More A Way Of Life… Look, this is just between you and me

(01:48 Local time)

Time for a big catch up:

The flight out seemed very long - a sensation only heightened by the hour and twenty minutes we sat on board before take-off due to a problem with one of the doors (Thank you, 'The World's Favourite'....

Anyway, I ate crap food, drank cheap alcohol, and watched Enigma, America's Sweethearts and Disney's Alantis, so I was thoroughly brain-deadened by the time we arrived in San Francisco.

Happily, heading straight out for a wander up Market Street to the bay for beer and seafood brightened the prospect considerably, and the views of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges are always special.

Day two dawned rather grey and miserable, and shortly after, the heavens opened, and most of the rest of the day was spent ducking from one doorway to another avoiding the rain. So we did what anyone confronted with this miserable scene would do, and went *shopping*. By the time we'd dropped off bags of stuff back at the hotel the sun was vaguely showing, and a trip to The Castro was on the cards. The original plan was to have a quick wander round, get our bearings, and then head back to get ready for a night out. And yet....we got settled in, started trying a few bars, and before you know it, it was midnight, and we were just getting back to the hotel....

Sunday, a day of glorious sunshine and warm California breezes, I was up and about relatively early, as we'd booked a rental car for a couple of days - I walked up to the car rental place, but found myself there before they opened, so I had to retire to the Starbucks on the corner, where too very earnest young men discussing the bible gave me a chance to use in practice a line that I owe 100% to Buffy:
One of them said to me: "Have you made a space in your life for God?"
I said, "You know, I meant to, but then I just got really busy...."

Anyway, car collected, we took a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, feted in word, song, and porn video, past Half Moon Bay and down to Sainta Cruz, then on to Monterey, where we discovered the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is absolutely the best aquarium I've ever seen. As well as their ongoing Sea Otter conservation project, and the active tidal pool that you can literally see changing through the course of the day, they have outstanding educational areas for kids, an astonishing permanent exhibition of sea horses (ever since I worked on a TV programme piece on a programme about them I've been a big supporter of Project Seahorse), they also have one exhibition I could have stood and watched all day: a circular tank of anchovies, which school together in the most astonishing sychronisation, and being so amazingly silver, they're utterly hypnotising.

With good food and a cool drive back through the mountains, what more could you want from a day?

Today, or yesterday, really, was another beautiful day, and we drove north, across the Golden Gate, and into Marin county to Muir Woods, a redwood preservation area, and walked through these amazing thousand-year-old groves and the Redwood Creek, which runs through the middle of the woods. I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed. Even with a little fog on the hills making it chillier among the redwoods than it was on the road, it was one of the most remarkable and calming experiences I've ever had. When the delegates met in San Francisco in 1945 to start the process that led to the creation of the United Nations, they were taken to Muir Woods, to mark the passing of FDR and to contemplate the way a love of nature should bring all humanity together.

This evening, we've had a quiet evening, as we want to be up in time to pack in the morning - we're moving hotels. This one if okay, though not in the ideal location, but we've found another in North Beach which seems ideal. It's very, very Tales of the City, and we're going to stay in the room on the roof (just like the apartment on the roof of Mrs Madrigal's), and we're contemplating just spending afternoons at a time sitting up there, quietly reading or just regarding the view.

Something of note so far:

Today, we were in the town of Point Reyes - tiny place, middle of nowhere - when we saw a wall display headed 'Wargasm'. I was amazed that some of the strongest questions I've yet heard about the 'war in terrorism' were just freely on display for anyone and everyone to read and comment on. At leat 80% of the comments were conspicoulsly aggressive towards the US, its policy, and certain individuals, and yet it was still there.

I was amazed that they felt able to post this stuff up in public, often signed, and available to deface and destroy at will, yet it remained more or less exactly as intended. Maybe at least in Point Reyes, the concept of free speech is really taken seriously.

Tired now - more soon.