We have managed to survive San Francisco. For those thinking of visiting the place I advise that you first goto Blackpool, find a tanning salon then get a day return from Stargate to Fleetwood. Pier 39 etc are reasonable if you like wandering around shops and have a passion for sea-food, if those things aren't for you then I suggest staying away from the docks. The cable car ride is worth the 45 minute wait (yes forty-five minutes) and we were kept entertained by two of the locals. One of them was playing some decent'ish riffs on an old electric guitar, while another one was begging change "for a chicken sandwich". The chicken sandwich guy was being shoo'd away by a small chinese chap who ran the security for the cable cars, eventully the chicken guy got p*ss*d off at being moved on and so started shouting obsceneties at the little chinese bloke. You could hear the chicken guy bellowing "Suck my c*ck, taste the Gook -- you Gook" from a block-away... I guess San Francisco truly is the city of *brotherly* love -- and we're talking in the biblical sense. Later on we drove across the Golden Gate bridge to find the Skywalker Ranch only to be escorted away after only taking one photo of the front gates... Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of the blonde cutie that pushed us away :-) Here's a couple of pictures of the cable car and one outside the gates of the infamous Skywalker Ranch.

Looks like we were a victim of bad labour day timing. At the large tourist/ticket booth we were told that the earliest trip we could book for the Alcatraz and Bay tour was Monday... today was Saturday... in a word... BUGGER !!!! Still, managed to get a few photos.

We have finally made it to San Francisco. It seems that we are once again in a Godless world with only our cameras and MP3 players for comfort. The plane journey was relatively uneventful, once I was shoe-horned into the seats I found nodding off every now and then quite easy, but 15 hours on a plane is not a pleasurable experiance, neither is wandering aimlessly around American airports with a large set of baggage. Anyway, going to catch a cable car and visit Alcatraz. See you all in a month.

Those who know myself and young MikeI may have been aware of our previous Blog files that detailed our trippette to Boston, MA. Due to the great success of that site we've decided to create a new blog that will be following us throughout our impending rollercoaster of a holiday through the U.S of A. With any luck it may also be of some use to the authorities should we disappear off the face of the earth.