To Monterey

90 mins south of Santa Cruz we arrived at Monterey. Half way there we stopped at Moss Beach

The sole PortaLoo was full to the brim so I rang the company to tell them. The tel number was only just readable owing to sun lightening of the label. Then to a playground in Monterey

Indeed.....I did not know there is a different DTM in usa and uk. Ours wears red and black horizontal stripy jumpers and has huge black hair

We arrived at our airbnb host and met her daughter at 5pm. She gave us the key and off she went. So we have a house to ourselves tonight. After an hours rest we scootered back to town and found a ffood street market

Enjoying honey samples

Xxx

Santa Cruz

2 hrs south of The City is the college surfing town that boasts of endless summers ie winter doesnt get very cold and a large seaside boardwalk.  We had a leisurely coastal drive with little stress.

We have a landscape paparazzo in the passenger seat. Her name is Sarah and she is making up for lost shots that disappeared with her previous camera. So its not one but 5 shots of each nice bay or view that we see

We spent a couple of hours messing about on the beach.  We saw some teenage trainee life savers jogging in red bikinis ala baywatch (I never watched it honestly). , but mainly lots of families of all shapes and colour enjoying themselves.  

Meltdown solution provider to us. Pepperoni to those without children

No pizza pics of Sarah as she wouldn't eat when I was about to take a pic.

"You only put horrible pictures of me on the blog!"

Buying dinner

Then our airbnb house.  For sale. Originally a railway carriage but now expanded. French mother of three Claudine lives there. Her kids are grown up now but were 5 7 9 when she took them round Mexico and Cuba for six months by herself

Xxx

As it was locals night 1$ per ride we went back onto the boardwalk after getting to our airbnb place

Then breakfast outside next morning

Yes its a barrel sauna

San Francisco & Elaine our host

The hills are everywhere in san francisco which combined with the grid system can give some longish street views.

Here is Broadway going all the way to the horizon

Rightangle parking as so steep

Then there is the Lombard St hairpins as it was too steep.  Cable cars were created when a horse stuttered on a hill and the cart dragged it backwards.

We found a lovely airbnb host in Elaine from Ireland. She has been in sf for 20 plus years

We stayed with her for a week. She runs a 12 child nursery from her house. She had pictures of her relatives from Ireland all along her mantlepiece. Who stands out to you in this picture? Her family obviously means the world to her. We didnt realise a few things on the first night but us being English was a big deal for Elaine.

This is her uncle Willie. He was a journalist, kind, quiet sort of bloke who developed pictures of the family using chemicals he kept in glass lemonade bottles

Elaine had spent a lot of years not liking English. She hoped I was a soldier but was in the end just glad to have us and realise English folk can be normal. We did a lot of hugging and crying. She was 3 when Uncle Willie was killed, shot, murdered during Bloody Sunday. She was never allowed by her family to talk about it. And only found out in later childhood years. She travelled around in childhood. When at a new school aged 6 the nun asked her to sing an Irish song. Elaine stood on a chair and sung "tanks and bombs take away our sons" without realising its significance. To her it was just an Irish song. The nun yanked her off the chair pdq.

Meeting Elaine changed something that I would see on the news occassionally and know as a U2 song into a better understanding of real human tragic event. Listening how it affected her parents herself then and now was very eye opening.

Elaine was a very warm welcoming person who went well beyond her normal hosting requirements. We were very lucky to find her. She is already in therapy to talk about the generational wounds and pain and we wish her all the best going forwards

Lots love to Elaine

Xxx

SF - Academy of Sciences

Walking through Golden Gate Park this morning past free 'swing' classes that started from 9 and ran all the way through until lunch time. The music provided a lovely soundtrack to a beautiful but blustery day.. 

Then Guy met the children and I at the Academy of Sciences - an enormous museum with an underground aquarium

And an albino alligator called Claude! (The kids and I thought he was dead until he moved!)

And a trip to the planitarium to watch a mind boggling film about how big our universe is and how we make up a little fraction of that. The children were convinced the seats were moving bit in fact it was a 360 screen (and the rest!) It was a quite incredible sensory experience. It was like sitting inthe middle of a huge dome.  Or looking into the night sky but we were inside. Or being in outer space. Or being in a car driving into the snow straight on. A few times I felt woozy as we seemed to zoom through galaxies.dark matter etc. Hard to convey how good it was

Then onto an array of beautiful coloured coral

And an absolutely massive manta ray that would easily be the size of a dinner table for four. 

The photos below were taken by the children 

Onto Sabta Cruz tomorrow.. And home suddenly seems so close.. 

Sarah xx