Beer with subtitles

Fresh from a roasting at the beach yesterday, we considered taking it easy on a guided tour would be a good idea. We took E Noa’s “Deluxe Little Circle Island Tour”, incorporating:

• Slopes of Diamond Head
• Kahala
• Hanauma Bay
• Halona “Blow Hole” Lookout
• The beach from “From Here to Eternity”
• Sandy Beach
• Nu’uanu Pali Lookout & Valley

Though we had attempted Diamond Head earlier in the week and spent the previous day at Hanauma Bay, this still left more than enough sights to keep us happy for the afternoon. Our bus collects us at 2pm sharp and off we go, taking in the scenic route out past Diamond Head through to Hanauma Bay.

Our tour guide is something of a character, to say the least; detailed histories of the sights, the islands and people of the islands combine with some unexpected one-liners:

Together, everyone…Koko Head is Kohe-lepe-lepe.
…
Everyone, the ancient Hawaiian parcel service – U-HA-UL!

Even though the final stop, Pali Lookout (described by Mark Twain as the most beautiful view in the world), has a cloud sitting on top of it, we’ve seen plenty: a working blowhole, the beach in “From Here to Eternity” and a volcanic and coral beach.

We’ve also seen some other totally random things pointed out by our tourguide, most notably local election candidates perched at the side of the freeway waving to passing motorists. A local tradition without which, apparently, election is but a dream, rain or shine. There’s the current mayor…there’s a descendant of the Hawaiian royal family!

Highly recommended.

We really hadn’t intended to climb anything like this, especially so late in the day. We had been planning on a hike, though, and when we did stumble upon the track up Koko Head Crater it was so clearly marked (looking like an abandoned mine cart rail) that we eventually made it up to the top. Dozens of locals were timing themselves running up the 1200ft crater; some people even lapped us. At the top we heard a very colourful story about the crater’s formation and, at the bottom, we finagled a free lift back into town with a Hanauma Bay worker.

It’s a three hour drive to Lake Tahoe; today we:

• gazed at Lake Donner
• rescued/annoyed shrimp on King Beach at Lake Tahoe
• juggled jumbo-sized pine cones
• took a short but nevertheless near-disastrous hike through hills and water
• passed through the brilliantly-named Truckee three times on our way home

It’s nice to get out of the city once in a while, wet feet and all.

Lake Donner

King Beach

Hike to Nowhere

I took the last ferry of the day back to the Ferry Building from Sausalito. Kind of annoying that this is by far the quickest way to get home but a nice sunset.

I’m staying near the Bay Bridge; it’s an awesome sight each morning but it doesn’t
compare with the true original: The Golden Gate. Symmetrical, immense, a colour-coordinated guardian to San Francisco Bay.

For some time I’ve been following a blog dedicated to the California High Speed Rail project, which would provide a two and a half hour link between downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco. Given the current economic climes, the author never misses an opportunity to point out that the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were both built at the height of the Great Depression, putting thousands to work and providing infrastructure for the subsequent recovery.

It’s not perfect; shamefully, its ability to carry trains (in addition to cars) has never been realised. Boarding a Sausalito-bound BART and traversing the Golden Gate would be so wonderful; think how much more exciting a view even than that from the red line T over the Charles River, bound for Boston. Nevertheless, to me, the Golden Gate is a potent reminder of what America can do when it can be bothered: when it put its massive resources to work and built nothing less than a symbol of the 20th century.

Today, in more interesting economic times, I mulled this and how things may or may not change in three weeks time as I merged with the never-ending stream of visitors and residents and walked its 2.8km span towards Sausalito before catching the ferry home.

We’re flying 14km high in the sky at a speed of almost 900km per hour in a tin can containing hundreds of gallons of highly flammable liquid, passing over the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland and all of North America enroute to the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco. It’s a morning flight, the sun is shining in a clear sky….and these people have the blinds down. I have an aisle seat so it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference where I’m sitting – apart from being stuck needlessly under artificial light for half the day – but this just irritates me a little. It’s as if the 8″ LCD showing of “Tomb Raider” (or whatever) in the headrest of the seat in front is actually a serious contender for the amazing spectacle unfolding all around us.

Anyway…I’m still impressed that we can walk up the steps in cold, wet Dublin and emerge just ten hours later on the far side of a different, sunnier, continent. Maybe I’m turning into a plane geek but, the deceptive immediacy of internets and video conferencing aside, this is really far away. 6000 miles! What if the planes all gave up tomorrow? It’d take weeks if not months to sail back to Ireland; not possessing those skills I could never do it myself…what if civilisation itself crumbles during the next five weeks (looking more likely every day!)? I’d never make it back!

Anyway, suffice to say I quite like being back in California. A few weeks of work in San Francisco followed by a couple of weeks of holiday somewhere nearby should be good for the soul. The flight, only two thirds full with plenty of spare room, was comfortable, “Once” on the laptop was a very pleasant diversion and curious reminder of home and now, having taken BART into the city, I find my new home almost directly underneath the approach to the Bay Bridge in the SOMA district near the centre of town.

The weather is fine and the city full of possibilities.