California, California, here we come ...

So the beginning of the end was near when I farewelled Rivjuando and Soule Sista at Portland International for San Francisco a couple of Saturdays ago. I met Cousin Slugg at the airport and we shuttled back to our downtown hotel before getting some grub at a nearby diner (which explains the old auto behind us in the picture to your right) and a few beers at an Irish pub to kick off our crusade of California.

The next day and it was breakfast (at another American-style diner) before heading off to the 49ers/Seahawks NFL game. I think I sold Slugg on the idea of gridiron as soon as he laid eyes on the Gold Rush, the San Francisco cheerleaders. Damn that dude who got in the back of our photo! I went to the same game at the same venue almost three years before and it was pretty much the same result. I didn't feel too bad, with the Seahawks of Seattle proudly representing the Pacific Northwest. They could go all the way this year.

If the sight of gorgeous American girls wasn't enough, we then went to Hooters at Fisherman's Wharf. The beer is overpriced and the food is hardly to write home about but it didn't matter. Did it? I sense female readership of the blog will plummet significantly after this but we had a good time and contemplated going back, only to get more pictures with the girls. The girl to my left (I forget her name although she's wearing a name badge) signed Simon's t-shirt with this lovely piece of prose: "Roses are red, violets are blue, the shorter the skirt, the better the view." We'll get her a job in journalism soon enough.

While we thought we saw all that San Fran had to offer, we decided to walk the town on Monday, taking in many sights, including Berry Street (it was the first on my list), the Bay Bridge, Coit Tower, Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge. We would have walked 10 miles easily uo-and-down the city's steep streets, which was just as well, because on Tuesday we spent all day on the Amtrak train to Santa Barbara. It was ironic that I got a cheap ticket after complaining about their service from Seattle to Vancouver in early September, which was more than five hours late. This time, the train we only had to wait four hours after the scheduled time for the Coast Starlight service that apparently offers picturesque views of the Californian coast. We wouldn't know that, however, as it was after 10pm when we arrived in Santa Barbara.

Stay tuned to what happened next to the two men - armed only with a map of California printed on the back of a postcard - as they hired a car and hit the right-side of the road for one helluva road trip!