The flight to San Francisco was via Virgin ‘first class’ – which is to say, what other people call premium economy. Grimy white leather seats and cheap fizz do not make a flight ‘first class’. Nor was I impressed by the pole dance style safety briefing a very pretty and talented female flight attendant had to make for our section. People made such a fuss over this fun and funny Air New Zealand video which I saw several times on planes, but no one complains about this sexist shit Branson puts his staff through? Really?
We had good views over Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens, as well as Mt Shasta closer to SF. This was my first view of Mt St Helens
The apartment I booked was in SOMA (ie South of Market), and right opposite MOMA, currently under redevelopment. This location was very convenient, and excellent if you like good transport and early morning construction noise 🙁 In contrast to the previous place, it was pretty bare bones, the bed was bloody ordinary and the fridge made a hell of a racket, but the main point was the location. Who needs sleep? 🙁
Our dear and wonderful friend Carrie picked us up the next morning (Sunday) and took us to the Ferry Building for brunch at Boulette’s Larder. We had to sit in the full sun to eat (and stupid me, having declared we wouldn’t need hats that morning, got a burnt head), but my god the food. Doug and I had chocolate custard and beignets (don’t think of judging us 😉 ), Carrie had the most glorious scrambled eggs with cauliflower rice, and it was all fabulous. Oh and cocktails. For breakfast 😉
Then to Sausalito for lunch, sea lion and bird watching, and shopping, and home via Sutro Heights.
Carrie is not only an excellent driver, but a wonderful and patient tour guide for her city.
Next day it was off to Yosemite, again with Carrie and her almost new, new vroom vroom 🙂
It’s a long drive and it didn’t help that BART stations eschew signage so picking up passengers is a drag, and that M. le Google decided we didn’t really want to go to Yosemite on our way to Mono Lake and Lee Vining where we were staying for the night. So we didn’t actually get to the edge of the national parks until after lunch (at a surprisingly wonderful bar/restaurant we stopped at in desperation. We also got correct directions 🙂 ) We didn’t get to Yosemite’s actual park entry until two o’clock.
On the way, the effects of the drought and recent forest fires were all too evident, in a drastically low reservoir:
And actual burned landscape and info boards about the fires.
Once we entered Yosemite, there were still signs of recent fires, but everything was a little greener. And the scenery was mind blowing, especially once we went down into the valley. This is Half Dome.
El Capitan
And Yosemite Falls, sadly without the falls, and rechristened Butt Falls because Carrie said that was how she remembered the shape of it 🙂
It was stinking hot and full of people down in the main part of the valley (where the visitor centre is), and Carrie wanted to push on to Mono Lake to catch the sunset. So we didn’t stay that long (nowhere near long enough to see everything, not even the giant redwoods), but there were still about two hours of scenic driving ahead of us:
We did indeed reach Lee Vining at sunset but I had to sort out a booking stuff up at our hotel, so I sent Doug and Carrie off on their own to view the lake under the sunset and the super moon.
Even though Carrie nearly died from quicksand (well, nearly lost her shoes), the pair of them were up bright and early to see the lake by sunrise. Bear in mind, I haven’t at this point, seen even a drop of water from the lake 🙂
But later that morning, after coffee and breakfast, I finally got to see this famous lake (which did not, however, figure in a Dr Who ep, my mistake Carrie, that lake was in Utah) and the tufas:
Back through Yosemite the next day, stopping at Tuoholme Meadows for lunch, taking photos of what we had seen in haste the night before:
Even after all that, Carrie still had energy to take us to a great bar/restaurant in Oakland, and a walk down to Jack London Square, before driving us to the BART station.
And then we all needed a day off 🙂 (Carrie most of all, of course.) So we took it easy in SF while she got on with stuff in Oakland. We went to the really quite lovely Asian Art Museum in SF, which had some real treasures:
But also shit like this, ironically in a special exhibition called ‘Gorgeous‘ (very little of it was, in fact.)
