and books you care to think of.
Even the fire hydrants have an opinion.
I've been impressed with the amount of dissent i've seen the last week I've been here. The taxi drivers,my barber in LA, the political cartoonists, the mainstream magazines (from Rolling Stone to TIME) and now a whole book shop full of anti-Bush/Government propaganda! I was expecting to come to America and find a fat nation brainwashed by Ronald McDonald and Starbucks. What i've found out is they're as annoyed with whats going on as the rest of the world and they're also just as annoyed at us for keeping Tony Blair in power! When we've breached the topic, most American's i've spoken to don't like Bush or what he stands for and what winds them up, is it seems like whatever Bush does, Tony Blair backs him up!
Urban Gorilla posters are on the wall in 'The People's Cafe.' The one thing that lets the image down though, is the range of attractive 'The People's Cafe' merchandise stuck to the wall next to it.
Anyway, getting off my high horse, I really liked San Francisco. It's a beautiful, chilled out city with tons of cool people and places. I could see myself living here for a while, which I don't say often. Three days really isn't enough time to explore the place, there's still lots i'd like to see and do (yes I did drive down the steep twisty Lombard St. with Mum and Dad earlier!) I suppose I'll have to come back again soon. And I do mean soon. Its a shame to think that San Francisco is sitting on top of the San Andreas fault. Especially as they're expecting 'The Big One' any time soon. A sobering thought as I type this 15 floors up at the Holiday Inn!
***
It was a clear day next day so we went up the twin Peaks, two hills which give a stunning view over all of the San Francisco peninsular. After some breakfast in Haight Ashbury, we started our drive to Lake Tahoe in our Jeep Cherokee.
Start Geekiness-Military Geeks - Check out the Aircraft Carrier just coming into port.- End Geekiness
...and PS. There are more pics coming later, but the Library i'm in wont let me rotate the pics. Plus im also gonna get some of Mum, Dad and Vicki's pics....