Well, I didn’t wear any flowers in my hair, on account that I didn’t know if guys could still do that without getting arrested or at least accosted by people of the same gender! More of that later.
We arrived at 10.00 in the morning technically only 4 hours after leaving Coolangatta on account of going over the international date line. The flight was relatively uneventful, and we hit the town as soon as we had checked into our motel.
A famous San Francisco cable car
Chanelle and Chloe wait for for their first cable car ride
While waiting for the cable car ride Chanelle befriends a member of the San Francisco PoliceDepartment
The classis photo shot of San Francisco - hanging off the side of a cable car
Another classis SF view - the Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the early morning mist
Chloe and Chanelle ponder the crookedest street in the world, Lombard Street, SF
After a hard day sightseeing, Chloe and Chanelle unwind in a restored 1950's Diner
HAIGHT-ASHBURY
For hippy affectionados, you will know that this was the suburb of SF which gave birth to the hippy movement way back in that Summer of Love of 1967. Today it is known just as The Haight, and still bears many momentoes of that era. Not unlike a much larger version of Nimbin, with plenty of psychedelic signs on the shop fronts and numerous shops selling arts, crafts, hippie clothes, bongs (what?????), tobacco, other tobacco etc etc.
We wandered through The Haight down to Golden Gate park where all the loving of that Summer took place. There were still so many people sitting on the grassy hills, many looked like they hadn’t moved in 40 years, but plenty of young people had also moved in. A band was playing, and there was a strange smell which filled the air with love and peace!!
Golden Gate Park, where the hippy movement began in 1967
Colourful shopfronts in the area of Haight-Ashbury
THE CASTRO
There are four main things SF is famous for, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cable Cars, the birthplace of the hippies, and the fact that it is the gay capital of the world.
The Castro is the suburb where the gay community hangs out. Of course, we had to take the kids there to educate them in their journey of life. It is a cool place. Strangely, we felt safer there at night than anywhere else in SF (not that SF has a high crime rate, but it’s still the US!!). We got virtually dragged into a shop, an art gallery type of place, still open at 10 pm, which was celebrating it’s first birthday and they were handing out free wine and nibblies. Never one for turning down people’s generosity, I accepted their invitation, and we were then treated to a karaoke performance of an unlikely drag queen performing ‘Fever’ much to the amazement of Chloe.
After this, Karen and the girls went into a pharmacy to get some girlie-type stuff and I said I’d wait outside to watch the passing parade. Whilst they were inside, I was approached twice by guys and both used the same opening line “Are you alone?” (in an American accent of course). Naturally enough, I turned them down flat. I won’t have anything to do with that sort of thing (although the second one was quite cute).
On our last day in SF we picked up the rental vehicle, a Toyota 4WD, known in the USA as a ‘truck’ so I was finally able to achieve my life-long ambition to be a ‘truck driver’. We took a drive over the Golden Gate bridge, a fabulous experience, and was able to nominate our “Personality of San Francisco” award to the guy who collected our $5 toll on the return trip. He was wearing a cap which had “My Life Sucks” printed on the front of it. Actually, I made that bit up, but he should have been.
"Hey! The steering wheel's on the wrong side!!!"
Night view of San Francisco from the lookout at Twin Peaks
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