After this we wandered down to the extremely swish Westfield mall at Powell for lunch, grocery shopping, and a good old sticky beak at everything 🙂
Because Carrie is a genius, she remembered that Thursday nights are late opening at the California Academy of Sciences. She took us for great food near Golden Gate Park (damn she knows all the best places to eat), then to the De Young art gallery, which we’d been to before. There was a new American Indian art exhibition, as well as art from Africa and Melanesia:
As we were too early to go to the Academy, Carrie took up to see the Tiled Steps:
while the fog rolled in:
(no, I didn’t walk up them. Doug went part way up 🙂 ) Then to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. Um. It was…green. The water, I mean. The Chinese garden and pagoda were nice, though
And then over to the Academy. We were early and there was already a massive queue. By the time we left, the place was wall to wall with boozy grown ups (who are not less noisy than the kids, in fact). Alcohol was available everywhere, but you couldn’t take it into the rainforest in case you confused the butterflies 🙂
The Stienhardy aquarium was the most fun, with all the sleepy fishes. But as the crowd grew in size and volume and drunkenness, and after a distinctly ordinary meal (it was so good there last time 🙁 ), it was less fun, and we were all glad to get out. Still, it was a great experience, and the Academy is still one of my favourite places in SF. I’m so glad we went.
The indefagitable Carrie was not done showing us around, oh no. We had planned to go to Monterey that Friday, but it turned out there was a three day triathlon taking over the town, so no point. Instead she took us for yummy Thai food, and the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, where we took many photos:
Inside the garden is a greenhouse, the Conservatory of Flowers. Look familiar? 🙂
That’s because it’s a direct copy of the Kew Tropical house, made by the same architect! Inside, like the one at Kew, there is lots of loveliness:
After we stopped for icecream, Carrie drove us to some scenic points so we could watch the fog that eats San Francisco very day.
We had an early night that night, because the next day we went back to the East Bay. The Crucible at Oakland, an arts education centre, was having an open day, so we got to watch glass blowing, jewellry making and other crafts, as well as spend up big on small pretties (our suitcase was a disgrace at that point 🙂 ). Carrie then took us up to Berkley, to see the town, go to the Rose Garden
and see the view over the bay from Indian Rock. Doug is sitting on top of Indian Rock 🙂
Berkley’s really lovely. And of course, really expensive to live in, same as most university towns.
Coffee, shopping (I bought yet another handbag – honestly how many does a woman need? But this is the best one, she says convincingly) and then to Rangoon Super Stars for dinner. Omigod, so good. So busy 🙂 I could barely walk afterwards, I was so stuffed, but it was just incredible food. And they were so nice there as well.
Carrie had another day off on Sunday because she had to go back to work the next day and boring stuff like groceries and laundry still had to happen, but we arranged to meet up with her and her mate Katey at Mua Bar in Oakland for cocktails and food. The two of them were excited about going back there and now we knew why. The bar staff have a generous hand with spirits (not to mention with free samples of American whiskey!), and the food was wonderful. Every little crumb of it. Reviews had raved about the cheese free Mac ‘n’ Cheese, and they were right. The brussel sprouts were to die for. Lamb cheeks, ditto. And the desserts were of the same deliciously high standard. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to a good friend and her good friend, and plot our next adventure together – next time in Australia, we hope.
Boringly, we spent the next day after checkout at 12.30 at the airport to our flight at 9.15 pm – because we had our luggage, we were tired, and there was nothing left we had to do. And SFO isn’t a bad place to wait – free wifi, lots of places to sit and eat, and exhibitions of material from the temporarily closed MOMA. Once we could check in, we were allowed to use Singapore Airlines lounge (yay) so we could shower, eat supper, drink more booze, and roll onto the plane. The worse bit was the early landing at Auckland (5 am) and having to go through security straight off the plane (so mad scramble to repack the toiletries, grrrr) before we could hit the business lounge and wait for four hours for our flight.
Sadly, no famous persons to mislead us this time. (On the outward flight, Doug spotted someone in the Auckland lounge whom he thought was Sylvester McCoy. After Doug went off to find more booze, I went over to this tiny bloke to ask him. “Excuse me, but my husband thinks you’re Sylvester McCoy.”
Tiny man draws himself up and in a cross Scottish accent says, “No, my name is James Kent Price, and I have ID to prove it.”
Oops. I backed off, apologising madly and wishing I could disappear into the floor. Only to discover a couple of weeks later when idly looking something up on the Internet, that I’d been had 🙂
So that was our amazing, exhausting, all singing all dancing trip. Now I only have to write up a few of the hotels and I’m done!