Art Attack

This morning we got up early for once (we are just about still capable of doing this!) in preparation to hit up the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, which is free entry between 9-10am on Wednesdays. Having told Jeff this was our gameplan the previous evening, he was quite sceptical we would be up in time and thus genuinely surprised when we appeared in the kitchen to make some breakfast before 9 o clock. Having had some patients cancel on him that morning, he actually decided to join us on our jaunt to Golden Gate Park so off we went!

It was another beautiful sunny day, albeit with a slightly chilly breeze. The Japanese Tea Garden, the oldest such public garden in the United States, was very pretty with pools of water, water features, trees, plants, winding paths and various bridges. Personally, I didn't think it was worth paying to get in to but it was very nice, there was no doubt about that.

Post-Japanese Tea Garden, we headed next door to the de Young museum which was to be our next port of call. In standard fashion though, we ended up sitting in the de Young museum cafe with Jeff drinking coffee and discussing life (the topics this time were music, clubs and British houses). Once Jeff left,
we made our way into the actual museum.

One of the reasons we had wanted to visit the de Young was to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition and we were not disappointed! The exhibition was basically a collection of some of his clothes combined with famous photos and information about who had worn them, how he had designed the costumes for certain things e.g. a Madonna tour, or a Pedro Almodovar film. Some of the clothes were on models, the sort of which you would find in a shop, but each one had an individual projector projecting facial features onto the models face so that it appeared to be alive. This completely confused me to begin with until Kitty explained the whole projector set up. Some of them were not just changing their facial expressions but talking too. It was kind of creepy but the clothes were so fabulous it didn't matter.

The exhibition as a whole was brilliant. The attention to detail of the layout, the lighting and the various music as we walked through matched the detail in each of the various garments on display. At one point there was a moving catwalk complete with rotating models, spotlights and music. There is no way to do justice to the clothes in words either, each outfit really was a work of art. We took quite a few pictures of this I'm sure you'll be pleased to know!

After the Gaultier, the rest of the museum was nowhere near as exciting. The de Young is huge and seemed to go on forever but there were a lot of interesting things to see. We particularly liked the photography, and there was a room which contained not only a model cathedral built entirely out of gun parts and bullets but also a piece of work made entirely from pieces of wood which came from a burned out church in Alabama.

After mooching around the de Young for another couple of hours, we were beginning to lose concentration and decided it was time for lunch. Before we ate, we made a quick visit to the observation tower, which has spectacular views out over the city and the bay.

Our city pass entitled us to get into the Legion of Honour museum for free if we visit on the same day as the de Young (which we also got into for free) so after lunch we hopped on a couple of buses and made our way over to the other side of town to the Legion of Honour.

The Legion of Honour building itself amused us for a good half an hour as we took pictures of ourselves hiding behind pillars. Standard. The art inside was different to that in the de Young, mostly portraits, general paintings and marble sculptures, and all European.

We lasted about an hour and a half before we admitted defeat; there is only so much information about art a brain can take in all in one day!

So, we caught the bus home and made an excellent risotto, which Jeff also thoroughly enjoyed.

The day we poked a Starfish.

This morning we decided to head over to pier 39, to get there we hopped on a bus before catching a street car that took us the rest of the way. It was a pretty hot day so the crowded bus was traumatic enough but then when we reached the street car - woah nelly! It was a whole new level of trauma!! The streetcar was rammed and to top it all off we swopped drivers half way! The new guy jumped on shouting ' I'm a new driver!.. Hold on!!' before muttering 'I can't work this new stuff' whilst honking the horns and ringing the bell manically. He took a shining for us though and adjusted the mirror so he could ''see the beautiful people in the back *winks*'' LAD!

Once we got to the pier we mooched around looking at the shops and restaurants, the place hasn't changed since either of us were last here and it is still full of tourists - like ourselves! We decided to go to 'Bubba Gump' for lunch because Amy had heard good things from people about it and it had jumbalaya on the menu so I was game! The restaurants theme is inspired around the film 'Forest Gump' and the character Bubba's obsession with shrimp. The place is full of quotes, photos and trinkets from the film - the staff even come around to your table to do 'Forest Gump Trivia' - very American.
The food was good though and we got to take home a cup that flashes!! Also our waiter was freaked out by me being gluten free/wheat intolerant so got his manager to bring me my food invade he killed me or something?! Very odd, but lets not lie - I enjoyed the attention ;)

After lunch we went to see the famous Sea Lions... Well all 8 of them. There were hardly any there! I'm talking 8/10 max and usually there's hundreds!! They obviously are getting bored of being photograph so waltzed over to Sea World or something. However the ones we saw were still as amusing as ever, fighting and shoving each other off into the water.

