Trail and Error - the search for Professor Pigment

THURSDAY
Today we went on a Trail around Stoke-on-Trent - in search of art!

Our interest started when we saw a cool picture of Peppa Pig in the car park where we park in Hanley when we go to Painty at Portofino. She had a moustache and her surname had been lengthened to PigMENT. We had no idea what it meant - but we enjoyed seeing it each month.



Lady with flower tattoo

Then stories started appearing in our local paper The Sentinel about a mysterious street artist called Professor Pigment who was leaving art work all over the city.

The graffiti was related to Stoke-on-Trent culture and its personalities and heroes, Gordon Banks, Captain Smith (who went down with the Titanic) and even a duck up 'Anley asking about oatcakes :-)

Everyone was speculating who it could be and what he would do next. Then last month I was thrilled to discover one when I went up the road opposite our house. There on the side of a tattoo parlour was a Pro Pig original!
I was so excited I found Pro Pig on twitter and tweeted a photo of it to let him know it was appreciated.

I thought nothing more of it - then one day at the beginning of June I had a message from Pro Pig asking if I would like to attend the premier of his new movie, Trail and Error, on 6th June at the Film Theatre. I replied to say I'd love to - and he put me (and a plus one!) on the guest list. How exciting - I'd never been to a film premier before!

  
 
Before that, on 28th May - Pro Pig launched the Trail and Error - a guided walk around Stoke-on-Trent that took you to 12 of his art works - and three exhibitions of his work along the way.

You could pick up a map at his studio above the Entrepreneur shop in Piccadilly and follow it around the city. We didn't get chance to do it before we saw the film - but after the premier we couldn't wait to try it

The film of Trail and Error explained the story behind our local Pro Pig work - which was very touching. Check out this clip of the film here

Cool t-shirts and hats :-)

So, today we slapped on the factor 50 sun cream and headed out into the heat to do the fist part of the Trail and Error. Although it isn't officially part of it - we started in the car park with Peppa Pigment - just because it as the first one that we saw and we love it!





The beginning of the Trail and Error - ENTREPRENEURS

The actual trail starts inside this cool clothing shop called Entrepreneurs. Upstairs from the shop is the space where Pro Pig has been living, making his awesome art and even sleeping!




Sign half-way up the stairs

In fact there was a sleeping bag on top of an inflatable bed with a sign telling you to touch his shoulder. I'm not sure if it was really him - or a dummy. I didn't have the heart to try to wake him. he's been very busy recently!

Stop 1

The studio was full of his used stencils, photos, clothing, guest books and even toothpaste - as well as some examples of his work on the walls. Love the blue clock one - it's where everyone meets in Hanley as it is so distinctive.

He deserves a nap :-)





We'll meet at the blue clock
 

The Trail then took us out of the shop and round the dusty and hot back streets of Hanley. There behind clubs, next to bins and on car park walls we found the wonderfully inspirational works he had left the city. He is very much interested in trying to inspire and motivate people to rise up and fulfil their potential and not let anyone hold them back.  "Defy the Odds" is his mantra.

 

 

Stop 2 - Edward Smith

Stop 3 -Yes We Can Can

The first outdoor work we were lead to was this of Captain Smith of the Titanic. Even though he commanded the disaster-prone ship he did go down with it to save others...







Then around the corner came Bob the Builder saying "Yes we can can." I love this one :-) A fun way to get the Pro Pig message over - you can do anything you want!

 

 

We found Cupid round the side of a nightclub, just by the bins. The speech bubble coming out of the bin says "Go home Cupid, we're drunk!"



Stop 4 - Cupid





Stop 5 - I Need a Slash

The map then took us to the public toilets in Hanley where we fund this relevant portrait - Stop number 5.

Slash has always been a local hero round here. Welcome to the Jungle indeed! We sidestepped the local gathering of afternoon drinkers to move on to Stop 6.



