5/6 - Home

So here it is Tuesday afternoon and we're home. Its such a surreal feeling sitting here in the house with our friends. There's a sense of familiarity, but also of the alien - even about our own place.

Here's the last "day" (from our perspective) of the trip.

We'd organised a Lincoln Town Car (think of something like a big black cadilac) to take us to the airport, and it was at the hotel 15 minutes early. So we were at the airport in plenty of time for our 11pm (US west coast time) flight and went through the usual airport stuff - checkins, security screenings etc. - without any undue stress.

Though a Qantas flight it also tripled as American Airlines and MexicanAir (or some such) - so the plane was full and there was no chance to spread out. Regardless, the 14 hour flight was relatively painless - with us all seeming to catch a reasonable amount of sleep, and enough variety in the onboard entertainment to fill in the time.

Arriving at Sydney airport at 6am (oz time) Maria and I were both struck by the thick aussie accent of some announcers - looks like we've been away longer than we thought. The kids were both very (and visibly) excited, knowing that they'd soon be seeing many of the friends they'd been missing over the last 3 months.

The Canberra flight was short and smooth, though it was interesting to contrast the excitement with which the kids had greeted their first flight 3 months earlier; with the "uhhh-I'm-so-tired-of-catching-planes" that they approached this (our 10'nth) with.

Getting into Canberra (just after 10am) we had the extremely pleasant surprise of finding Joe, Belinda and my mother Helen waiting for us (complete with a welcome home sign). Again, impressions after a time away are funny. Canberra looked much greener to us than we recalled though Belinda told us there'd been little rain in the last 3 months. More strange was how different our house looked to us ... perhaps Nigel (our friendly housesitter) had improved the place in our absence, more likely living out of hotel rooms had altered our perspective ... certain spaces (such as the kitchen) seemed larger, others darker, with other properties accentuated.

The day till now (5:30pm) has seen a constant stream of welcome guests - mum, Belinda, Jane, Leanne, Sabrina, Anne, Luke, ... as well as phone calls. Doubly welcome not only for the warmth of friendship but also due to the fact that their presence has served to keep the four of us active and alert (it now being after midnight in SF) so that we can resynch our body clocks with Australian time.

All in all its been a strange day for its ready familiarity - after so much newness each day for the last 3 months - though with some strange twists. Emotionally the sounds of laughter and glad voices that have filled the house all day reassure me that we are all happy, which in no way lessens the feelings of sadness Maria and I have shared over the past fortnight as we "felt" the trip coming to an end.

3/6 - Parks, Homesickness and Farewells

This was the last day of our entire overseas trip, with our flight home to oz leaving at 10:40pm that evening.

Unsure of what to do with the day we asked the hotel desk clerk Tony, and he suggested we head out to the cliff house (a bus ride along Geary - the street our hotel was on), "stroll" down the beach, then take in some of the attractions in Golden Gate Park, before continuing on Haight-Ashbury, and then busing back. It sounded a good plan, so thats what we started with.

Once again the day was sullen and windy, particularly as we neared the beach area. We found the Cliff House to have a fascinating history - just before the turn of the 19th century being the site of a grand bath-house (don't think 70s San Francisco bathhouses!), but now an up-market restaurant and bar/cafe. When Maria attempted to order a cappucino she was misunderstood and given a cup of clam chowder... Who says Australians and Americans speak the same language?

The beach was wind-swept, a "dirty" grey (it is permissible to light fires on the beach...) and barren of all but a few intrepid/stupid souls like ourselves. As soon as possible we turned inland to the Golden Gate Park and sought to find the Japanese Tea Garden. What we failed to recognise was that the map we were using (the standard tourist map of San Francisco) so grossly simplifies that end of the city that the representation of the park is wildly inaccurate - missing most roads, misplacing attractions and most importantly not showing the true longitudinal size of the (heavily wooded) park - over 40 city blocks. 30 minutes later after floundering our way across (rather than down the park) we learnt of our mistake and realised we had a long walk (no public transport comes into that coastal end of the park) to get up to the "populated" end of the park around the garden and museum.

By the time we arrived at the garden, footsore and particularly hungry we weren't in a great mood. That was not improved after paying the entry price when we found that they served only tea and snacks (can you believe that they gave you fortune cookies in a Japanese teahouse...or that the "gift shop" was filled with "Chinatown items"?) So it was to the museum next door for lunch; then back to enjoy the very well designed (clever usage of space) and beautiful garden.

