Turn on, tune in, drop out (of highschool and become a trendy homeless person?)

Its been a few days, and a great few days at that. Quick summary: After Marge headed down to her family, i went on a day trip with Brian to Marin County. We had a very enjoyable day, listening to some classic tunes in the car on KFOG radio, cruising along the Golden Gate bridge and across the North side of San Fran. Its madness that you only have to travel a short distance and your straight in the heart of nature with red oak trees everywhere. We had lunch in the Pelican Inn, I touched the Pacific Ocean on Miur Beach, and we ended the day at the top of Mount Tam with an increadible view over the entire bay area. The following day I headed down to San Jose (do you know the way?) to join Marge. I got this weird little public bus thing down and the guy beside me was this old Asian man wearing a Belgium cap, reading the Catcher in the Rye. Marge and me spent most of the day in Santa Cruz which was fab because it was such a beautfiful day. We just mooched around, watched these people playing beach volley, checked out the surfers in the distance, and i tried not to go mental from having the Thrills song 'Santa Cruz' on repeat in my head. We spent that eavening and night at Marge's aunt and uncles ranch (seriously) which was really nice. They have this beautiful all-American pastel wooden house thats all bright inside and fullfilled all my American house-fantasies. The following morning we visited the old mission of San Juan Bautista (ive been spelling that all wrong for ages) and the town which is so totally from a Western film, saloon and all. After lunch, we headed back to Frisco and began the mandatory 'Steph wild goose-chase' that usually features on all my holidays. In this case, the Hello Kitty Mecca, childish and slightly unhealthy obssession of mine (well, one of..), the Sanrio shop. It was everything i hoped for...and so much more... That's all i'll say! We finished of the evening with a healthy dose of Nihilism, in the form of Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. Despite my complete aversion and repulsion to him as a person (in fairness he's a neurotic, saggy looking sex addict, who always writes parts for himself that involve kissing hot and young Hollywood actresses) its a really excellent piece of popular and contemporary philosophy. Anyway.. i digress.. Yesterday we explored what was possibly my favourite part of the city, the Haight Ashbury area which was the nest of the hippie movement in the 60s and 70s and where all the action happened. If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair. It still has a great buzz today and basically consists of a really long hilly road that's full of colourful shops fronts, vintage shops, 'smoke shops', cafes and bars, cool street art, and plenty of authentic hippie throwbacks/homeless people (unfortunately in San Fran the two terms are often interchangeable) and quite a few younger disciples. We spent the entire day moseying around, trying on weird shoes, just generally basking in the cool San Fran extended and much cooler Temple Bar/Camden-ness. Oooh, we finished off the afternoon with my first American pedi, in one of those cooool chairs with the basin at the foot of the chair. Aparently the mani-pedi market in the US is dominated by Koreans and this place confirmed that trend. So we sat back and relaxed and there's even a remote that you can press to make the entire chair vibrate while they work away at your feet. (Slightly disconcerting and some would even say rude) I even got the parafin wax dip, which Marian Keyes describes in Angels (Dok, you know what im talking about!!), which has left my feet feeling divinely soft. After a short stop in Piedmont back at base, and a disco nap to keep us going, we headed out on the town. We met up with Marge's friends who brought us to the centre of the action on this massive road with flashing lights, night clubs, strip clubs, sex shops, bars etc.. It was so weird i noticed that the que to get into one of the clubs was entirely populated by Asian people. I thought it was funny that the US prides itself on being the original model of integration (all that Melting Pot bollox and all) but it seems to be an increadibly segmented society, with everyone living in parallel with each other but always within their social/ethnic group. Generalisations, generalisations... Forgive me. We settled in this increadible little blues bar that was full to the gills and buzzing with craic from the punters feeding off the excelent live blues band. I suspect we were the only under-40/50s in the whole 'joint'. Tremendous fun though, a nasty amount of kamikazi shots provided by the silver-fox 50 yr old barman named Huck, and his shinning silver ponytail down to midway down his back. The doorman was SERIOUSLY (and this is not just for comedic effect) about 65-70, with a white beard down to his belly, and looked at me funny when i presented him with my crappy paper Irish drivers licence. He told me proudly that there's a picture of him on the bar's website, after i drunkenly told him he was a legend. This morning. All i can say is that it was rough. We stayed at Marge's friend's house and Marge and me slept on a couch which involved folding our legs in positions that God had not intended for legs to do. After much guzzling of water to quench the unquenchable hangover camel mouth thirst, we set off in search of eggs. It was another beautiful day today and after lunch we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf where we were greated by throngs of tourists (because of course, i am exempt from that label) The tours of Alcatraz where all booked up so we took a boat tour of the bay instead which was really cool. We went all around the bay, went right beside Alcatraz, right under the Golden Gate bridge and back to the pier where we spotted the sea lions all pilled up on the little floating rafts, looking like God had taken a big bag of sea lions and tipped them onto the rafts. It was a super day for checking ou the bay and a lovely day to finish off the San Fran visit! So that's folks. Tomorow we head for Florida, on to the next leg of our trip. San Fran impressed me so much. I really fell in love with the place. And our hosts, Brian and Chris, where so nice and hospitable it really made the visit so enjoyable. So we say bye to our little rented Chevy and goodbye to the West Coast. I'm so coming back!!!
PS.. Ill be adding pics in a few days when i get to a cyber caf... x