San Francisco

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148725&id=510568119&l=714632d045

and some videos:





After a long drive in growing darkness, pouring rain and 12 lanes of rush hour traffic we arrived by some miracle at San Francisco International Airport. After bidding farewell to our trusty steed we hopped on the BART and were soon outside the offices of my good friend Tom who decamped to the US a couple of years ago and who, along with his fiance Christi, was to be our host and tour guide for the weekend.

And a splendid job they did too! After discovering the wonder of a pear and blue cheese pizza at Pauline's we dropped into the biker-esque Zeitgeist for a beer and our first taste of the famous SF quirkiness. Gastronomical treats kept coming thick and fast all weekend - first brunch at the Mission Beach Cafe followed by elevenses at Four Barrels Coffee (I don't really like coffee, but am reliably informed that these guys know their beans...) where I was impressed by the froth art garnishing my beverage. We stopped to admire the multitudinous murals around the Mission, catching a glimpse of several Santacon participants along the way. We lunched at another San Francisco institution, the Roosevelt Tamale Parlour, where we stuffed ourselves on the huge portions of queso fundido, tamales, frijoles and rice. I also had my first horchata, a Mexican rice water drink that tastes much better than it sounds... Later on I had another first when we stopped by Tom and Christi's friends' Hannukah party, complete with homemade latkes.

Perhaps the highlight of the day, however, was our visit to San Francisco's only independent pirate supply store. The store is a front for a non-profit writing and tutoring centre for 6-18 year olds co-founded by Dave Eggers (American author and screen writer who most recently worked on Where The Wild Things Are). After being refused the use of church basements and school halls for the project, Eggers and co. found a store for sale on Valencia St. The city ordinances stated that any businesses in that particular area of SF must be either retail or catering, so the Pirate Supply Store was developed as the "legitimate" business front for the writing center. Not only can you pick up a designer glass eye, peg leg sizing chart, "belly of the whale escape kit" or mermaid bait but the store's various signs and Karl the fish alone make a visit worthwhile.

On Sunday we paid a visit to a splendidly random private library where I spent a happy hour researching ghost towns of the US south west, while Rich pored over the 1953 Ice Cream Parlour Owners' Handbook. Continuing the weekend's culinary overload we lunched at Rocco's Cafe and emerged happily full of chicken parmesan and garlic bread. The evening's entertainment was provided by Lady Gaga as we joined the young, be-wigged and (alarmingly) be-leotarded crowd heading for the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium where she was performing. I love Lady Gaga, I really do - she's a surprisingly talented singer, musician and pop-gem-writer, and the show we saw would have been entertaining for the costume changes alone. Even Rich enjoyed himself. To top the night off we ended up being invited to a Christmas party by a slightly inebriated middle aged man in black tie we got talking to on the street and spent several hours enjoying free beer, food (including some amazing meatballs) and meeting some very random but extremely nice people.

We spent the rest of our time avoiding the ghosts of prisoners past on the spooky Alcatraz night tour, hanging gleefully out of cable cars as we rode them up and down the impossibly steep hills and catching a matinee showing of Rear Window at the beautiful old Castro movie theatre. All in all, a fabulous few days.

Twilight, Twin Peaks and Trees

Spot the vamipre:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147875&id=510568119&l=1977f7676c

and watch me drive through a tree:



No visit to the northwest of the US would be complete without a roadtrip along the Pacific Coast Highway, the iconic Route 101. Fittingly, the rental car we were allocated was an electric blue Chrysler PT Cruiser, a 1930s retro-styled beauty. To celebrate, I took Rich for his first IHOP, another US institution, and feeling suitably All-American we wound down the windows, turned on the stereo and hit the road.

First stop was a slight detour as it had come to my attention that we were very close to where the cult (and extremely scary) TV series Twin Peaks was filmed. Armed with a location map apparently drawn by a pre-schooler, we nevertheless managed to find the Great Northern Hotel, the waterfall, the abandoned railway cars, the famous view of the Twin Peaks themselves (minus the road sign, but you can't have everything) and found time for a slice of cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee at Twede's Cafe, aka the RR Diner. After an accidental rendezvous with Seattle's rush hour traffic we made it onto the 101 just in time to check into a motel, enjoy a surprisingly tasty meal at Wendy's and hit the hay.

The next few days were spent merrily cruising down the Washington, Oregon and northern California coasts, stopping to sample the fried seafood, admire the rugged and rocky scenery and gawp at armies of seals flopping sea-ward en masse. Notable highlights along the way were plentiful, for example:

• Marvelling at the transformation of the tiny, nondescript town of Forks, Washington, into a living shrine to all things Twilight-related. You can't buy a decent cup of coffee in Forks, but you can buy "Bella's Blend" coffee beans, Volteri lip gloss or a lifesize cardboard cutout of RPatz. Check out the photo album to see my favourite Twilight motel sign (there were many...)

• Sampling the culinary delights on offer at the outlandish Voodoo Donuts (the bacon and maple syrup variety was a particular favourite) and the Sunday-dinner-in-a-sandwich emporium of Bunks in the quirky and immensely visitable city of Portland.

• Unearthing more American curiosities in the small town of Waldport, notably America's answer to the parmo - the chicken fried steak. Imagine a large steak, dipped in breadcrumbs, fried like a piece of KFC chicken and covered in a white sauce with tiny bits of sausage in it. Serve with a generous helping of mashed potatoes and you're in business/hospital.

• Wandering round the excellently named town of Eureka and ogling its altogether-ooky Addam's Family style mansions.

• Squinting sky-ward at the stupendously large redwood trees on the aptly named Avenue of the Giants and adding "driven through a tree" to the list of new things I've done on this trip

On December 9th we got our second taste of Christmas when our friendly motel keeper in the small town of Rio Dell invited us to the switching on of the town Christmas lights and the local primary school's carol concert. Clutching hot apple cider and sugar cookies we joined a small crowd and some carollers around the Christmas tree, then crossed into the police station/civic centre/school hall where adorably entertaining 5 and 6 year olds sang Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, before the man himself made a grand entrance on a fire engine. For me it was just like being back at one of St Dominics' Christmas concerts and we both came away brimming with festive cheer.