San Francisco

Photos:

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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.