Last day boo hoo

1. left the flat kind of building near the bottle shop. We had a good time picking some tequila, whisky, wine to take home.


On the very last, we woke up a bit late, packed bags, then walked straight down to the bottle store, which is like a museum, very beautiful. We pack these into the bags then, and finally get them out at about midday.












2. right; lunch on Haight St near old old place.

Went for lunch at the bar with the beer brewing inside. It's just near where we used to live, and would have been awesome if it had been there before.




3. Left: the painted Ladies.


Then up to the painted ladies for a look, then we walked down to the dog park for a play. Then walked off to the Castro, for some expensive frozen yoghurt. The kids got to choose their own flavours and toppings. The boys loved that. We bought 4 pairs of shoes between us. Marie loved that.

4. Right: the gold fish bowl bar in the Castro.

Then we got on the historic F trolley (tram) down Market St. There were just hoardes of bikes rolling out of the city during this peak hour. Into Old Navy for some last minute t-shirt shopping, a bit more at the Gap nearby, then up to the hotel, where reception was wondering where we were and if we'd turn up before the shuttle bus.

5. Left: in the Castro

I tipped the bag man a fiver, but said thanks "dude" which may not have been the correct way to warm relations. We gave the shuttle guy a tenner, which judging by his face was the correct thing to do. Given the beaten up state of the shuttle bus, seemed the right thing.

6. Right: where else but the Castro.

We're at the airport with heaps of spare time to try to find the old sushi place, which is gone during renovations to that corner, through security and into some random sports bar restaurant, after scrutinising the duty free to decide if we could possibly squeeze another bottle of booze in, but probs not due to us exceeding the limits a bit already.


7. Left: the theatre in the Castro
















8. right; at the second hand store.







14 hours of flying, I slept the most out of all 4 of us. Watched the WestWorld series, didn't totally love it, and suddenly it was time to land.




9. left: the Castro.

10. right: the historic F trolley down Market St

Moday shopping day

1.Left: We head to get money changed in China town.


Then Marie is off shopping for the day, while I'm off for adventure with the boys.




2. Right: the park off Lombard Street at the bottom.

We stop at Lombard St, where there is a great park next to the library. I try to wipe down a slippery slide, so Louis goes down the fully wet one, and I'm not sure if Ollie didn't somehow get water in his shoes also. We're running around today, so no chance to get cold.

3.left; Lombard St

After this it's up Lombard St, the wiggliest section of it, which the boys run up, and get the great view. A drink stop after, the boys have a biscuit, which ends up being lunch.





4. right; the Musee Mecanique.

We head off to the Musee Mechanique. This place is full of old computer games, and mechanical games, many costing just a quarter (25c).





5. left; Pacman is a hit.

For example, my favourite is the execution, where a prisoner is mechanically hung. Another the prisoner gets the gullotine.





6. right; the mechanical boxing game is a hit.

Louis bowls, we do some Space Invaders, mechanical ice hockey,





7. left; and the hit of the day is the steam shovel which picks up chewing gum balls. It takes many turns to get a handful of them into the chute.

Then onto the quickest bus we can find, the 30, to the cinemas to watch Monster Trucks, which is quite a good film it turns out. Everyone gets into that one.

 Dinner is with Marie. We checked out the Chinese star signs, eg year of the dog etc. Ollie is a pig. Louis is a Rat, maybe? The boys and Marie had dinner at Sushi.

8. left;  night out with DanO 23rd Jan 2017.

Before dinner turns up, I headed up to the Page St bar in the Haight for beer and pool with DanO.

We go down to the Mission for more beer and pool. I argue with the server about the change. Not sure what happened. It's a weird kind of night. Dinner is a sausage on a roll once final drinks is called. Marie has been waiting up for me, since she's not sure in a strange city, and we all finally crash at 2am.

9.right: 27 Oct 2006 - hasn't changed a bit!

Sunday

The days are drifting away. Stop!

Left: I guess we went to the Golden Gate bridge in the morning.









Right: we all love the MUNI buses of San Fran













We get a bus up Haight St to check out where we used to live. We tell Ollie he used to live in this house too.

Left: Me and the boys at 874 Page St San Francisco CA. Less hair, maybe the same weight. 22nd January 2017, 11 years later.

Right: 18th January 2006, the day after I arrived to live over there. 11 years and 4 days earlier.

The guy next door with the big vintage bike collection is still there (Joe?), so we start chatting. It turns out that Steve, the painter, who lived next door to him, passed away due to cancer. Apparently he never wore the breathing protection while painting. Some of the paints are not so great.

Right: the Page Cocktail bar. We had many many nights up here. I had one more with Dano from work this time around.





One of many Haight St beauties.

Haight St tobacco shop.

Left: Hugues was in town for work. We had lunch with him and his work buddies.

Weirdly enough, we're meeting Hugues for lunch. Some of his colleagues are there as well, an English lady, two Italians and another English man who is taken with the boys having had two of his own. Tapas at Cha cha cha resto is pretty good.



Right: More trips down memory lane with Ollie, Lou, Mari, Chris and Lisa.

We wander down Haight St for a little bit, then call up Lisa, and go for the tram to get to her place. We get properly soaked. One of the boys makes us stop for a toilet break at the cafe.
Their place is fabulously laden with wood inside, and spacious. Dinner is at the local Thai place. These guys haven't changed a bit. Chris is doing film, and writing books. Lisa is still at Workday, but not for too much longer it seems. They've almost bought a bar, but that was similar to some years ago. Like us I suppose.

The N Judah tram takes us straight home. SF transport is awesome.