Stop 6 - Anyone for an Oatcake?

 This one is my favourite - so Stokie to ask if you want an oatcake - they're not available anywhere else. Plus, everyone round here will call you "duck" - whether you are male or female! He's fab :-)

 



Stop 7 - with Kiln Kong

The next stop was at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery Thee was an exhibition of Pro Pig's work - one of our favourites here was Kiln Kong . There were lots of other paintings - many for sale too.

 

Is to Grow Up to Give Up?

 



We then moved on to the Mitchell Arts Centre where we found Stop 8 - where this inspiring art was placed.

If anyone tells you that you can't do anything - you should reply "Just watch me!" Fantastic!

Stop 9 - Defy the Odds

The afternoon as really heating up by now and we were unbelievably hot! We popped into a handy Greggs for a bottle of water and soldiered on.. to Stop 9 - in another city car park.
This is where we saw this lady and her shopping trolley. Pole dancing or what? Such fun!

However, we were pretty tired and even hotter by now so we decided to go and get an ice cream and call it a day. We will do the rest of the trail tomorrow - so we can really do it justice.

We saw a cool view on the way back to the car - a field of wild flowers planted in front of the brand new multi-coloured Smithfield Building and there in the background a bottle oven from Stoke's proud past. What a great city.

Part 2 next...

 





How to Enjoy the Edinburgh Fringe

Hi! I'm back from Edinburgh, Thanks to Dan for putting us up (and putting up with us!) in his lovely new flat in Harrison Gardens. It was great to see you again!

So, how did we go about choosing what to see while we were at The Fringe? Well - we had only booked one show before we got there - the wonderful Time-Travelling Magicians Morgan and West. They were doing some close-up table magic in an intimate venue and we didn't want to miss that! We have seen them before - so we knew it would be good. Apart from that though - how on earth do you go about choosing what to see from over 2000 shows at the 250 venues around the city?

We decided to just wing it! We'd turn up and see who gave us the most interesting leaflet/was most enthusiastic/looked most crazy and go with that.

On the first day we walked down the Royal Mile and a very nice bespectacled man gave us a leaflet about a show called Rope. He was falling over his words with the excitement of telling us what it was about. It involved a real-life murder case in Edinburgh back in the nineties combined with a Hitchcock film and what's more it was a promenade play! This meant that we'd be following the actors from place to place as the plot unfolded. How could we resist - especially as he offered us 3 tickets for the price of 2. We were sold - and he phoned ahead to the venue to book us in. We had to go to the prestigious public School - the Edinburgh Academy as the play started in the library there.

It was a gorgeously hot and sunny day and we met in the Edinburgh Academy's courtyard. Our herder (a very nice man employed to shepherd us around after the actors and keep us from getting run over when we crossed Edinburgh's New Town roads) led us into the library, where we stood among the pillars waiting for the play to begin.

There was a metal trunk in front of us - which it turns out contained a dead...well maybe I shouldn't give away the plot in case any of you get to see it elsewhere.

What followed was a fantastic story, some scarily good actors and a 90 minutes exhilarating walk through the streets and even into a cocktail bar, while the story unfolded before our eyes.

It was a brilliant idea - well executed :-) (See what I did there? Hehe!)




After it was done we found the wonderful New Town Deli and had some fantastic wraps and cool drinks while we sheltered from the baking sun.

That afternoon as we were strolling past a pub a young chap leapt out and gave us a flyer for Martha McBrier Pigeon Puncher. This was a free show in the pub's back room - you just pay what you think it was worth at the end.

Sounded like a good deal - plus we were ready for a long cool drink - so we went inside. The gig took place in a back room where we were tightly packed in front of a tiny stage. There were so many people trying to get in! Then Martha herself came in and she told us stories of her life in Glasgow. She was really sweet - a natural-born do-gooder she said. Very sweary - but very sweet! We heard tales of working as a social worker in the Easterhouse suburb of Glasgow. Apparently Glasgow people are very helpful - but don't always look it. The story of the lady at the bus stop was hilarious - you should catch her if you can!