Having had our fill of the expanse of Golden Gate Park and it being early afternoon we decided to head back closer to the city - to "Japantown" (Nihonmachi). This is a 7 block (? of course its very artificial saying exactly how large or small these things are) area of the city dedicated to Japanese businesses and products. We spent something approaching 2 hours wondering through the shops and feeling very homesick ... for Japan. We even bought a few "souvenirs" of Japan. lol.

With the time of departure approaching we travelled back into downtown, tried to find a travel-strap for one of the bags in a shop, took a last ride on the cable-car, and had a hurried dinner at our favourite (if such a thing can be said after 2 dining experiences) just up the road from the hotel. Then back to the hotel to get our bags out of storage and some quick shuffling of contents (from the day pack we had been carrying) and our car to take us to the airport was already waiting...

2/6 - Bikes, Trams, Bridges and Micro-Climates

The day we arrived in SF, Maria had seen a tourist brochure about riding bikes over the Golden

Gate bridge. This fired not only her imagination but that of everyone (perhaps even moreso for the kids who had "missed out" on bike riding in Tokyo), so this cloudy/foggy Saturday we decided to head over to Pier 39, hire some bikes, and ride across.

While we could have ridden the "F" bus to the pier area, the cable car was a more enjoyable option so we walked the few blocks to Powell St, and though the first few cars were full, were eventually able to catch a car and give the kids a real thrill. Later in the day that thrill would be amplified when they hung off the rail/outside of the car.

Within a block of hopping off the cable car down near Fisherman's Wharf we stumbled on a bike hire shop. Before we knew it the enterrpising owner had sent an employee across the road to us and we were led/lured/conducted into the shop. Fiddling with helmets (Maria and her small head!), maps, guidance on routes (e.g., where was steep and best to down-shift) ensued, but eventually we had 2 tandem bikes and were ready to head off - Grant and I as one pair, and Maria and Zoe as the other.

The initial portion of the route took us through a couple of city-block's worth of streets before we could get onto the bike path. Having never read tandems before (it requires a degree of ocordination as the pedals are directly connected and if one person stops pedalling [stands on the pedals] that impedes/halts the pedalling of the partner) and with the other 3 being unfamiliar with riding city streets, the start was a bit shakey. But soon enough we were on the bike path and down by the water.

Being a cold and blustery

(particularly out on the bridge!) day, the ride couldn't be said to be a physical pleasure. However the novelty of the sights and the experience (particularly of each pair trying to work as a synchronised team) still made it very enjoyable.

Taking half a dozen stops along the way, and gradually becoming more and more saddle-sore we made our way along the shoreline and eventually up onto the bridge where the wind really picked up (and the fog was even more obvious). Having been advised by the bike-shop people that the ride across the bridge and down into Saulsalito was very nice (the cynical part of me says such advice was given because that prolongs the ride and they are being paid by the hour) we continued across and around the shoreline. Eventually arriving in Saulsalito in the early afternoon.

Despite the close proximity to SF (maybe 10km or so?), we found Saulsalito to be an entirely different climate - warm and sunny with little wind and no fog. Indeed, looking back towards the hillside we had descended we could see the fog and clouds streaming past at the height of the hill. We had lunch at a seafood/nautical themed (e.g., turtle shell light shades, model ships on the walls) restaurant before finding what time the ferry returned to SF (it had taken probably a couple of hours to get to Saulsalito and we weren't keen to face the ride back into the wind and cold). With some time to kill we had a bit of a ride around the township - I found it too "up market" for my tastes.

We weren't alone in thoughts of catching the ferry as it is a standard return route advised the by various bike hire companies. Indeed the ferry has bike racks on its lower deck and a well-oiled system (first on, last off) for handling customers with bikes. Seeing all the bikes closely stacked together reminded me very much of Japan and the typical situation around shops and train stations.

The ferry route back is an excellent one for seeing Alcatraz at close quarters (from a different angle to the ferries that run out there) as well as SF itself and the Golden Gate bridge. There were interesting light effects to be observed as we passed into and out of the fog, and the deck really pitched and rolled for a short period.

Arriving back at Fisherman's Wharf in the late afternoon we navigated to the bike shop, dropped off the bikes, and then caught a cable car back towards our hotel and more importantly Chinatown. We explored Chinatown for well over an hour before selecting a chinese restaurant for dinner. While chinatown still possessed a preponderence of the 3-tshirts-for-$10 style of shops (overflowing with cheap merchandise) it was good to note that there were a few shops that stood out due to selling real quality items.

