I left San Francisco on the 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge with “A Sorta Fairytale” (“On my way up north / Up on the 101…”) playing in my car’s radio. Later I saw directions for “Alameda”, changing the music to Elliott Smith. When I passed by Sacramento and specifically a sign saying “Arco Arena”, I tuned in CAKE. The rest of the time I had playing Fiona Apple’s new “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” album (yes, that’s the full title — it’s thankfully a lot shorter than “When the Pawn…”). Her tune “Periphery” with the marching boots samples was playing in my iBrain in infinite loop while climbing Lassen Peak. It’s been a very musical journey.
Let’s go back in time. “Today’s the Fourth of July / Another june has gone by / And when they light up our town I just think / What a waste of gun powder and sky” (Aimee Mann). When I arrived in the laid back city in the sun after the bus-train-bus combo, I had enough time to make my way down to the wharf for the fireworks.
I thought it was summer here. Not so. I was wearing three layers including a jacket and still was freezing. And the firework was still a few hours away. The grassy patches along the seaside were getting crowded and of course I didn’t bring a blanket. It got cold quickly after the sun set, dropping down to 11 C during the night. You wonder where that fog comes from? Go figure.
Some neurons fired in my head forming the thought: “Wait… Didn’t you do the same thing seven months back in Sydney? The exactly same thing? Except for the missing company?” Yup. Been there, done that. I suddenly shifted my priorities from fireworks to food. Of course, all the places close to the Fishermen’s Wharf were totally overcrowded. By the time I found a burger place and finished my meal, the fireworks had already started. I watched for a couple of minutes, before I agreed to Aimee Mann it being a waste of gunpowder and sky and headed home. This song always reminds me of another year passing without me getting married (because that what’s the song’s about). I still wasn’t much a fan of fireworks after all. Only a few hundred miles south in San Diego, they managed to really fuck it up by blowing up the 20 minutes fireworks in 15 seconds. Big Bang? You bet.
I spent another day of planning and organizing (don’t wanna bother you boring details, but cars, trains, plane tickets, tickets to the festivals, accommodation all needed to be booked). Funny how you can live off a sandwich at 6pm for breakfast.
The next day I went tourist touring with Ted, one of my room mates. We started around the Golden Gate Bridge, which was partially covered in that magic fog… What a big piece of steel indeed.
We continued to the Kennedy Park with the tranquil Japanese Gardens. It was a pretty place with a lot effort put into detail. The day went by quickly, too quickly.
On my last full day I picked up my rental car (it way waaay cheaper to already get it for Saturday instead of Sunday) and spent sunbathing on Baker Beach that includes an amazing view of the Bridge in the distance. Not so legendary was the view of some weird people. I mean, would you expect seeing a “grown up” man wearing diapers and a huge, pink My Little Pony(TM) plushy? Even I was quite surprised. After deciding that a few hours without sunscreen were enough, I returned downtown for shopping and a ride with the legendary street cars.
Ted and I went to Japantown for some Karaoke. It’s been a good night, though I had to make sure that I won’t get too drunk as I had to be sober for driving the next morning. I talked to a girl who was absolutely gorgeously singing. She didn’t join me for Tori Amos (the same song that I would put in the next morning), and my performance was really bad anyway. I thought something more melodic after CAKE’s “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” would have been nice. Not so. When I performed Creep (yeah, I know, again) she was gone afterwards, but I found a slip of paper saying “You are good at karaoke” and the other side said “But you’re a creep”. Check.
If I knew that I would be spending the next 72 hours driving almost 2000km, I think I had changed my plans.
My batteries are almost flat. More on the National Parks soon.
