San Francisco, LA Take 2 and Home Again...

I loved San Francisco.  I  loved the way I could sit in a little French cafe, sipping thé and eating madeleines, and look out of the window at a Hebrew shul situated just inside the Chinatown gates. I guess you could describe it as an eclectic city, with such a mix of cultures and architectural styles all jumbled together, cheek-by-jowl; and yet it doesn't feel cramped.  It's like an old woman who has led a very interesting life and is by turns elegant and earthy, cultured and just a little bit racy.

On our second day in SF we went to Alcatraz.  I thought the tour was about an hour or maybe two...however, once on the island you were left free to wander and just get a ferry back when finished.  They have a very good audio tour, which is told from the point of view of the guards at the prison.  For souvenirs I purchased a tin mug such as the prisoners used and a book written by Darwin Coon, one of the last prisoners to leave Alcatraz.  It was 3 pm by the time we got back to the mainland, and as I wanted to mail my AVID books back to Australia (so that my luggage would  be within weight allowance) we walked up through Union Square to the post office, then walked up through the Quartier Français, back down through Chinatown and so back to Market Street and then across to our hostel.

The next morning we flew back to LA; this time we stayed at the Wilshire Plaza Hotel, which is right on the Metro line, in fact at the Wilshire/Normandie station.  That made getting around so very easy. There was a small strip mall which had several cafes and restaurants just across the road, so the first night we had a delicious Italian meal at the little trattoria on the strip.  The next day we spent the morning walking up and down between Hollywood/Vine and Hollywood/Highland photographing 'stars' and generally seeing the sights.  I popped into Borders and bought the latest Lyndsey Davis to read on the way home, and then spent a pleasant hour at Madame Tousaud's.  We lunched on mexican food at Hollywood Fresh and then took to the metro to head down to Venice Beach for the afternoon and evening.

It was freezing!  The wind off the Pacific cut like a knife, and yet people were determinedly enjoying their summer holidays in skimpy tank tops and swimsuits and little else.  I had sore legs from all the walking by this stage and sat in a sunny nook with a hot coffee, until the wind found me there too and I started to petrify from cold, so I headed down the beach looking for Chloe... who shortly zoomed up to me on roller blades. She was having a ball scooting up and down the beach and promenade like a local.  As it was getting dusky by this time we walked up to Santa Monica beach for dinner at yet another Italian restaurant and to catch the bus back to the hotel.  Knowing we had a BIG day the next day, we went to bed early.

Our final day, Saturday, we were up, breakfasted and heading out to the bus-stop by about 10 am.  First stop - Rodeo Drive.  We hit all the jewelry shops and the fashion designers (YSL, Balenciaga, Donatella Versace, etc).  Some of the fashions were just soooo ugly! yeuch!  Others were gorgeous and we derived a lot of pleasure from window shopping.   Then onto our last stop before the airport.

George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, which is on Wilshire Blvd between Rodeo Drive and our hotel.  Fascinating! the La Brea 'tar' pits are one part of a series of museums and art galleries all clustered in a two block area. There's a car museum, a folk art museum, the modern art museum, etc etc.  The La Brea discoveries are thousands of skeletons of ancient creatures that lived in the region: american lions, mammoths, ground sloths, dire wolves, the list goes on; all of which were trapped in the asphalt that seeped up through the ground.  There is a section of the 'dig' where you can see skeletons being excavated and a window in the museum where you can watch paleontologists at work cleaning the finds.  There are also hands-on activities for people to get involved in the displays.  They have so many bones that they have some out on display where you can actually touch bones from animals that lived and died 10,000 years ago.  Amazing! so interesting.  I bought a book as a souvenir here too.

Finally, our AVID conference trip and US tour was drawing to a close.  We took the shuttle to the airport (leaving at 6:30 pm LA time), went through all the formalities and enplaned for Australia at 10:30 pm.  The flight took almost 15 hours arriving in Sydney at 6:15 ish (Sydney time).  Only 10 minutes late,  BUT we then had a mad dash through baggage claim and customs to reach our connecting flight which was scheduled to leave Sydnay at 8:05 am.  Anyone who has flown will know, that  was cutting things VERY FINE.  Thanks to other travellers letting us through as we were so short of time, we made it with about 8 minutes to spare...

...only to find that because Albury was fogged in, we had a three hour delay! We arrived in Albury at 12:15.  That meant I missed my first lecture and tute of the new semester which were from 9 - 12.  C'est la vie!  I HAVE done my first readings, and taken C-notes on them while in various airports in the US, and will revise them before class next Monday.  So all is well.  We are returned, laden with much luggage, dirty washing, exciting tales to tell of our tour and a heap of ideas and enthusiasm garnered at the AVID conference.

So this is the final blog,
thanks for hanging in for the journey,

farewell,
Tracey