We then crossed the road and were offered another Free Fringe event - this time a "comedy debate" about  freedom of speech. This featured, it turns out  Sully O'Sullivan who we've seen twice at the ROFL Club in Burslem! He argued for curtailing freedom of speech and was joined by Rick Molland who was arguing for more freedom of speech. Both were well prepared with examples from their laptops. It was pretty funny as they picked on audience members too to illustrate their points. Jethro - the posh philosophy student in the first row proved to be a big hit :-)

At the end there was a vote and I'm pleased to say the right to freedom of speech won out against limiting it in any way!

Later that Monday night N and I had tickets to see Morgan and West. It was funny as we'd spent the previous evening arguing with Dan, about the probability of tossing a coin and getting 10 heads in a row. I said that it was obvious that if you'd got nine in a row then it was much more likely that the last one would be heads because statistically it was very rare to get 10 heads in a row at all. However N and Dan argued that the probability of it being a head was exactly 50/50 - as the coin had no awareness that we'd already got nine in a row. (It was a vey long "discussion"!)

That was the first thing that M&W started their close-up magic show with. While you could toss coins for three years before you got 10 heads in a row - it was that kind of thinking that allowed casinos to make a lot of money!
Hmm I'm still not sure about this...

Anyway - it was fun to sit so close and actually join in the games of poker, pontoon and happy families  - whilst being bamboozled by their skills.

The next day we tried a different tack - we went to the Assembly at George Square Gardens where there was a box office with reviews pinned to a wall too - so you could see who was getting 5 stars. We saw that there was a Best of the Fringe show each day at 2pm - in the incredible Spiegeltent Colombino - which was literally a huge tent with mirrors and stained glass windows.



The amazing Spiegeltent Columbino

There we saw many acts - for about 10 minutes each - which gave us a good overview of the massive variety of acts available at the Fringe. It was so good - we went the next day too! Among the cool people we saw were Archie Maddocks - who really made me laugh with his topical humour and easy style.  

It was a lovely area - as there were two bars in big tops - so we could shelter from the rain on Tuesday and the hot sun on Wednesday. Also there were many food stalls. The Angus burgers with fried onions were fragrant and filling and the French crepes delicate and delicious and I even had a candy floss :-)



We read the review board and saw that someone/thing called Goose was getting 5 stars from everyone. So we just grabbed some tickets for that afternoon and went to see him. It was just one man - playing out a parody of a James Bond adventure - playing every character himself! Adam Drake  was totally frenetic and funny - and worked so hard he sweated so much he drenched the front rows every time he moved. In fact halfway through he handed out waterproof ponchos and umbrellas to the audience - and nominated one member of the audience to hold a towel and wipe him down now and again. It's impossible to describe the crazy plot - but it made fun of many of the tropes  of action movies. He was very clever!

Breaking Bad - in 1 hour!

The last evening show we saw was something we'd not seen on the review board or on a flyer. We were just walking past the Gilded Balloon area and saw - stuck to the railings - a poster about a one-man show doing the entire TV show Breaking Bad - in one hour!  How could anyone (who's seen the show) resist that?
No-one - as the massive theatre was packed with BB fans! It was called One Man Breaking Bad - the Unauthorised Parody.

He is an actor from LA and this has been a hit all over the world! His impersonations of Jessie, Walt Jr. and even Skyler are so brilliant! It wasn't until he pointed it out that I realised that all Walt Jr. does throughout the whole programme is make a website for his dad and eat breakfast! He got through so many breakfasts!!

It was good to relive some of the most iconic episodes - he is obviously a massive fan is spot on with his observations. We loved it!

