old news	san francisco 2001 news big thank you to richard! thanks also to brian and linton and kristen. more links from the text and photos coming soon. 22 august 2001 drive down to heathrow hotel. manage to go to the wrong one, but get a better room with cheaper parking. bargain. 23 august 2001 hoppa bus to terminal, check in and get window seat on lhs of plane. take off on time. watch shrek and heartbreakers on the way. get fantastic views of san francisco, the bay and golden gate bridge as the plane circles to land. richard meets us at the airport after queuing for ages to get through immigration. drive through silicon valley to get to his apartment in san jose. swim in the apartment pool and relax in the spa before getting margaritas and burritos at chevys mexican restaurant. 24 august 2001 a day of chillin and maxin by the pool, catchin rays. shop for bagels in local store. food in the evening with richard and kristen at nolas, in palo alto. 25 august 2001 drive up to sf and over the golden gate bridge. two hours north to the sonoma valley, home of many fine wineries and sonoma jack cheese. tried some wine at the wine room, st francis and kenwood wineries. ventured north to santa rosa, a dull town. food at checkers and beds at days inn. 26 august 2001 drive back down into the sonoma valley. tour of the benzinger vineyard. more tasting at valley of the moon winery. food in sonoma then a final wine tasting at roche winery. drive back down to san jose via a very windy stop to be tourists at the golden gate bridge. bbq and beer in the evening. 27 august 2001 we venture, via the vta and caltrain into san francisco. eventually find the hotel. a walk around chinatown and some of the shops. there's a gap on every corner. food in a dodgy irish pub. v tired so early to bed. 28 august 2001 up with the workers. coffee and bagels then a cable car to fisherman's wharf. do the tourist thing with a trip to alcatraz. very errie. walk back to the hotel via the many hills. quick stop at the top of lombard street and the cable car museum. food on pier 39 after a walk around north beach and the beatnik area. 29 august 2001 caltrain back to san jose. pick up a hire car. a quick pit stop back at richard's appt then off to the monterey peninsula. find a great motel in pacific grove. why is it drizzling? evening meal at a fantastic fish restaurant. 30 august 2001 woke up to rain! this could be the uk. quick paddle in the pacific then hit highway 1 for the very picturesque drive down to big sur. amazing scenery. drive down to hearst castle and do another touristy tour. totally mad crazy castle in the middle of nowhere. full of loads of antiques and ancient bits of classic buildings. weird dude. drive straight back up highway 101 to san jose. 31 august 2001 quick bit of culture in the morning with a visit to the john steinbeck centre. drop the hire car back and get picked up by richard. load the car ready for weekend in yosemite. visit costco a buy enough food for a small town. drive 180 miles in five hours to yosemite. sitting in a queue for too long. arrive at our cabin at 10pm. glass of wine and bed. 1 september 2001 our first full day. seeing the yosemite valley for the first time in daylight. wow. visit the village centre for maps and walking info. the place is full of tourists in trainers! don't they know this is the wilderness?! we walk up to the emerald pool passed the vernal falls. its only 1.5 miles along, but we climb over 1000ft. very hot. very high and very full of tourists dropping lots of litter! opted not to do half dome. we probably would have made it but would have been unable to walk for the rest of the weekend. shark steaks on the bbq and more wine in the evening. 2 september 2001 up bright and early and we are on top of sentinel dome, at over 8000ft by 10am. another mile or so and we are on taft point. an outcrop where you can look over the edge and down to the valley floor. a drop of nearly 4000ft! straight down! very vertiginous. a lot less tourists in trainers and a lot less litter. back down to the valley floor, lunch and a siesta in the shade (over 90 degrees f). another 4 mile trek to look at mirror lake. nice but no water so the whole 'mirror' thing doesn't really work. back up to sentinel dome for sunset. saw some bear cubs on the way! sunset at 8000ft, over yosemite valley with a margarita. totally totally mind blowing. tried to take lots of arty sunset photos. salmon steaks on the bbq and more wine and bed. 3 september 2001 pack up and leave the cabin. drop back into the village for a final look around. leave the valley to avoid all the tourists leaving in their huge 4 wheel drives. drive down the river valley. take lunch by the river (100 degrees f in the shade!) drive across really flat and barren terrain for hours. heres to cruise control. stuck in more traffic. 4 september 2001 a tough day spent relaxing by the pool. a visit to pacific bell park to watch a baseball game in the evening. san jose 80+ degrees, san francisco nearer 50 degrees. hows that work then? really cold in the stadium so we now have some nice sf giants hooded tops. see bonds get his 59th home run of the season - thats nearly a record! eat hot dogs and garlic fries and leave after the 7th innings. sf giants 5 arizona diamond backs 2. 5 september 2001 our last full day. rich takes a day off work - thank you! started off with a visit to the north face outlet store. so cheap. no i mean really cheap! eventually went for a walk in henry cowell park. really really big redwood trees, like over 300ft big. evening food at a cool mexican restaurant in palo alto. two jugs of margaritas. then off to watch richard and brian loose badly at 7 a side soccer. 6 september 2001 awoke with the expected sore heads. packed and waited for our heads to stop hurting. richard comes home and takes us back to sf airport. quick coffee then he was off. take off on time 4.30pm usa. very very bumpy ride. watch monty python holy grail and blow. 7 september 2001 land at heathrow and 10am uk. pick up some free duty free. find the car back at the hotel and head for the m1. 3 hours later and its back to the usual big pile of post and free papers and mountains of washing.