Yes. "We're going to Saaaan Fraaaancisco"

So after returning from Vegas to Pasadena the plan was that we'd spend a nice finale day with Steve and the family before getting back onto the road to head up the Pacific Coast - taste some wine in the Napa and then push on to Frisco. That nasty tennis bug we spoke of previously came back into our court, and Thom took his turn to be very much out of action for a couple of days. To finish this evil bug off once and for all we concluded that it be best for us to stay in one place till it had died, and then get back on the road. As this took a couple of days Napa was cut out of our schedule..... that's just the way things turn out unfortunately, but at least we have a very good reason to return to this part of the world again in the not too distant future.
All those things you read about how beautiful the drive is along the Pacific Highway are most definitely true. We pulled over a few times to peer over the ledge of the road to take in the powerful waves of the Pacific - I think if you were to try and put natures forces into a league table of sorts the sea would always be at the top, feel free to discuss this with me over gallons of wine at any time. We also pulled up at a town that had it's very own Baywatch Lifeguard towers, and then a Sea Lion colony just up the road instead of pneumatic lycra clad lifeguards.
After a most expensive motel stop in the small artsy town of Carmel (this is the place where rich retirees come to do a weekend of pottery work to finally release the artist within) we drove on to get back to nature at Yosemite National Park. As you can see from all the pictures we have included for you - we had a really great day. Like at the canyon things were chilly as we were high up, but we were a bit better prepared this time so we didn't notice the chill so much. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking on this one.
We got to Frisco with very little time to spare to re-pack up everything into our now bursting rucksacks, and drop of the Chrysler. After saying Toodle-oo to the annoyance of GPS and driving the wrong way, we were happy to kick it with the pedestrians in downtown Frisco. Our first point of note has to be the amount of homeless people there are here. Our hippie ideals were slightly shaken I have to say, we are still to discover the real stats behind why there are so many people who have kind of dropped the ball - could this be what happens when a social revolution croaks and the acid hangover kicks in? Or is this a matter of race which stems from educations systems from yesteryear? Hmmmmmmmmm. Even though there is a heck of a lot of messed up homeless folks here there are some characters we'd like to tell you about who we think define the vibe of Frisco in a strange way. First up is the guy who turned right when the rest of the cast of Fame turned left. This fella was kitted out in the ripped sweatpants, the leg-warmers, the jazz shoes, the sweatbands and was even grooving out to a vintage Personal Stereo. Never in my life have I ever seen such wonderful crossing of the road. He body popped, he shimmied, he pirouetted and all the while he sang at the top of his voice. We both froze mid doughnut scoff to watch this in amazement, only distracted by the next 2 Characters who were an image of when it's worth looking at the funny side of life. Both were homeless and both of them were wheelchair bound - of course there is nothing funny about either of these things, but what was simply brilliant to see was that the wheelchair which was powered had somehow been connected up with the wheelchair which was not and together they were cruising all over the shop at top speed, laughing their heads off, having the best time. Of course they were not mentally sound and appeared to be extremely high, but it was the fact that they were just having fun in that moment that made me smile. We made a point of chatting to a few homeless people as we gave out any leftover food we had from those crazy American Portions, the people that we spoke to were most appreciative and usually pleased to chat and have a joke with. It is this fascinating light-hardheartedness that we loved about Frisco - especially when you find at it's strongest in the people who appear to have very little to be happy about.
Chinatown was certainly worth all the thigh challenging walking, we had a great time mooching and snapping up the bridge. We both loved the beautiful architecture which is so strangely balanced upon all the gradients. Fisherman's Wharf had that lovely blustery sea side feel to it. There is Clam Chowder steam coming from all directions down there - and we spent a while watching the artful dissection of live crabs on the sea-front. Whilst taking in the view of Alcatraz we tapped our toes to one helluva smooth brother who was jamming out on an electric keyboard (he sounded just like Chef/Mr. Hayes) with a warming saxophone accompaniment. I picked up THE best seaside souvenir here as well. It's a 50's inspired metal sign of Whitley Bay. Yes Whitley Bay - Northumberland. With a hot chick in a bikini on the beach with her Scotty dog and a tiny pic of the Spanish City in the background on it. In all the places!??!!
Our trip finished off with a much too brief afternoon strolling down the Haight, there was just not enough time for us to enroll ourselves into some kind of visa dodging commune, or take part in any kind of flower ceremonies. We did take in the shops and a couple of bars and were overjoyed at the wonder of all the charity shops there - they are like treasure chests filled with gem-like stinky hip threads.

This is definitely a place we shall return to.

After a very techno-heavy flight on Virgin US we headed into NYC.

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