In fact - if you'd like to catch this epic theatrical experience yourself - Miles Allen is doing a UK tour - and will be at Stafford Gatehouse on Wednesday 25th November. A definite recommendation from me!! Catch it while you can :-)

So that was our Edinburgh Fringe this year. It really works just going for random stuff - there wasn't one thing that we didn't enjoy. I think we'll do this every year :-)



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Sunny California :-)

New to this? Check out the First Post

Its been a week or two since we got back from the USA - and we're just starting to get back to normal. Jet lag is strange - you're tired when you should be awake and awake and starving hungry when you should be asleep. (Mainly at 4am :)

It's about time I caught up on some blogging though. Sorry it's taken so long - but my mum has been in hospital and we've been kept busy visiting her.

We had a lovely invitation to Claire and Jodi's wedding in Monterey - so we decided to make it our main holiday and spend a couple of weeks over there.

We were very excited when we arrived at Heathrow to catch our Virgin Atlantic flight to San Francisco. We'd stayed the Radisson Edwardian at the airport the night before - so that we wouldn't be late and stressed for our flight. Wasn't such a great idea as Nathan got food poisoning after the evening meal so didn't get much sleep! Luckily he was okay to fly though!

There had been a 3-day Dr Who convention going on Time of Angels - and we were convinced that we'd seen David Tennant in the foyer! Or a very good look-a-like :-)



Flying over Greenland

The flight was great - we hadn't been looking forward to 10 hours confined in a plane - but it went by so quickly. We had lots of leg room and the staff kept bringing round drinks and food and ice lollies - and I watched three whole films! N and I watched the Lego Movie (which we'd been meaning to do for a while as everyone kept telling us how good it was!( Trouble is we ended up singing "Everything is Awesome!" all week long.
I also watched Fault in Our Stars as I'd just read the book. It was wonderful - but a little heavy for a flight to the sun! Loved it though. Also enjoyed Belle - which I saw being filmed when I went for a weekend in Oxford with Janet a couple of years ago! Have a look at the original post here. That was really good too. It's pretty rare I ever sit down to watch a whole film - so to watch 3 in one go was quite a treat :-) Not like there's much else you can do!!

Lucky Nathan did survive 10 hours with no internet access - but it was a close thing :-)

Mel's shakes and malts

We had set off at 1pm in England and arrived in San Francisco at 4pm US time. It felt like midnight to us - but it was sunny and hot and very bright!
We got a "shared van"(arranged by an organised chap outside the airport) to our first hotel - the Cow Hollow Motor Hotel. Took a couple of hours through the city traffic and as our hotel was the last one the van was visiting! We were pretty exhausted by then - so just went across the road to Mel's Diner (famous for being featured in the film American Graffiti) and tried to eat something - despite being tired but not hungry. I had an excellent grilled turkey sandwich and sweet potato fries - which they kindly boxed up for me when I couldn't eat it! Although by 4am we were both wide awake and hungry - so finished it off then :-)

Our first day in San Francisco was our Alcatraz trip! We walked downtown - about 40 minutes- and discovered that SF is very hilly! Down by the waterfront we found the office to get our tickets and boarded the ferry for the 30 minute cruise across to The Rock.

The Rock

 It was around 11am and we thought we'd spend an hour or so over there then come back and get lunch. However when we got there and walked around - listening to the audio guide - it was so fascinating that stopped to read the many information plaques on the walls. The story of the one escape attempt was ingenious - and the toilet paper and soap heads then made were scarily realistic - they'd even used real hair.

Let me out!!

Three of them got into the service tunnel and up onto the roof and into the bay. No-one knows what happened to them - they are officially still being sought by the FBI. Most people think they drowned as the water was so cold and the currents so strong they cant have got far. But, who knows?

Ingenious escape attempt!

While we were in the shower block the guide told us that it was the only prison that insisted on hot showers - so the inmates wouldn't get used to cold water!