Saturday

Today we set off to see where Ollie was born.

Left: Grace Cathedral

















Right: the cable car on California (I think) outside the Grace Cathedral








A stop at a park with a great view over the east side of the bay, chatted to a guy whose wife is Swiss, because his sons jacket was a Quechua brand, which is French.

Left: MUNI electric bus - still awesome

Walked on and found the California Pacific Medical Centre, but it didn't look familiar. Asked one of the staff members, who said the maternity is a different campus, so we got on another bus, got off too early, tried again, and got right there.




Right: the California Pacific Medical Centre where Ollie was born. Ollie on the left Marie.


The wooden panel with the plaques of donors, the hospital corridors, are all familiar. We stop for a drink and apples at the hospital cafeteria, before getting another bus to the Embacadero buildings, get sandwiches, and onto the BART train.



No eating here for starters, since the people sitting nearest us are BART agents in BART shirts, so I point to the sign saying no food or drink to Marie, who has started pulling the sandwiches out.


They get off, and on comes some pink hat protesters. No-one likes Trump much around here. It's not clear what they're protesting about, but in the coming week or two, there's plenty of things to choose from to protest, for example lifting restrictions on gun sales to the mentally ill, and blocking people with visas from 7 odd countries fleeing conflict.

Right: Julie and Marie

At Rich and Julie's house, we're here to visit in Danville. The house is huge. The boys are upstairs playing devices until banned, then foosball. Dinner is at the local gourmet hamburger type place, then back for more battles with the pool noodle light sabres.

Right: The saga continues

Once again it's been a long long day of travelling. We're back in around 10pm, walking uphill in the dark, in the rain. The boys don't complain too much as long as you drag them up by the hand.

Friday 20th

The alarm went off at 4.40am. We must have eaten something but I can't remember. Rolling the bags down 7th Avenue, I didn't bother putting on a coat, and lugging all of them down the steps at the subway, certainly didn't need any further heat. We stood on the wrong side of the platform until 5.24 train rolled in on the other side, noticed the sign that said Jamaica/Airport, and a kind lady asked if we were going to the airport, and if so, get on!

At the airtrain change, once again, we have a 50 dollar bill, nothing smaller. You can only buy one ticket at a time. Marie buys something to break it. The machine only gives 9 change maximum, so we can't even buy one ticket. The kind shopkeeper breaks the money down further, so we sit there feeding the machine money $6 at a time per ticket, and some time later we're away again. Thank goodness we're very early.

We met a girl in line who spent 3 or 4 years living in Marseille in some dump that her boyfriend insisted on because it was next to the sea and had a view. Then we had our water bottles confiscated going through security, again.

Landing in San Fran is an awesome feeling, so familiar rolling through Daley City and it's little boxes on a hillside made of ticky tacky which all look the same.

1. Right: The boys take a short nap on the BART train.

On Market St exit, once again, I'm lugging the bags up the stairs, but shorter ones this time.


The room's not ready until the afternoon, probably luckily so the boys cant' sleep further, and we're off.

2. Left: all awake for the cable car, even if there was a bit of a queue. The entertainment of spinning the thing around is there.

First stop is the Powell street cable car. The boys are very excited as we're right up the front, sitting sideways, with a few people hanging off the side of it, going up/down the extremely steep hills.

3. Right: everyone loves the cable car

4. Left. sourdough teddy bear is super delicious.

We wander around Fisherman's Wharf looking for the seals, and buy a teddy bear shaped loaf of bread for later. While we watch the seals, we eat a chunk or two, until a giant seagull swoops on mine, banging my hand out of the way, and scooping my chunk, flying off in the distance. Eeek.

5. Right: drawing the bear at a cafe stop. It's freezing outside, so it's great to warm up again.

Quick drink stop in a restaurant nearby, in the group of shops next door, wash my hands, then walk out trying to find the bus.

6. Right; back near the hotel at the foot of the Stockton Tunnel

We eventually got the 30 to the end of Stockton Tunnel, right near our hotel, and in for a well earned sleep.

Our boys are absolute troopers, no complaints all day, despite starting at 4.40am, and finishing the equivalent of about midnight NY time, 7pm SF time. Big sleep, big sleep in!

Thursday 19th Jan 2017

Can you believe it 2017? When I was little, I never thought that the year 2000 would roll around. They used to have a futuristic TV show called "Towards 2000" with all new technology. I don't think our greatest problems can be solved with new inventions though...

So today we all took a train down to the Ferry terminal, to see about getting on the Statue of Liberty. Tickets were not available to go inside the statue. All the street hawkers had them they said. Louis and Marie visited the outside. Ollkie didn't want to go on the boat, so in the end we took a PATH train out to Jersey, and saw the Science Museum, which Ollie loved, but I wasn't big on. For example, they had monkeys, and a huge bird spider, which are great but something that's more for the zoo. I was expecting parabola whispering dishes, inertia experiments and the like. We didn't get to the other sections, as Marie called and we had to run.

We got the bus back out to Jersey to visit Alicia. This time we got out at the right stop, which was in the middle of a big car park. At one end of the car park were a hand full of shops. Little box, big car park seems to be the standard.

We picked up the kids from school, drove home. Alicia had some pasta sauce cooking, which was very good. We hung out for a while, chatted etc, then belted out at around 6 or 7pm to get the train back again to Penn Station, I think it was, then a subway, then home, then pack for the following day with an early early flight! Luckily we'd done the walk to the subway before, so we knew it was 5 minutes plus time to battle 2x20kg bags down the stairs, plus carry ons.