After the restaurant it was time to head back to the hotel, and once again we rode the cable car (this time the famous California St line), hanging off the sides in the near dark.

1/6 - This is Summer?

A placeholder post Friday 1/6, our first full day in San Francisco in which
* We experience a summer day as cold as a Canberra winter day
* We visit Alcatraz National Park (yes, a national park)
* We spend time at Pier 39

31/5 - 4,000 Miles

Thursday, the last day of spring was the day for us to drive into San Francisco - our last destination for the trip - and return the car. We had loved the atmopshere of the Apple Tree Inn in Fish Lake with its 3-unit cabins nestled on the hillside amongst the trees (Zoe even saw a deer walking across another cabin's "lawn" that morning). However the 1-hour drive from there into the heart of Yosemite NP (along with some serious packing that morning so that when we dropped the car off we would only have as many bags as we could carry) precluded another trip in.

Fortunately the edge of the park is much closer, and nestled just inside on the Fish Lake side of the park is the Giant Sequoia grove. This grove is home to some of the largest and oldest living "creatures" on the planet - up to 3,000 years, 100 metres tall, and 10 metres diameter.

So we drove to the grove and walked the first mile or two of the trails there - the Grizled Giant, Bachelor and 3 Maidens, California Tree, and others were all seen and marvelled at. The sheer mass and height of the trees is something that photography cannot capture. There was a lot of good information on plaques along the trails - some data for the kids to think about and put in their journals.

Not too sure of how long the drive into SF Downtown would take, and with the day ticking away we finally said goodbye to the grove (with its horde of trolley-riding French tourists giving a less than rousing cheer for their tour operator) and headed out towards SF.

At Marapossa we stopped at a dinner with real character (old record albums "tiling" the walls and ceiling) and which boasted the largest menu in the sierras. Maria had a baked potato with an almost obscene quantity (and appearance) of toppings. I also recall a customer arriving who's car license plate stated "Once a Marine, Always a Marine", and that there was a hand-written sign on the door asking for new staff, and that the employer would pay for drug-testing of the applicant.

Then the long and chiefly uneventful (at least till we got near SF) drive ensued. At one stage we passed through the largest wind-farm I have ever seen. Hundreds, perhaps bordering on over a thousand windmills scattered across an area of several kilometres. It was well placed too - the winds were very strong.

Somewhere along the way we were able to find a gas station with a car wash as we were concerned that a car spattered with 1-month's worth of spring insects might incur an additional cleaning fee when returned. The gas station was interesting as it doubled as an Indian grocery (and goods) store - something that I don't imagine is that common. Closer in we filled up the tank (a less than wholesome suburb it seemed as the attendant was behind a glass partition...but extremely nice) then finally found the traffic as we edged our way over the Bay Bridge.

Our drop-off of the car in downtown (a "Union Square" location - though the term Union Square seems to be used to describe anything within a 6-block radius of the square itself) had been of some concern as we had a map the showed street names and directions, but not numbers, and the street we were to drop off on (Bush) ran in the opposite direction to that we would be entering the city from. So it was a tense time in downtown as we tried to choose correct lanes in the "peak-hour" (we were arriving in close to 6pm) traffic and when to cross over onto our street. We'd naively thought we'd just "pull-over" to the side of the road if we became lost or disoriented - fortunately that wasn't necessary as there simply was no place anywhere to stop.

Soon - only 2 irate horn tirades from angry drivers (thats one way to measure time) later - we were pulling into the underground car garage and unloading our faithful car (turned out we did over 4,000 miles in the car - starting in California, out east to Arizono, then north through Utah and Idaho, west into Oregon, then south into California ... a very large circle) in cold SF (we all got our jackets on very fast and looked quite the silly tourists in our shorts and t-shirts). Then we walked our bags the 3 blocks to the hotel (memories of the Athens experience when ariving from Santorini the first time came to mind) and before long were up in our room with its hand-painted mural (fish) walls. Then down and just up the street for some excellent (and very cheaply priced) Thai.

30/5 - That Falling Feeling

A placeholder post for Wednesday 30/5 which we spent entirely at Yosemite National Park and:
* Visited Yosemite Falls
* Experienced Rain in the Yosemite Valley
* Searched for, found, and did the Mirror Lake walk

29/5 - Jelly Belly National Park?

A placeholder post for 29/5 in which
* We visit the Jelly Belly jellybean factory for a tour
* Drive to Yosemite
* Visit Bridal Veil falls at Yosemite