Day 209: Cocktail Conversation

Location : San Francisco

High Point: San Francisco officially replaces Vancouver as FTFE’s favourite North American city. Wow.

High Point: The fund raising bash organised by Susan and Kevin McCabe which raised over $500 for FTFE. Oh and the view from their apartment overlooking Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

High Point: Watching the sun set over San Francisco bay and the sky change  through every colour in the rainbow.

High Point: Watching San Fran Police officers chase and arrest a burglar no more than half an hour after being told that San Fran has a low crime rate. Brilliant.

High point: Our headphone guided tour around Alcatraz. Crime does not pay kids but tourism does.

High point: California winter sun. Twenty degrees, blue skies and no cloud. Incredible.

High Point: Driving up and down the steepest roads known to man. Hill starts with the low diff setting on. Testing!

No point: Living anywhere else.

No point: A mango burger. I mean really?

Debatable though it may be, most cities only have one iconic structure. The Eiffel Tower, The Taj Mahal, Big Ben, The Sydney Opera House. San Francisco however has two. The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Plain greedy or just a damn good way of getting you instantly hooked on this amazing city. When you think San Fran, it’s almost impossible not to think of these two iconic structures or visit them if you ever get a chance. Having ticked off the bridge at sunset on Thursday evening, Friday morning was tourist time and Alcatraz beckoned.

Leaving our hostel in the sleezier part of town, Alcatraz cruise tickets clutched tight, the Friday morning sun looked like a good mood indicator for the day ahead. Alcatraz Island is a deceptive mile and a half from Pier 33 however with visible currents and 11 different breeds of shark resident in the bay (thanks for clarification balcony dude), you wouldn’t want to swim it.

Imposing, eery, exceptionally popular and previously home to some of Americas most dangerous criminals such as Al Capone, not to mention scene of a 19 month Indian encampment, Alcatraz is steeped in history. Unfortunately, as Fridays fundraising bash was due to start at 4pm, our headphone chic look was cut short and following our own personal escape from Alcatraz, we were pier-bound again.

Now, any movie buffs out there will probably know that the driving in seminal 70’s film Bullitt was actually done by Steve McQueen himself.  I have nothing in common with Mr McQueen apart from the fact that I too have now driven some of the craziest, steepest and quite frankly downright stupid roads in San Francisco. You get tired just looking at how steep they are. The guys that settled here in the 1800’s were super fit for sure.

As luck would have it, the roads we were filming on were a stones throw from the location of our Friday fundraiser so having parked Martha up in her own San Fran Police Dept reserved parking spot, Operation Plug FTFE began in earnest. The generosity of our new friends in San Francisco was immense both in terms of the bash they laid on and the number of dollars they gave us so thank you again. Thank you as well for the most unusual entertainment you put on! Obviously the term unusual is entirely subjective however for me 6 Police cars, 19 Police Officers, three arrested burglars and an armed man (oddly similar looking to yours truly) traversing our hosts balcony trying to escape the cops is unusual for me. What makes it even more unusual and slightly ironic is the fact that all this occurred merely minutes after I posed the question to our host “so tell me Kevin, what’s the crime rate like in San Fran?”, to which he replied “hey, its actually pretty low”. They say that it’s all about the timing eh?

As the Police Officer drove away with the apprehended fellon in the back, he chuckled and shouted out to us “cocktail conversation?!”. It certainly was.

BJB

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