Everything’s swell with Bart and Michelle! July 27, 2008

California

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello and welcome to our first blog from The Good’ol United States!
I was supposed to write this blog on the same day as the last one, but there is so much to do here I didn’t have time. Apologies,but here it is now!
So here we are in America after a long flight with a lot of noise from the young World Youth Day attendees and not a lot of sleep, we arrived at 10 00 in the morning (American time). As seasoned travellers will know, we gained a day by crossing the International Date line and therefore had two 21sts of Jul. We whizzed through customs and found our way to the domestic arrivals to meet up with Bart and Michelle. On the way we saw our first real live American ‘bitchy’ queen and several ’super-sized’ Americans. Bart and Michelle (we met them way back on the kayaking trip in Abel Tasman, NZ) had been to Las Vegas for the weekend and were arriving back in San Fransisco airport at 3.00pm. We were pretty tired, so found a quiet spot under an escalator and got our heads down for a few hours on the hard floor. Seasoned travellers or tramps – you decide! We were trying to keep an eye on all our bags, so kind of looped our arms in the straps and hung our legs over the other bags. It was pretty uncomfortable, but we were tired so fell asleep instantly. We woke after a couple of hours and unravelled ourselves. Bart and Michelle’s plane was a little late, so we went for our first dining experience. Faced with a list of burgers we were completely out of our normal dietary range. When our huge portion of food arrived it had a slice of orange on the side with a gerkin on top. We thought it was a little strange but had a go. Salty stuff.
We finally met up with Bart and Michelle, they are a good looking couple and in addiiton were both fresh, clean and tanned and we looked like a couple of very pale, tired gypos. Oh well, nevermind!
Our American mates took us on a mini tour of the city of California before we headed back to their place. We passed through the Golden Gate Park area and the Presidio residential area which was one huge military base, but all the houses and buildings are being updated. You can’t buy them, only rent from the government. We also got our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and then travelled underneath it to Fort Point and took our first touristy snaps. It really is an impressive structure and at the point is a plaque on a fence with a pair of brass hands called Hopper’s Hands. Hopper was a chap who helped build the bridge and he noticed that lots of joggers touched the fence at this point, it was his idea to put some hands marks here for people to touch for luck. Underneath the hand prints were also some paw prints for joggers’ dogs to put their paws on. Nice idea! It was pretty breezy there and directly under the bridge were kite surfers leaping to scarey highs, Bart has also surfed there as well, if the tide is right – but I have to say that looked very hairy.
After getting some luck from Hopper’s hands, we headed through the Sea Cliff area to China beach for a look out across the bay. Then over the bridge to Mill Valley where Bart and Michelle live. This is a great little village that reminded me a bit of Tavistock. Lots of one off shops, fairy lights in trees (always had a soft spot for fairy lights) and a dinky pizza restaurant where we had dinner. Chris and I were nearly boss eyed with tiredness and didn’t know whether we should be eating cereal or drinking wine by now, so we headed off to bed. Bart and Michelle had given us such a fab welcome to the States and Chris and I fell asleep instantly. We both woke at 4.30 am (jet lag is a strange thing) and whispering and giggled in the darkness as we desperately tried to find the toilet in the dark without waking up Michelle and Bart.
Everyone slept in and Michelle cooked up a full brekkie for us to enjoy on their lovely decking. Pretty balmy here and eventually we began our first day in San Francisco. Bart said he had a loose plan for the day, but he was being very modest. We began a full days uber cool (Michelle taught us to use this word,we are sooooo American) tour. We started with a blustery ferry trip across the Bay with the Bridge in the background cloaked in a ribbon of fog. We passed Angel Island and the ex prison island of Alcatraz. Then into the Farmer’s Market in the ferry terminal building, excellent fun as we began lots of cheese tasting, chocolate tasting and open mouthed gawping at the touristy part of the town. The gourmet cuisine here is incredible, every food you can think of with so many gimmicks, gifts and enticing shops. They even had bread rolls shaped like crabs that you filled with soup. It was like a dream,quite surreal. We saw the huge Sea-lions at K-Dock lolling around in the sunshine, entertaining the crowds as though they were born to the task. Bart then had us walking at a cracking pace from the Pier 39 tourist area through steep hilled streets and up steps until we reached Lombard Street. This is the famous street in many movies (ie “What’s up Doc?” – Barbara Streisand/Ryan O’Neil) full of tight bends on a steep hill. We walked beside it and watched some Harleys gingerly negotiating the bends, there was no knee down action.
Then (still walking quite fast) we passed through the Italian area, with the odours of garlic and tomato filling the air. The pace was making us hungry so into Golden Boys Pizza for a slice of superb pizza (Chris had clam and garlic, never seen that before). The urban tour continued through China Town (there is a point when the 2 areas meet that you can get sweet and sour pizzas) and to the Castro District, famous for its gay community. We also managed to fit in a couple of street car trips. San Fransisco has street cars from around the world that have been lovingly restored and speed noisely through the towns hills (we travelled in No 1085 built in 1948).
Finally, as the sun went down we met Darius, a friend of Bart and Michelle. Then the drinking began. Bart is a man after our own hearts who enjoys beers in dark, noisey pubs that smell of booze. The smell instantly reminded me of The Dolphin Inn, which in my opinion, is one of the best smells around.
Darius was a great chap,he looked like a model and laughed like a drain, good stuff. We visited several sleazy pubs with Bart at the front, filling us with beer and information. More fast food at Memphis Minis briefly broke the beer tasting, with a menu so complicated we had to seek help from Michelle. Everything comes with a side order, sauces and various degrees of spice, very complicated,especially when tipsy!
The evening ended in another dark, nefarious pub where an entertaining game of pool ensued with Bart and Chris playing two very drunk locals. One of them looked really familiar like a pirate/film star, the other one looked like an old Axl Rose (I suppose it could have been him, although he didn’t sing). Pretty funny as lots of pirate impressions and general silliness finished the night. Chris also managed to catch a pint glass mid-air as it fell from a table, not a drop was spilt. He’s a pro.The whole day confirmed for us that Bart and Michelle were great characters, exceptionally silly, kindred spirits and now officially our mates!