  We also stayed for a talk on Al Capone - one of the many colourful prisoners that had been held there. The lady lecturer told us the difference between a prison and a penitentiary - which is what Alcatraz actually was. No-one was sent to Alcatraz for the crimes they committed - they were only sent there if the normal prisons couldn't cope with them! If they were disruptive, violent or had tried to escape  they'd be sent to The Rock.


It must have been after 4.30pm when we got back and we hadn't even had lunch. We made up for it though - by trying one of the many family fish restaurants on the waterfront. We had been told we should try Scoma's - so we managed to find it and the food was fantastic! I loved the King salmon I had and N tried the fish mixed grill. They have their own "Fish Receiving Station" behind the restaurant - so everything is very fresh!

Learning to Segway :-)

The next day we had an appointment with a Segway! We'd booked a Segway tour of San Francisco - so turned up at the offices at 10am. I admit I was a little nervous as I've never tried a Segway before. I thought they might be a bit tricky to steer and slow down - and watching the safety video didn't do much to calm me down! However our guide Peter, soon put us at our ease when he took us into the showroom and put us through our paces to make sure we could get on and off safely, go forwards and backwards and stop! It turns out that it is really easy! You just shift your weight onto your toes and it takes you forward and rock back on your heels to slow down and stop. To turn you just pull the handlebars either left or right.

Great way to get around!

We were lucky, as there were no other customers booked in our slot - so we were getting a private tour! Peter took us out onto the road and over to a car park to practice a bit more - then we were off following him through traffic and up and down the hills of San Francisco. It was brilliant fun!! We were out for 2 and a half hours and he said we could go wherever we liked and he'd tell us all about the history of the city. He'd lived there for 24 years, so he knew a lot about it! From the Wild West days of the Gold rush, the catastrophic earthquake to the present day. He took us along the coastline, over to the Palace of Fine Arts and all over.

By the time we got back we were buzzing - wanted to get ourselves Segways - but sadly they are not allowed on either roads or pavements over here in the UK.

Clam Chowder in Boudin Sourdough.

Delicious!!

We were hungry too - so following our friend Si and Heidi's recommendation we went to the Boudin Bakery for one of their famous sourdough loaves hollowed out and filed with clam chowder. It was really delicious and filling!

We also had to find a car to hire as we had to travel down the coast to Monterey the very next day. We were due there at 4pm for the wedding rehearsal! We found a car hire office and chose a compact car - but the helpful girl behind the counter told us not to book with her - it was much cheaper online! So that's what we did and picked up a Kia Soul the next morning at 9am. We had asked for it to be full of petrol when we picked it up - to minimise driving in the city! However - it was completely empty so we had to negotiate an extra bit of the city to get petrol. It is amazing though - less than $1 per gallon!! And yet they are complaining how much it costs!

Nathan with our Kia Soul in Monterey

Nathan did a brilliant job of driving us out of San Fran and onto the coastal highway that took us down to Monterey. The views of the cliffs and surf were amazing - though we didn't dare look for too long as we didn't want to get lost or go wrong. We took our time and got to The Jabberwock around 3pm.

We'd chosen this B&B after reading rave reviews on Trip Advisor - but it exceeded our expectations. It was so beautiful and quirky and original. A wonderful building with so many individual rooms. We were staying in the Brillig room - with a shower room made from old church doors . The owners Suzanne and Rick made us so welcome and gave us a tour and told us the history of the place. It used to be a convent at one time!

Our quirky B&B

Who is in residence today?

There was a lovely sun room where they held a soiree every evening with free local wines and home made hors d'oeuvres, where you could relax after your day, chat to other guests (we heard a lot of scary and fascinating animal stories!) and look at the menus from all the local restaurants before deciding where to go for diner that night. It was often dark and quite late before we went our to eat as it was so interesting to talk to the other people. There was a board on the wall where they wrote the names of all the guest and where they were from.

