20 - 24 Aug 2008

We stayed at the Phoenix hotel, a hyper trendy motel turned rock star hang out in the Tenderloin district. We took in the sights which included Coit Tower, Union square, China Town, the De Young museum and the Golden Gate Bridge. As the roads in San Francisco are quite steep a good way of getting around town is by cable car. At Pier 39 we hopped onto a boat tour and sailed around Alcatraz Island. The outside Lands music and art festival was taking place that same weekend at Golden Gate Park and it turned out to be a great day as we saw acts like Radiohead, Beck and Manu Chao who also happened to be staying at the Phoenix hotel, and who I bumped into whilst toasting my bagel at breakfast that morning.

We met up with Patrizia and had a fantastic Thai meal before taking in a show (Beach Blanket Babylon) an institution and must see when in San Francisco.

The next day it was time to meet Warren and Lincoln who were joining us on our road trip to Nevada for the Burning Man Festival. We went with them to the hippy district of Haight and Ashbury where we picked up the last few accessories for Burning Man and headed to Castro street for a few drinks and a boogie.