well - its been 10 days since my last postcard! cant believe time is going so fast already! arrived in San Francisco on Monday 28th August for 8 days - and i can say that i had a great time just focusing on things i wanted to do - and guess what - i only did one bar during that whole week - and i stayed only 30 minutes! after checking into The Cartwright Hotel which couldnt have been more central (near Union Square), I started walking up and down the street, visiting Chinatown, the Little Italy, Grace Cathedral and going down Fisherman's Wharf (which is the most touristic point in SF) - that evening, i found a local Sushi place which would become my local for the next week. On Tuesday, after more walking - i decided to treat myself to some musical - "Love Janis" - which is the story of a famous singer Janis Joplin from the 60-70s - wellknown for "Mercedes Benz"- its a great musical! i recommend it! the following day, i did what i have been wanted to do for a long time - going to my first baseball game - The Oaklands Athletic were playing the Boston Red Sox - and what a game it was - the Red Sox lost heavily that day but i had good fun stuffing myself with hotdog / beers and something called crackerjack! (thanks to John i did everything in style - lol - he told me i had to eat these - suppose to be a ritual during these games! and it was nice - peanuts with sugar overcoat... yum yum!! ) on thursday, i fought it would be a good idea to go to the beach - but i was wrong - the whole Pacific side had turn foggy and windy - arrived to the beach to find out there was no-one...lol so decided to walk though parks towards Castro area - it is the gay area of San Francisco - that was interesting - the Starbucks has even been renamed the Bearbucks as it s full of guy with beard... that was a sight! then i had another great day when i went to visit the USS Hornet aircraft carrier! docked at the former naval base of Alameda accross the bay of SF, this ship was built during the WWII and was active also during the Korean war, Vietnam War and the first moon missions. the ship is famous for various reasons - but the main ones for carrying Colonel Doolittle on the first mission to bomb Tokyo in April 1942 (remember the bomb Doolittle) and for recovering the men of Apollo 11 space capsule and the first men to walk on the moon (with Neil Armstrong)! like you will see on the picture, we nearly had full access to every part of the ship and that was such a blast - i even showed the picture to John (who as some of you know is in the Navy) so he could comment on all of them! I have to admit that being able to share my experience with John on a daily basis has been so valuable and appreciated! it s like having someone travelling with me.. the following day, i hired a bike and decided to cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge to a place called Tuberon and then took a ferry back to San Francisco - it was quite a fair ride, but well worth it - great scenery and had some great food in a fish restaurant where the chef offered to cook on order what i wanted (fresh crab and past in pesto). by the end of the day, my bum was really soar and i had an early night! i was shattered! LOL on sunday, i relaxed most of the day and went to Hairrison street fair which was fun- some butch lesbian band were playing on stage some rock and country music and the highlight of my day was to bump into Smokey. it was really good catching up with him after 5 years! then on my last day in San Francisco, i went to Alcatraz on an evening tour which was awesome - such a interesting place. and so many stories about it. visited the cell block / hospital / library.... i recommend it.

but my time in the States has ended for now - its time to move on to my next destination - Asia and in particular Japan for a short stopover!