When we get to union sq this morning there's a queue of ladies about 1/2 mile long, at least as far as the eye can see. Beck thinks its the line for our tour bus. I don't reckon so, not unless our tour bus is giving away free pairs of brand new Levis jeans. Turns out its not but the people in the middle of union sq are exchaging old jeans for new levis "60-80 dolla value" the chinese lady from our bus tells us! So we eventually board the tour bus. We get off a...

So todays the big day, the main reason I wanted to come to San Fran was to see Alcatraz and with the sound of Edie Izzard off his DVD ringing in my ears - ALCATRAZ!ALCATRAZ!ALCATRAZ! - I proceed to annoy Becks head all day by whispering this to her and then shouting it at her! It gets annoying even for me. So we hand back the car, luckily bypassing the biggest line I ever seen at a car rental place, and head out on foot to see San Fran. First China town. Its OK,...

Woke up real early in the custom hotel. Good nights sleep after all the traveling yesterday, and what better way to follow it up than with another day of long traveling. We get the airport shuttle back to LAX then the free bus to Alamo (car rental), where this weird fat man gets us all sorted with paper work and a sat nav. He takes the payment from the wrong card and when he realizes he stares wistfully into the yonder and says "I'm sorry, so very, very sorry. I'...

So this is the first proper entry in the U-U-USA blog as the web-o-sphere is lovingly referring to it these days. 24 hours ago I was thrashing around in my bed trying to sleep, but kept awake by things i'd forgotten. There was a incident where i'd lost my wee HD vid camera i'd specifically bought for the trip. the looking for it was fierce but alas i'd have to leave without it. So we got up at 7:15am. quick showers and then last minute checks. I missed Gerb's fin...