San Francisco

This city is one of those American cities that fervently captured my attention as a child along with New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. I have always wanted to see it with my own eyes. So, this trip could have gone in any direction...I had a long list of spots I wanted to check out.I took the early (6 am) flight out of Portland. The flight is only a couple hours so I was there by 9am. I negotiated the BART into the heart of the city and got off at the City Hall stop. I slowly, with mouth agape, made my way down to Union Square.

From there I made the obligatory journey to the Haight/Ashbury district. I saw this on the sidewalk and laughed pretty hard. There were people with dogs everywhere!

There is a massive music shop in San Francisco called Amoeba Music. I had figured out where it was prior to my trip and set aside an hour to check it out. It was huge! After looking through the jazz section, I realized it had already almost been an hour. More importantly, though, I was starving. I bought a few classic Blue Note cd's and went around the corner to find the bus top that would lead me into the Presidio. I walked around the Presidio for ages until my stomach lead me to the Embarcadero and the Ghirardelli area. I got food somewhere and suddenly spotted the streetcar rumbling past. I followed the line up towards "The Crookedest Street in the World".

Next, I had to check out Chinatown. I rambled down crowded streets until I was at the base of the TransAmerica Building. Looking up I noticed the Sentinel Building (Columbus Towers). I found the San Francisco Brewing Company caddy-corner to the Sentinel Building and decided I should sample the wares. After several small pours and a proper pint, I was not impressed.

Next, I went to the Thirsty Bear Brewery and the beer was an improvement but the clientele was not. I had a quick beer and left to meet Patty in Oakland at the Oakland Brewery. Now this place was great! Good people, good beer!

This was my friend as I enjoyed my bread bowl near Pier 39:

The Southwest

Immediately following my UK adventure I had to go to Vegas, Flagstaff and Tucson for work. Now when I say immediately, I mean immediately. I got home on the evening of the 25th of February and left on the morning of the 26th. I got home later than I was meant to due to a delayed flight and woke up at 7 the next day to leave for Vegas! It might not have been so bad if I had been heading to another town. Vegas isn't exactly my idea of a nice getaway!

I stayed in the southwest for 2 weeks and drove from Vegas down to Tucson. During the weekend I went to Lake Mead National Preserve, Walnut Canyon National Monument, Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly. It was a lot of driving, but the beauty of the southwest was beckoning me...

This gnarly tree was in Walnut Canyon, just outside of Flagstaff. The site is similar to Montezuma Castle, which I visited a couple years back. They are both part of the system of villages of the Sinagua people.

The American southwest is like no other place I've ever been. That isn't to say that no place else in the world looks like this, but certainly no place I've ever been does! The strange colorful rock formations and random scattered ancient dwellings of people long forgotten make for such a dramatic landscape that I almost consider living in the region for a while to explore it properly.

A couple years ago I did a bit hiking through Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks in southern Utah. Those places are so unique it's unsettling. They truly make you feel as though you're on a different planet!

Scotland

Near the end of my trip to York to visit my parents, I felt it was a moral imperative to take a couple days on my own to explore Scotland. So, Wednesday and Thursday I bought a very expensive ticket from Brit Rail and took in the splendor of Edinburgh and the calm historical setting of Stirling. Edinburgh is the center of Scottish culture now and has been for hundreds of years.

This is a deserted little alleyway just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh:

And I couldn't resist a picture of this relic. It fit in fine in Edinburgh, but I couldn't help thinking it should be in my driveway!

England

My parents were gracious enough to trade in frequent flyer miles and get me a ticket to visit them at their house in York. It was in the middle of February, which meant that the weather would most likely be rubbish, but it had to be done. Despite weeks of gloom, the day I got there it was actually sunny and nice. Still quite cold, but sunny!

I flew into Manchester. They picked me up and we went straight up to Hadrian's Wall and walked around some other Roman Ruins in the area Dad and I are strategizing on how we would have approached the wall. The wall, which was originally 2/3 higher, sits atop a high plateau. So getting over it was not easy!

That same day we went to the well-preserved Warkworth Castle and the beautiful Dunstanburgh Castle along the northern English coast near Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border. This place was truly a sight! Perched atop a hill overlooking the North Sea surrounded by sheep grazing and beautiful green grass.

No trip to the UK is complete (for me) without visiting a brewery. The Black Sheep beer had made its way into my belly years earlier after crossing the ocean in one of my dad's socks. It was a long-awaited introduction: