Message from San Francisco, California

USA

11/03/2001

Upon arriving in Oakland via a JetBlue flight (each seat has their own Direct TV deal; recommended), we headed to George's swanky pad in San Francisco. While he spent his time laboring at the office and performing the civic act of jury duty, Sue and I walked the streets of San Francisco. Being neophytes of the city topography, we often chose the streets with the steepest hills, which afterward accounted for the fact that we observed very little pedestrian traffic. We concluded that it takes a while to be part of the walk-the-long-way-but-avoid-the-hills club. Anyway, we earned our shin splints making our way through Union Square and Chinatown, then up to the Coit Tower before returning to Nob Hill. On Halloween, I joined George, Jim, Kerry and assorted friends for a night strolling through the Castro section of town observing the street mayhem while Sue rested her weary feet. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I did not bring my camera, so you'll just have to see it for yourself... We also sampled some fine cuisine and managed to drive through the Sonoma Valley region and take in a few vineyards. On Saturday we left San Francisco, wishing we had more time to spend there. We headed south toward Los Angeles, but took the long way, giving us the opportunity to stop at Carmel-by-the-Sea and get some great views of the Pacific Ocean and Pebble Beach. That night we stopped over in Carpinteria and had our last American meal for a while - Prime Rib (of course). Sunday found us driving through the beach areas of greater Los Angeles, and then to the airport, where I proceeded to watch the seventh game of the World Series on an airport television, thinking it was the sixth game the whole time. (This would cause us a great deal of confusion later on in Australia...)