San Francisco Days 1 and 2 – 8th and 9th September 2017

Hi, from the Bay Area

So after getting dropped off by Liz the Legend, we checked into La Luna on Lombard Street. This is in the North West of the city – very close to the Golden Gate Bridge and we spent the remainder of the day checking out our immediate surroundings. We firstly walked up to the crookedest street in all of San Fran – which was part of Lombard Street – but is famous for its 8 switchbacks. Years ago when I used to play Tony Hawk’s with my little bro, we’d olly onto the top of cop cars from this street, and now I was on it!! Classic!! It was such a tough walk to get up to this street but we got to see it at the right time of year as all of the hydrangeas were in full bloom. Very pretty street – but Christ I’d hate to live there – touro central. By the way, this part of San Francisco reminds me of The Hill in Newcastle. Very similar gradient and climate – at least for this hour as San Fran climate changes on a dime. They even have a name for the fog – Carl. He has his own Facebook, Twitter etc… He’s a real thang!!

We then checked out the very cool Chestnut Street in the area called Cow Hollow. This is a great restaurant street and has a real village feel to it as there are bars, grocers, homeware shops, schools, parks etc… We dug this joint and had Mexican at a place called Bonita. We had forgotten about the portion sizes in the U.S. and my burrito was about as big as my forearm. Jen’s nachos covered the entire dinner plate and we rolled out of there, into a food coma and crashed out pretty soon afterwards.

The next morning was foggy – well we did just finish Fogust (August) – but we were determined to grab the bus over to the bayside ‘burb of Sausalito. We had a lot of trouble with Google Maps, and different bus services/bus stops/surly drivers etc… but we finally managed to get over to Sausalito and we spent an hour or two walking around this quaint little bay town. We saw the usual souvenir shops, cafes, markets etc… and then grabbed the ferry back – past Alcatraz – and into Pier 39 where we saw the sea lions lolling like big fatties on wooden jetties. Reminded me of myself last night! A quick coffee/Wi-Fi stop at the Hard Rock Café allowed me to get some drool worthy pics of some of the best guitars/drums before we grabbed a bus to Polk and Sutter to a little place called “Let it Bleed” Tattoo shop. Oh yeah – I’d been stinging for a new tatt and I figured now was the best time. Brian was my tattooist and yes he accepted walk-ins and yes he could do a line of Hindi script and yes he could do a Chili Peppers logo…Rightio then – let’s do this.

45 minutes later and I had a Chili Peppers tattoo that was done in California!!! Man what a buzz!! My wrist band is the Hindi word for courage (pronounced Saahas) and looks like the word “HIGH” – which was one of the reasons that I chose it – a way of trying to overcome my heights phobia… Brian was a great young dude from Colombia and for added Rock Star cred, he told me that his girlfriend is the daughter of Les Claypool from Primus!!! How’s that for a bass connection. Peppers and Primus in one go!! Also the studio was named after the Rolling Stones album – not the Courtney Love shite!!

Anyway we meandered back to the hotel room after taking pics of some awesome street art, and smashing soup and a club sandwich in a crepe shop.

The day had taken its toll and we had a 6 hour walking tour planned the next day – so we took it easy.

Great day today – walked about 15,000 steps, saw some new places and got some new ink!

Rock n Roll – San Fran style!!

Peace

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