Last day in SF

Went out for breakfast this morning. Hardly breakfast at Tiffany’s but good nonetheless. A 1950s style diner two doors up that served omelettes - hurrah. No processed or plastic bread or cereal but real stuff, albeit with additions; hollandaise with the eggs Benedict, English muffins with the veg omelette.

It was a bit cold first thing too, misty and overcast. We caught the trolley bus down to Castro then walked up through there. 

Its the main gay area, festooned with rainbow flags,  window displays and street decor that you just don’t get anywhere else. 

My camera packed up too - at least the lens did. Don’t think it was shock but it refused to play ball so I borrowed another from Nadine, which was just as well as there were some interesting people about too.

After much walking up more very steep hills, we found the ‘painted ladies’ a row of original weatherboard houses set on a hill against the backdrop of downtown San Francisco. Think Hampstead Heath on sea and you’ll get the picture.

A trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge had to be done too, but that required the car which had been tucked up in a city garage for two days. We just got it out and off we went. It was really windy down by the water despite the by now bright sunshine.

Sausalito is just over the bridge too, so we nipped down there too. A nice little seaside town with a marina, and was a centre of shipbuilding in WW2. The name is Spanish and means ‘small willow grove’ yet it was an English sailor who founded it, William Richardson, who later became a Mexican citizen. The whole bay is named after him - Richardson Bay, and came into its own during prohibition as it was landing place for rum runners, being easy to get to from the open ocean, but isolated from San Fran so customs couldn’t get to them easily. Later in the 1960s, there were three houseboat communities there, but all was not peaceful and there was much arguing and hissy fitting, something that became known as the houseboat wars. And old Otis Redding wrote ‘sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ while poncing about on a boat down there.

In the marina was a yacht that all of us noticed. It wasn’t the biggest but it was nice and a bit different and we were all commenting on it when an old bloke walking along the jetty stopped us and told us that it had once belonged to Burt Lancaster. Burt's boat.

The best bit of today though, without a doubt, was the evening. We had tickets to see a sattire/musical/commedy thing in a theatre on Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard - which was also the name of the show. Outlandish drag extravaganza and bloody funny, sending up most US politicians and current popular culture. And there is much material for them to use as material right now. Unfortunatley no pics allowed, so you’ll have to imagine what it was like. Mind you, we nearly had to run away as Gordon called the woman at the box office sir - said he hadn’t got his glasses - and she was a bit cross. The rule is when in such places - don’t be gender specific.

So now we’re sitting in departures at San Fran Airport, waiting for  flight to Los Angeles where we have to change planes for an onward flight on Honolulu. 

The boys are on a separate but direct flight, leaving a bit later but getting there earlier. And the police have just rocked up to speak to the bloke sitting behind us - the most unfit looking cycle cop ever. 

Forgot to say.......we went for an early morning spin around on the street car this morning. We were the only passengers on the thing. Its surprisingly noisy and really physical for the grip man who has to brake and change gear as the thing careers long. A big pedal on the floor operates the brake - a couple of wooden blocks that have to be sanded and rough to keep the working. And according to Hector the grip man, the chain regularly comes off, causing him to jump off and fix it before the thing runs off down the hill. 

A slight exaggeration perhaps, but fortunately it all worked perfectly this morning.