Our city pass meant that we got into the 'Aquarium of the Bay' for free so we went just for the crack. It was pretty rubbish to be fair, the staff were very friendly though which distracted us from the awkward lack of fish aspect.There was one aggro looking octopus and that was about it! They had some of the standard pointless fish on show and a glass tunnel you could walk through where fish and sharks swam over you which was okay, although the glass was a bit odd so Sparks felt sea sick and I felt dizzy - a dangerous combination when around sea life.
Near the end of the aquarium there was a section where you could touch some of the fish and other creepy things, I poked a starfish then made Amy, it took her a good 10 minutes to man up enough and then a further 2 minutes to reach the starfish in the water. Her reaction was 'oh... Is that it?' as they feel like some sort of rock. Needless to say I don't think she was impressed but hey it's been a month and Amy has now eaten fish AND poked a starfish! Papa Sparks the 'fish fear' is gone!

Tonight we booked our tickets to Vancouver to visit friends and family, which means we aren't going to seattle anymore *sad face* the tickets there and accommodation was ridiculous considering we only were planning to go for a few days, so instead we are going straight up Vancouver and then Vancouver Island! We're both tres excited and I'm sure you'll all be glad to know we're skipping the greyhound this time and flying, no traumatic bus journey for us!

The Bridge

Today was the day we decided to conquer the Golden Gate Bridge. Lucky for us, the weather was near perfect for this mission: no fog in sight, sunny but not too hot (although in true Sparks fashion I managed to come home with a random burnt patch on my arm).

We headed down towards the bridge by bus. It's amazing how many tourists there always are on and around the bridge. There were at least ten or so coaches parked up on the San Francisco side of the bridge. Real tourists are brutal too; I experienced one Chinese man literally clapping angrily at me to get out of the way because his wife was trying to take a photo of him. And that is clapping i.e. not speaking words, Chinese or otherwise. Sorry for existing!

We were intrigued to walk across the bridge after having become obsessed with a documentary called 'The Bridge', about people who have jumped off. Interestingly, there were strategically placed signs saying things like: 'the consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic' and 'there is hope, make the call' next to phones for special emergency and crisis calls. Safe to say, no one threw themselves into the bay during our stroll!

The bridge itself is undeniably impressive, Kitty describes the red paint as seductive... And most of all the whole structure is ridiculously photogenic. If its possible for inanimate objects to be so! It also has incredible views out across the bay and back to the city of San Francisco itself. It probably took us double the time it should have done to walk across because we were too busy taking photos!!

Once we reached the other side we paused for a minute to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup and look back at how far we had already walked before continuing on downhill towards the town of Sausalito to catch a ferry back across the bay. The road down to Sausalito was not the most pedestrian friendly and people kept cycling past at high speed every two seconds, but we enjoyed our adventure!

Eventually, we reached Sausalito itself, which is an extremely pretty town built into the hill around the bay. It reminded me a lot of Salcombe in Devon, with houses built into the hills and boats floating lazily in the bay. Anyway, we really liked it!

We walked along the water and down the main street of the town to where we were getting the ferry. After eating our little sandwiches (Kitty's gluten free of course!) we sat and had an ice cream before boarding the boat. I was worried I was going to feel sick on this ferry ride back, as I am known for seasick tendencies, but I was fine! The views of the bay, the bridge, Alcatraz island and the city as we approached were well worth the $9 ferry ticket!!

Once back in Frisco we realised how knackered we were after our epic walk and went to get the muni straight back to Jeff's. It was certainly one of the more visually interesting journeys of our lives; Mental Monday's! Firstly, there are a lot of homeless people here but, apparently, there was some kind of homeless convention outside one of the banks; dozens of homeless people and their trolleys were gathered there all chatting together. Casual.

On our muni ride home we witnessed some of the most random things. A man got onto the bus and was arguing with the driver, who must have told him he wasn't allowed on, to which the man turned around and yelled to the whole bus 'F**k you all!' Nice. We drove past a woman randomly screaming at a bus stop. As you do. Another woman was dancing around the goods she was trying to sell on a street corner, whilst the police were right there telling her she shouldn't be there. A man with pink hair was shouting at his own reflection in the window of a bank. And a man with a trolley was stood on the spot wildly waving his arms around. Like I said, Mental Mondays!!

When we got back, we pretty much collapsed and ended up falling asleep for an hour or so. This is the sort of effect the bridge has on us, although some might put it down to some real exercise...

