Friday 27th April 2007. San Francisco, California.

The term Bay Area refers to the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. A total of seven bridges cross the bay with the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco to Oakland and Berkeley and the Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco to Marin County.


Apologies to all those people who have e-mailed to remind me that the blog is behind. I have had difficulty getting internet access and then this morning I put out my hand to save myself as I fell down the stairs and it has swollen up and thus it is very difficult to write or type.

I will update things just as soon as I can.

Anyway, today I am off to stay with Cousin George. This will be the first time I have seen him since Christmas 2005 in New York so we will have a lot to catch up on...

I did actually head out though in the late afternoon to Samovar on Sanchez Street. Since a tea tradition is common to nearly every culture from the exotic to the simple and from London to Marrakech, then I thought that I would drift off to a foreign land and have a Moorish Tea which consisted of Moorish mint green tea, grilled halloumi kebab and mini mint salad along with dolmas and olives, and medjool dates stuffed with chevre.

This is a tea service that has evolved from the ancient nomadic Berber tribes of Africa.

Tonight I got the chance to drive down the zig-zag of Lombard Street on our way to Little Italy. Enroute out of the city we headed to Fort Point to view the Golden Gate Bridge by night.

When the Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27th 1937 100,000 people celebrated the engineering and architectural triumph over the waters that had been deemed unbridgeable. Yet engineer Joseph B. Strauss had linked San Francisco and Marin County with a record breaking span that swung 27ft in a stiff wind.

Off over the bridge and we stop in Mill Valley to eat at an In-n-Out, a Californian tradition in burger joints before heading home to Sacramento.