Escape from Alcatraz

Coming in to land in SF you could see the countryside resembled Australia more than the European landscape of the east, the weather over here is different too, it’s cooler up here and yesterday parts of the Bay area were shrouded in fog - shades of Blackheath. The dominant tree variety seems to be eucalyptus and although I can‘t remember the details, the first seeds were imported 100 years ago. California definitely looks different. Finally we see the small cars which populate the rest of the western world. Yes there are plenty of SUVs, but most are smaller and smart cars have made a reappearance, we saw precious few over in the east. I think the Toyota Prius is the state car of California (and absolutely rules in the L.A. area).

We trained it on BART (Bay Area Rail Transport) from the airport to Oakland where Howard’s friends, Elissa, husband Carl and son Liam (8) live. The screech of the wheels over steel , in some sections, reached a decibel level that wouldn’t be allowed in Sydney's trains.


Elissa and Howard met in India many years ago and kept up the friendship. We really enjoyed our days in their wonderful 1896 wooden house which is under repair and upkeep as time permits - Carl is a craftsman carpenter and usually out working on other people‘s houses. They have a wonderful jumble of tall gums trees in the back yard which remind us of home again although we’d have to replace the squirrels with possums over there.


San Francisco - another city to add to our list of favourites. Howard had us walking up and down, up and down, never factoring in the likelihood of steep hills when planning our destinations, only advising me that I didn’t know for sure there would be hills in that direction or this. We took the BART into town visited the Ferry Building which houses some fabulous markets and specialty whole food stalls, bought some lunch things and then took a cable car, along California Street, that was enough for me thanks. Walked to Lafayette Park, even further up a hill, with fogged views over parts of the city making a mystery of S.F, had lunch. We walked back toward the city up Lombard Street which turns into the Crookedest Street at its apex and down again toward Fisherman’s Wharf, then bussed it back into town via Chinatown for the train back home. Next day Elissa dropped us off at Oakland Ferry Wharf and we boated into Fisherman’s Wharf where we did a thorough walk around, visited Pier 39 where there is a sea lion haul out and watched and laughed at the antics, had a little breakfast and walked toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Hours later as we neared the bridge which kept disappearing in the fog, we stopped at a café and bought a sandwich, sat on the sea wall and watched life pass by. We then climbed up to the bridge ramp and by the time we’d walked half way across the last of the fog lifted revealing the beauty of the bay area. As an added bonus (not) we got sun and wind burned faces. The wind was too fierce to keep our hats on and we’d forgotten our sunscreen. We looked like a couple of beacons by evening. We decided to walk through part of the bridge park to a bus stop but due to roadworks the trail was closed without warning and we were forced to double back which really didn’t impress me or my very sore feet but there was nothing else for it. We made our way toward an ancient looking building which looked like a Parthenon, was part of a complex called the Exploratorium: a hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception www.exploratorium.edu. We’d had the briefest of looks earlier in the day - very interesting especially for young people. Finally a bus stop, next the train and the last walk of the day from Oakland Station. The family took us back into Oakland to a vegetarian Vietnamese/Thai restaurant for a last night celebration and I have to say that the food was excellent - such a variety of vegetables. Not a scone (they call them biscuits here), grits or mayo in sight.

Sunday morning we made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf to pick up our hire car and the drive out of town took us up a very steep Hyde Street - with lots of oohs and ahhs from me as we went up each level to the crossroads. Don’t know why the climbing and descending traffic got stop signs but we did - back to the apex of Lombard into which we turned and slowly zig zagged our way to Highway 1, the coast road. Oh yes, and it was foggy or at least misty for a good deal of the way.

Tonight we are in Joshua Tree. It took hours to get out of L.A., this morning. Walls of cars in every direction and all doing their best to travel at speed. More next time. We have a long drive to the Grand Canyon tomorrow and it’s already late. Bye folks