The next day was a bit calmer. We had breakfast in Mill Valley and it was tastey, fast, cheap and massive. Bart had a stack of pancakes that nearly broke him. We walked it off with a trip up to Tamalpais Mountain. Tremendous views down the valley and out over the peninsula, across the bay to the Bridge with the City in the background, floating on a bed of fog and looking like a Sci-Fi city, all it needed was a CGI dome. San Fransisco is so much greener than I expected, but in the distance we could see the darker smoke created by the huge forest fires burning in the south in the Big Sur region – devastating. We then had a stroll through some beautiful Sequoia trees and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest.
Our trip in San Fran was going to be over the next day so Bart and Michelle took us to collect our hire car. It is supposed to be a compact, but it still feels massive to us. Chris deftly followed Bart through the busy streets at rush hour to partake in an all American evening at the ball game. We briefly popped into Barts last business venture, ‘Chrome’ bike bags and gear. Very impressive, i thought it was a little shop, but it is massive with a large amount of stock, all very funky stuff designed by Bart and his mates.
Excitement built on the walk to the ball game and it was sunny with the hustle bustle of people aggressively hawking tickets and walking the streets in Giants (the baseball team) kit. We were sat up in the gods and could see out over the bay as well as the pitch. Not really too sure of the rules, but it was a lively game. People (shocker) eat like crazy and there are even people coming around selling food if you can’t be bothered to get it yourself. Chips, nachos, hotdogs, candy floss, donuts, popcorn….and so it goes on. We watched most of the game (sat next to two Scots, who we turned to, to ask about the game) but it got a bit chilly and we were all so tired from our massive Bart Tour that we left before the end. My nephew Harry would have loved it though. Lots of singing, cheering and of course the essential Mexican Wave. The jet lag, the boozing and the tour have finished us off. To bed!!!!!!!

Goodbyes were said early the next moring and Thankyous for our lovely stay with Bart and Michelle. We were so glad we visited them after meeting in New Zealand all that time ago, really great people – even if Bart’s James Mason impression left something to be desired (do you know he was born in Huddersfield?James Mason,not Bart)
We drove (well Chris drove as i am still too scared) to our next adventure, Yosimite National Park. On the way we stopped for breakfast at a roadside cafe. We ordered a sandwich and tried a side order of pancakes. It was our first American faux pas. This ridiculously large meal arrived with butter (a massive dollup) and mapel syrup on the 3 pancakes stacked and they were as wide as the plate. We ate at 11.00 am and were so full we couldn’t eat again until 7.30. Lesson learnt i hope!
It took a couple of hours, but we had time to get into the park and walk to a huge water fall called Bridal veil falls. There was a fast stream of water falling from its well weathered peak, hundreds of feet above. We are late in the season so it is quite low water levels now, it was more of a heavy flow than the ferocious pounding of full water flow in winter. The heat was overwhelming and Chris and i were a little unprepared for clambering over rocks. It was the best way to get closer to the base of the waterfall. I wasn’t going to do it initially as it looks a bit dangerous, however i reconsidered as i saw an old man doing it without any fuss or screeching. The huge granite walls that surrounded us were amazing throughout our drive into the park. Pine trees seem to teeter on edges of cliffs and grow in cracks and on ledges. Amazing!
It was 93 degrees as we walked around lower Yosemite Falls,another gorgeous waterfall surrounded by dappled shade through the trees. We were both feeling a little tired as we had not stopped since we arrived, so we made one last heroic effort to drive to Glacier Point before heading to find accommodation – on the way we saw our first deer, a Mule Deer, I say ’saw’ we almost hit it, which would have taken the edge off the day. Glacier Point has views over the famous Half Dome which is 8842 feet high. Everywhere you looked there are pine covered mountains with rock so white it looks like snow. We were impressed and thrilled to be there, but I was also pretty knackered so we said good bye for the day and headed out of the park for a bed for the night.
Our room was in a brick hut and we had a hot, but good night’s sleep. The next day was the last in the park so we made our way back to Valley bottom to take in more soaring views of the imposing granite cliffs and tried to walk off some of the food we had consumed over the past days. After this we drove out of the park via the Tuollumne Grove, home to some more huge Sequoia Trees. One of them so big that it had a tunnel drilled through it so Chris stood in its centre and couldn’t touch both sides or the roof, huge. Unfortunately this tourist attraction is now dead, killed by the very thing that turned it into a tourist attraction. We drove through some stunning scenery as we left the park, so much so that you almost become used to it and dare I say it, hardly look out of the window unless it absolutely demands attention! We travelled south as far as Bishop a nice town where we holed up in one of the many motels here, clean and efficient, we think they’re great. Next up is Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. America is strange because it all seems so familiar, even if you haven’t been here before. We promise to do better on the food front as well – begone devil food!Where can you get a salad around here?

Bye for now xxx