Things that I enjoy (as you can see...)

- Travelling- Hanging on the outside of the cable car
- Lying on the pavement in front of Nicholas Cage's house (to be sold)
- Sitting on the bus with my niece's "job" (beautiful boy)
- Watching San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge from the headlands

= holidays

Pier 39

We were told we were acting like real tourists, going to Pier 39. But we didn't take offense - we were real tourists... (Besides, Oxford street is very touristy, but if you're in London...) Pier 39 has great shopping (tourist stuff, that is...). It also had a number of chocolate / ice cream / refreshment places :o)
View from Pier 39 towards Coit tower and Transamerica pyramid View to Alcatraz and Angel island [thanks, Claire :) ] While we were shopping, we heard some really strange noises. My sister and I turned a corner, and - voilá! Sea lions, hundreds of them! We obviously hadn't read the right guidebooks, and didn't know about them, but there they were... Almost like being in the middle of a BBC nature programme. Only Mr. Attenborough was nowhere to be seen.
So - did I buy anything for myself? I did. I bought two pairs of these... One pair just like this one, magnificently captured in this photo by r (well, those are his, I guess, but mine are exactly the same).
... and this is Rufus, at the very end of this video, explaining about the Coit tower (forward to 4:10 if you just want that - although the song is good too, and his smile - great...)

Palace of fine arts

It's turning into a pure photoblog, this... But I've only got a few more places in San Francisco to show you. And then maybe some odds and ends...

Palace of Fine Arts

Pretty impressive size...

I didn't manage to capture any of the turtles in the pond on film (you know, on memory chip..), but they were there - as were the giant goldfish...

Weird to think it was all built in 1915 - not 15 AD. And that it was built mainly of plaster... But since people liked it so much, they didn't pull it down and had to be refurbished for zillions of dollars later. Americans... Gotta lov'em ;)

The Castro

Walking down 17th Street from Haight to the Castro - and getting thereIt doesn't really show on the photo, but this local cinema was having a "Grease - singalong" night. I felt that was very appropriate :)

Rufus sings about 14th street - and even though I don't know for a fact that it's this one, I think it's a fair assumption. I forced my sister to stand in the middle of the street just so she could take this one. Fortunately, traffic was low... Just after she took this picture, a little old lady walked up to us and actually straight onto us. Pushing us aside as she walked. My sister commented on this in Norwegian. The little lady turned around - really slowly... "I've got a steel knee and I have to walk in a straight line", she explained. (Q: Did she understand Norwegian??) Then continued - "I'm 81 years old, I've lived here all my life. Tomorrow will be another fine day like this, and then the temperatures will drop". (Q: did her steel knee tell her this?) "What did you want to photograph here? There's a nice church just down ..." At this point she waved a hand in the general direction of Mission Dolores and then left us, trying to make it across the street on green...
We'd already been to Mission Dolores. Unfortunately, it was closed for some reason (though the sign stated the opposite), so we only got to see the outside.
Quite pretty on the outside too, though!

- is that bullet holes...?

Bagdad café, where we lunched. And learnt that "small portion" is actually ample...
So, was the Castro really different? Of course, there were rainbow flags everywhere. (Incidentally, last time I was in Rome, a few years back, there were rainbow flags everywhere there too - only they were symbols of peace, and used by the 'Americans out of Iraq' movement...) I saw 4-5 couples (one female) holding hands or holding their arms around eachother. I know I saw two guys in drag, possibly a third one but it could have been a girl... And there was that giant poster advertising family planning; two hot guys holding eachother and a woman standing discreetly a little way off - the tummy mummy? Other than that, it was just a really nice neighbourhood. Beautiful houses, clean, friendly, with some great bookshops (I didn't visit any other kinds of shops, come to think of it), and a lot of cute guys walking around...
Really don't see why this would have to happen only in the Castro, though. I'm all for people holding hands, whatever their preferences may be. And I really dislike people making out right in front of me even if they're as straight as nails...

Chinatown and me

I felt like I was in China. I also felt as if I were 7 feet tall. But I'm afraid these two lousy photographs were the only ones I took, I was a bit overwhelmed, to be honest... (Also, I bought winter jackets for everyone in my family, carrying the 7 of them around possibly cramped my photo-taking opportunities... But they were $13.99 each, how could I not!)
I went to the post office in Chinatown (the cards that made it to people like you were sent from here) - and immediately started looking around for cameras. Surely this was a shooting for a film "supposedly set in China"? But no, this was America, and the facts that a) I was the only non-Chinese around, and b) that I learnt "next in line" in Chinese while waiting (long forgotten now...) only added to the feeling of genuineness.
I've never been to China. But this felt like the real thing, nothing staged for the likes of me. People were going about their business - which just happened to be in San Francisco...

Fooooodstuff

We did have plans to eat elsewhere, honest! But we seemed to always end up at some diner. When in Rome...

Golden Gate bridge

This was right next to the emergency phone...

.. and this is from the other side, our hosts took us out to the headlands. A bit windy, but I was very pleased we caught the only cloud that visited San Francisco that week on film. On pixels, rather, or however it's done :)

The Match

I suppose I must mention The Match.

It was a bright and sunny - and calm! - morning, and I had San Francisco at my feet. So what do I do? I walk a few blocks down from where we're staying, to the Irish the Kezar pub, to watch the Champions league final on television. Of course I do...

The pub could probably house at least a 100 people, and there were at least 200 there. Felt like more... A handful of Italians (and the referee!) and then all Brits and Irish. And 1 Norwegian. What can I say? I was home. So we played a great first half , a more untidy second half, and we lost. The Italians in the pub were ecstatic at the end, but weren't killed, so I guess you could say there was a friendly atmosphere...
Some scouser bought me a beer, must have noticed how the 50º C (122º F) in the room also got to me. As well as the singing and shouting. Yes, I sang and shouted, songs I hadn't known I knew -- and of course, our anthem. And I will get a tattoo like that one. Hubby says I can, if he can have one too. Our families will probably disallow us, but...


When I left the pub two Americans walked out just before me. "That was fun!" one said, as if he'd been to the circus. I guess he just had...


But we'll rise again, of course, both at home and in Europe. You'll never walk alone!

Alcatraz

The notorious island appearing!

Looming large...

Our audio tour started here. With your selection of language on the headphones, you were walked around the entire place, listening to stories about prisoners, films, wardens etc. It was brilliantly made and together with the slideshow at the pier it gave a lot of detail to the Alcatraz history.
Oh no, Clint Eastwood's gone!

Great view, at least...

But did you all know this? After the prison was closed (think it was 1963), the island was "hijacked" by native Americans - of many tribes - who felt it only appropriate that the first place you meet on the West coast was Indian land. Besides, the island had no water, electricity or sewers, pretty much like the reservations they were being sent to at that time.

They were all thrown out. But returned, a few years later, and occupied it (pardon my memory, but I think) for 15 months - which made the President issue an official apology for the genocide on native Americans, and instating a law giving them the right to be their own people and not having to be Americans... So - a historic victory on Alcatraz! With all I read about the different tribes in my time - I really had no idea...

The neighbourhood

For those with local knowledge... We were staying in Haight Ashbury, very close to Cole Valley :) In Cole Valley, looking towards Twin Peaks - and Jimi Hendrix' house on Haight
Sister and nieces in Cole Valley
Grateful Dead's house, at Ashbury and Waller

... some other beautiful houses!