I Left My Heart..... blah blah blah

San Francisco from Alcatraz

The Lower Haight

Alcatraz from Pier 39


Japanesse Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park

Anyone remember the opening to Full House

Sea Lions at the famous Pier 39

Halfway up the climb

The gates at Chinatown
Fishermans Wharf Alcatraz

Lombard St.

Vanessa and I took a long weekend and went to San Francisco. It was a last minute thing and it sounded pretty cool since neither of us had ever been there before. We had a great time. Our hotel was really nice and close right off of Union Square so all the shops and restaurants were close by, and their public transportation was the best. We didn't have to rent a car. There were cable cars, street cars and buses everywhere. We walked alot though. You see in the movies how steep some of the streets are, but you have no idea. I'm still sore. Some were so steep you had to lean forward so as not to fall backwards. I don't know what idiot decided to build on such a grade but I'm glad they did because it's beautiful. The city was clean and the weather was nice, if not cold. It was so much colder than I expected. We checked the weather forecasts and it was calling for highs in the 60's. Well, 60 in Tucson is different than 60 in San Francisco. The air was so damp and the wind was constantly blowing and sometimes, 60 felt like 30. Vanessa forgot her coat so we had to buy her a new one on the first day.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to put the pictures throughout the post so bear with me. We went to Golden Gate park where a bunch of transient hippie kids tried to sell us pot. We walked through the Haight which I imagine is a little more touristy than in was in the early 60's when the Dead rocked it. We went to alcatraz and tried out the cells. That was probably the best thing we did. If you ever get the chance, alcatraz is a great park and the mp3 guided tour is one of the best I've ever been on. You could see the holes in the wall where the three guys escaped and you could see the marks on the floor from when the marines dropped grenades to quell a riot. It was impressive. We saw Lombard St., the curviest street in the world. It was a hike, but we made it to the top. We saw Chinatown which was like being in another country, and we went to Alamo square where they filmed the opening credits for Full House. Mostly we just ate. I think I gained 10 pounds in 3 days.

It was a great trip and I look forward to going back. There is so much to see and do I feel like we didn't get to do half of what's available. I don't know if I could live there, but it's pretty awesome to visit.

Barry Goldwater

Alright, this post has absolutely nothing to do with Barry Goldwater except for the fact that I'm writing it in Arizona and I think he was robbed in the 64 election, but that's for another day. I'm writing a paper right now and I just needed a break. The topic is as follows: Discuss the choices and challenges of US foreign policy in the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. It fascinating stuff, unfortunately I no nothing of the subject and I'm going out of town tomorrow and won't be back until it's due. So that leaves me tonight and I had a test in my history of the world wars class earlier this evening so I haven't been able to start until now. So work is going to pretty much suck tomorrow, but I can sleep on the plane. You would think that I would have some knowledge of this topic since I lived through it, but surprisingly a twelve year old boy doesn't pick up on the significance of such a historic event so I find that my only memory is watching the Berlin Wall coming down on television. Thank goodness for the internet though, and you know, it's still kind of recent to determine what effect our change in policy is having. As my professor says, you need at least a hundred years to fully determine the effect of an event. You know what else I learned in this class, John F. Kennedy really wasn't a very good president. I mean he didn't do anything. Of course he didn't back down to the Soviets and the blockade of Cuba caused them to turn their ships around, right? I'm sure us removing our missiles from Turkey had no effect on them at all. It was all JFK and Bobby and their amazing courage in the face adversity. I'm glad they were here to save the country. Anyway, I guess I'll get back to the paper. It won't write itself after all. hahahahhahahah!