Breakfasts were amazing too. We all ate together at a big table and started off with the fantastic "JabberJuice" - a refreshing smoothie made by the chef full of oranges, pineapples, bananas, apples and coconut. A great start to the day! Then one day we had a savoury breakfast and the next one would be sweet. For example a ham and egg soufflé with fruit  or French toast covered in berries - with sausage. They were all so tasty!

Jabberwock Breakfast - bread pudding, custard and sausage!

We made it down to the Monterey Plaza in time for the rehearsal and met some of the wedding party. We all learnt where to walk and where to sit and stand the next day. The staff at the hotel were very efficient and we were done in no time! Then Jodi had arranged for everyone to go into town to a place for drinks and food. It was called the Crown and Anchor and turned out to be an English pub!! Maybe he was feeling homesick :-)  It was actually very nice and we all enjoyed a few relaxing drinks (some more than others!) and various appetisers and snacks. We were loving the fried artichoke hearts which are served everywhere we've been so far.

The Groom and Nathan the night before the wedding!

It was nice to meet Claire's family and some of Jodi's ex-colleagues from London. It was a really fun night - and we got some sound business advice from the best man, Kristian. :-)

The next day, Friday 17th October, was the wedding day!! It wasn't until 4pm so we had time to explore Monterey for the morning before going back to the Jabberwock to get changed for the big event. It was so nice to wander down Cannery Row and see the statue to John Steinbeck and read all about the sardine canning industry that had grown up there. We even bought a copy of Cannery Row to read while we were actually there. I'd read it before - so Nathan started it first. 

Can you see me?

The wedding went really well! Nathan looked good in his Groomsman suit - an when he got to the hotel he met Jodi looking surprisingly cool. Until the Registrar asked for his fee of $100. Jodi had forgotten to bring the cash so Nathan and Jodi's mum managed to get $100 together to pay him so the wedding could go ahead! N won't let him forget that :-)  (Although it has been paid back now!)

I had to do the first reading and was quite nervous. I stood there in my pistachio dress and did my best - luckily didn't stumble over any of the words! A few people said afterwards that they loved it because of my accent - and asked if I watched Downton Abbey! :-)

Jodi, Claire and her parents

The Groomsmen

Claire looked absolutely beautiful and her dress was so gorgeous and showed off her lovely slender figure. All her bridesmaids had different floral dresses - it looked really effective.  I loved the ceremony too. Richard, the guy conducting it, had such a way with words.



He said something about them already being married in their hearts and souls so this was just the formal expression of their love. It was very moving. It was geld out on the terrace overlooking Monterey Bay - and the weather was perfect.

Then, there were lots of photos before we all moved indoors for the wedding meal. The next nerve=wracking part was where we each had to do a dance with our partner, whilst being introduced to all the other guests already seated. As I was a sponsor, my partner was Uncle Joe - another sponsor. We did our best - and looking back at the video now - it doesn't look to terrible! I think Nathan and his partner Ale did a better job :-)

The Bridesmaids

The tables were all named after places that were special to Claire and Jodi  (The Middletons as they're now known) and N and I were lucky enough to be on the top table with the bride and groom and parents.










The Speeches!

The food was delicious - with amazing lobster soup and fillet mignon. Then we danced the night away and ended the evening in the cocktail bar. It was a lovely wedding and we were so happy to have been invited. Thank-you, Claire and Jodi!

Fun at the photo booth!



Love their style at The Jabberwock!

We loved Monterey so much that we asked the Rick and Suzanne if we cold stay an extra night. We didn't want to only have one more day there after the wedding before heading back up to San Francisco.








Alice in Wonderland reminders everywhere!

They said yes - although we'd have to move rooms. They'd told us that thee was a family of five raccoons n their garden and I was just saying to Nathan that I hadn't seen any when he said - "Well come and look out of the window" and there were all five of them walking up the tree right outside our window!! They were huge too! In fact the next night we met one by the bins as we walked home from the Hawaiian restaurant after dinner.





