San Bruno, Ca (Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square)

We start the day at Starbucks down in the financial district, as the bike ride is going to require some adrenaline! I make friends with Roy, a local homeless character who saved $5 a day for 6 months to buy a computer he didn't even know how to use, then got trained on it by the local community college. Admittedly he sells DVD movies ripped from the 'net (screeners mostly, good quality), but provides a local service to hotel busboys and bankers alike - so he's not hassles by the police. Starbucks was overtaken by the #occupywallstreet protesters with - shall we say - flexible morals systems (or ironic ones, at least), who use the free wi-fi and toilets to further their cause against the corporate financial elite.

The magnificent San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - unfortunately closed on Wednesdays. Got a great book, though - Rian Hughes' CUL-TURE: Ideas Can Be Dangerous on sale at $9.95, marked down from $45!

The Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial in Yerba Buena Gardens (where an event held to mark Indigenous People's Day - a program to commemorate 519 years of Indigenous Peoples' Resistance - was being held). A sombre image for such a beautiful day...

Some more great street art.

The very impressive (both in stature and sustainability) San Francisco Federal Building, designed by Morphosis.

Just before meeting a friend (from my Sydney Olympics days) at the San Francisco Main Public Library (designed by I.M. Pei), there was just time to snap a quick photo of the home of Broadway in San Fran - the very sculptural Orpheum Theatre. Sorry there's no photo of my colleague, we were too busy talking!

Back to the Tenderloin district, and the chess players I had seen from the tour bus a couple of days ago. It was $1 per hour to play, and also an enterprising $1 per seat for anyone who watched (so we all stood). The homie in the background complained loudly that he didn't want to sit in the sun (for about 10 minutes), then played his stereo at high volume. The player standing up on the left of the photo kept glaring at the speakers, but we left before a chess fight broke out...

Actually, a fight did break out further on down the street - a hotel owner didn't like the 'colourful characters' who had taken up residence on the sidewalk, and lambasted a homeless guy by almost throwing his cardboard box of belongings into the street. It's hard to know what to do in these circumstances, but it didn't come to blows so we continued our journey towards the relative boredom of Powell St. This is the (dry) Lotta Crabtree Fountain at the intersection of Market, Geary and Kearny Streets. It was a focal point for survivors, after the 1906 earthquake.

The start of our great bike ride - a great view across the bay of Alcatraz Island.

Our first view of the Golden Gate bridge!

This photo of the marina at Fort Mason could just as easily have been taken in Auckland, at Westhaven Marina, looking towards Rangitoto... can you get homesick in advance?

Another view of the Golden Gate Bridge, with the restored coastal area Crissy Field in the foreground.

The view across towards the city from Crissy Field - you can just make out the Transamerica Pyramid.

The great Morag, about to conquer the bridge!

A good view of the Presidio - an old military installation, preserved and maintained by the National Parks Trust. Little did I know it at the time, but just to the right of this photo is the Letterman Digital Arts Center (LDAC), which from 2005 now houses LucasArts and ILM. Missed that one!

The generic shot of the bridge. Just below the bottom of this photo, surfers are riding the breaks coming in from the Pacific Ocean (on the left).

The view back along Baker Beach - where clothing is optional, and Burning Man was invented (it began here as a bonfire ritual, on the summer solstice in 1986).

I'll spare you the shot of us together at the lookout - this is another one taken with one hand on the handlebars and the other on the camera...

As we rode wearily back through the Presidio and Crissy Field, I looked back and saw the end of a great day on the beach. Look carefully, and you can see: some-one flying a kite, a child investigating a large puddle (while the careful guardian watches on), the back end of a dog, and many other stories to be told...

It was about this point we realised that we weren't pedalling hard enough to get back to the hotel for my 7pm appointment at the Jackson Arms Shooting Range for a Novice Shooter's Package. We put off doing it in Vegas, as we were told it would be cheaper in Los Angeles - then we forgot until after we left. Oh well, maybe they will have a gun range in Hawaii...

This next story was amazing - Morag and I could hardly believe it happened, and it took a few minutes of stunned silence before we could speak. As we had already missed the gun shoot anyway, Morag suggested we eat near Union Square. As we arrived, this duo were playing some old swing and jazz standards (Cheek to Cheek, The Girl from Ipanema, etc). Nothing too remarkable - yet. A random drunk guy runs towards the saxophonist, screaming "you're just a f***ing superstar...", and the guitarist has to use his instrument as a battering ram to dissuade him from the attack, before the traffic guy comes and drags him away... different, but still not unique (although I did not discern any disruption to the song that was being played!). Then a balding, long-bearded, disheveled old homeless guy shuffles up to the front and sits on his jacket for a couple of songs. As the second song draws to a close, he does one of the most touching things I've ever seen - he digs deeply into his pocket, and pulls out a handful of change to give to them. What price, happiness?

Fittingly, the next thing we see is the heart that Tony Bennett left in San Francisco. Much like Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, but they are donated and the proceeds given to charity.

As we were walking past the Sir Francis Drake hotel, a little sign caught my eye - so dragging the seriously under-dressed Morag and myself into an elegant lobby and even more luxourious elevator, we went up the 21st floor. A very understanding waiter bade us entry through the magic velvet curtains of the Starlight Room which we had seen from below the first day we arrived. We had a pre-dinner snifter of Martini and Pinot Grigio - this photo is of the incredible view we had above Union Square looking down. We felt as if we were in the Orient Express or Savoy Hotel - even the draped ballgowns of the waitresses had been designed with excellence.

After our meal, we tried to make our last night in San Francisco last forever - just one more drink? Ok, if you insist... This is the view from the bar where they apparently they 'specialise in lots of bottles'. The bartender was very well versed, made a good martini, and we met a lovely couple (Daisy and Kevin, just friends at the moment) who had met on the bus to work. We taught Daisy how to pūkana, and offered Kevin a hand with his music career. What a blast!

Our bartender had run out of Bombay Sapphire Gin, so (while Morag was in the bathroom) he offered to share the last of his experimental bottle of Bombay Sapphire East (which he had developed the taste of a year ago). A very tasty little number it was too - released in a small scale market test in New York and Las Vegas, I'm sure it will be rolled out to the rest of the world shortly. After we got over the trepidation of drinking from an experimental flask, the taste of Vietnamese black peppercorns and Thai lemongrass slid down the pallet very nicely, thank you!