After making a dinner of yesterday's leftover BBQ, we got down to some planning for the rest of our trip. We've already done loads but we've got a hell of a long way to go!

Gay Pride and Lemon Drops!

Today we had planned to go down to see the San Francisco LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) pride celebration and parade around the civic centre, however instead we only caught the aftermath which was still pretty impressive! It was amazing, the streets were full of people dressed up in all sorts of costumes/ VERY minimal clothing - nipple tassels galore! And of course everyone was sporting the famous rainbow flag!

The atmosphere was just like a festival and was very infectious! There were half naked men dancing, people singing, crowds cheering - the lot! It made is wish we could have things like this in the UK, although we don't really have nipple tassel appropriate weather in Newark...

The streets around the Civic Centre were all closed off and the police would casually stroll past the drunk people partying without batting an eyelid! Doubt we'd get that at home if we were in the streets! Needless to say, we want a gay pride party in Newark !!!

We were probably some of the only sober people there so after taking in the atmosphere we headed back to the house, rather than be tempted into stripping all our clothes off, slapping on some nipple tassels and downing a bottle of wine!

Once back at Hellhouse we got to meet the cutest baby boy, Daniel - too sweet for words. His mum lives in the appartment below so she brought him up to say hello, he was totally gorgeous and we were both 'awwwing', saying 'BA BA' and doing high 5's with him until it he decided he'd had enough haha! Hopefully we'll pulling faces and shouting ''BA BA!' with him tomorrow too :)

This evening I made Lemon drop martinis- a famous recipe at the Barthez household ;) they went down a treat! Jeff cooked up an amazing BBQ with pork chops, Italian sausage, burgers, fresh corn, grilled peppers and more! I have developed a love for American mustard and pickles, Amy doesnt share this love just yet but I have over a month to convince her!

After dinner we sat with Jeff putting the world to right discussing everything from feminism and relationships to global warming and drugs ! Great banter!

What did the astronaut say to his wife? "I need space."

Today, we took advantage of the lovely weather and headed over to Golden Gate Park. As parks go, let's just say its one of the most impressive. As it was a Saturday, there were a lot of people milling about (in a good way), running or walking their dogs. People have the most interesting dogs in Frisco; we met a really nice man with two really cute dogs, they were a lot like Winnie but had darker fur and were apparently some kind of Australian cross, whatever this means! One of them though had two different coloured eyes, just like Winnie! Very strange coincidence...

We decided to hit up the California Academy of Sciences in the park, as we had free entrance to it as part of our city pass. Being a Saturday and all it was pretty busy and there were lots of cute little kids running about everywhere. The museum was still pretty cool though, there were lots of turtles, real and fake, which greatly excited Kitty, and an underground aquarium which was fun! There was also a 'living roof', i.e. the roof was covered in grass and flowers. That was a first for us!

Our favourite bit though was the planetarium where we saw a half an hour film about earthquakes. The guy who was the live narrator was quite the comedian, and entertained us with science related jokes whilst we were waiting for the film to start.

After leaving the museum we wandered around the park for an hour or so. We wanted to check out the Japanese Tea Garden but couldn't be bothered to pay for it. Since I was last here four years ago, they've also started charging entry to the Botanical Gardens, so we bypassed that too and just wandered about.

When we got back to Hellhouse, we were knackered from all our wanderings. Angelo was on his way out to a party, and Jeff was meant to be giving him a lift. Somehow this ended up as all of us in the car and going for an adventure. After dropping Angelo off, Jeff took us on an excellent drive around the city, up to Pacific Heights to check out the huge houses, and down to the Presidio, a former military base which is now a neighbourhood of houses and home to an impressive set of buildings belonging to George Lucas' film company. We stopped and walked through some of George Lucas land and it was really very pleasant, fountains and statues and water features. Great views too.

As we drove on around the bay the views got better and better. Some were of the bridge, some of the bay, and some looked back over the city. It was a beautiful, clear evening so we could see for miles.

Eventually, we made our way back and cooked up a concoction of Italian sausage, green peppers, onions, and some tinned baked beans we had got overly excited about. Topping this off were the gluten free bagels Kitty had found in Safeway. Jeff couldn't quite believe how excited it was possible for someone to get about a bagel, but knowing Kitty had been deprived of bagels for a year I found it perfectly understandable!!

After dinner we were joined by Angelo, who kept telling us we should be over towards the Castro where there was some kind of lesbian parade taking place. Normally this would have massively intrigued us, but having eaten too much we couldn't bring ourselves to move and instead sat with Jeff discussing life, the world and the universe (mostly work and various recent deaths) until the early hours of the morning.