Nice Jaccuzzi in the room :-)

We were surprised to find that the room we had to move into for our final night at Jabberwock was the bridal suite - complete with double Jacuzzi. Very nice :-)






We spent the next couple of days relaxing and soaking up the sun and sights in Monterey.

N makes  new friend in Monterey

He wanted to make sure I got his good side!

We went to the aquarium, which took most of the day! There was so much to see - we loved the many jellyfish and watching the sea otter feeding time.






Time for a paddle :-)

Also we walked on the beaches and round the coast and watched the amazing wildlife. There were so many sea lions just lying on rocks (and each other) all round the piers and seals in the harbour and so many sea birds. I loved watching the pelicans :-) We walked downtown and found a great microbrewery where we had lunch and sat outside and watched the world go by. It was so good to relax after the wedding!

Harbour Seals sunbathing

On the Forrest Gump bench.

Beautiful Monterey

On the Monday we had to head back to San Francisco and return the car. We hadn't booked anywhere for after the wedding as we wee not sure where we'd want to go next. However, the Segway tour of SF had showed us so many areas that we hadn't explored yet, we decided to spend our last few days back there. I wanted to go to Haight Ashbury to see the hippie district for a start and we hadn't yet been over the Golden Gate Bridge.


Over the Golden Gate Bridge on a tandem!

We've got to get up there!

 

We tackled the bridge the very next day! We thought we might cycle over it - and hen we got to the hire place they offered us a tandem - so we thought "Why not?"

The guy asked if we worked well as a team as it was vital for riding a tandem. We said that we were definitely a team! It took a little time to get used to pedalling together - but we soon got into it and set off for the bridge!









It was mainly cycle path along the way - but quite a few hills. It was brilliant to go over the bridge on a tandem - it meant that  we could stop and look at the views anytime! The bridge is 1.7 miles long so it was quite a way - then at the other side we had to cycle a few miles to Sausalito - a delightful little town on the other side.


We locked up the tandem, then had lunch there at the Napa Valley Burgers place.

Poshest burger ever!

The burgers were just superb - the nicest I've ever had!


The server was pretty cool too - he could welcome you and wish you "bon appetite" in any language!!

We taught him a bit of Stokie before we left. He had "Ey up, Duck!" written down on his notepad to try out on customers :-) By then we had cycled 8 miles so we decided to take advantage of the ferry tickets we'd been given with the bike! There were dozens of folks with bikes waiting for the ferry back to SF - but they got them all on - no problem!

View from the Bridge



Golden Gate at dusk



In the hippie district

We did a lot of walking the next day - over nine miles! We went to Haight Ashbury to see where the Summer of Love and the hippie movement started back in the sixties. It as where Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead used to live and hang out. It is still a thriving area for music and alternative lifestyles. There are some wonderful costume and vintage clothes shops. One has clothes divided into decades - from the 1920s onwards - really fantastic outfits. 

Where the Summer of Love started.

There are so weird shops too - we went in one (where no photos were allowed) that sold strange artefacts like bones and two-headed stuffed pigeons. I wanted to get Laura a t-shirt reflecting the musical heritage and we wandered into a shop - where the designer of the iconic HA t-shirt worked. He took us through every aspect of the design and explained it all before he let us buy one! He seemed a little spaced-out but remembered all the sixties stars and what they got up to. :-0



We were even offered cannabis when we walked down the street! It was a very interesting day!





All aboard!

We also walked through the Castro District and the Mission District before ending up at the massive white County Hall. As we got back to our hotel on our last night there we realised that the massive building next to it was actually an I-Max cinema!

The actual cable!

So, we spend our last evening in there watching Dracula Untold before going to Mel's Dinner for a malt before bedtime. :-)


On our very last day - before we had to go to the airport, we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Cable Car Museum (we'd ridden then a couple of times and it was interesting to see how the whole system worked) and then a walk down the world's crookedest street. We'd had a wonderful ten days - but it was time to return home.