San Bruno, Ca (Muir Woods and Vesuvio Cafe)

It's our last day with the rental car, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to visit Muir Woods National Monument. Not really a monument in the ordinary sense, but a forest - a collection of Coastal Redwood trees and a few scattered Douglas Firs. It's a beautiful day, so over the Golden Gate bridge we go!

Passing through Marin County, I could feel the force getting stronger (Skywalker Ranch and LucasFilm is located here). Not seeing any ewoks on the way, we arrived to find even the overflow car-park was full to overflowing, so we parked about 10 minutes walk down the road. Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth. They really are big - they can reach 380ft (higher than the Statue of Liberty!) and are very impressive.

Most of the trees here are about 1000 years old - one way of explaining this is showing what was happening in the world when the tree rings were formed. This tree was growing well before the middle ages!

The trees grow very close together, forming interdependent communities - where trees, sunlight, birds and bacteria thrive alongside each other. Star Wars IV was partly shot in the redwoods of Marin County - so we were continually on the lookout for speeder bikes! I do seem to have a lot of shots of Morag's back, don't I? Here you can also see a snag - this is what they call a dead tree - but still forms a part of the community, providing shelter and accommodation for other life in the forest.

These trees can live up to 2200 years. They really are the wise old men of the plant kingdom - the Romans were building Hadrian's Wall in Britain when these guys started growing!

The amazing thing about walking amongst nature is the many examples of Darwinian survival of the fittest, and those who struggle against it. Here, a tree has fallen over the river, yet it continues to grow - many times over, in fact. As David Attenborough's brother said in Jurassic Park: the Lost World, "Life will find a way". I'm sure there's a message in there somewhere...

OK, so here's the obligatory 'we were there' moment...

My trees are amiably arrayed
In pattern on the dappled sky,
And I may sit in filtered shade
And watch the tidy years go by.

from Story of Mrs. W- by Dorothy Parker

So, having walked the park, supped of organic tomato soup, and snacked on the local grilled cheese culinary delight, we left the park and headed back to the car. Before we had even left the first car-park, some deer ambled nonchalantly in front of us (like, less than 5 meters!) - they had been spooked by a noise in the park to our right. They seemed completely unconcerned with us - and unfortunately also the traffic. After making it safely across the road, however, the baby looked over its shoulder to check on the noise and I got this great photo.

Driving over the hill back towards San Francisco, we stopped the car to make a quick cellphone call (there's no reception down in the valley). This was the glorious view of the bay, with (I think) San Mateo bridge in the foggy distance.

This is the Vesuvio bar interior - where Jack Kerouac - who wrote the eponymous novel On The Road - and other artists of the beat generation (such as Alan Ginsberg - the writer of 'Howl', Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan) hung out. I had a lovely gin martini, and tried to soak up the atmosphere...

Even the tabletops at Vesuvio can't escape artistic infusion!

There are tons of artwork on the walls of the Vesuvio - I wandered around the upstairs mezzanine for a while, trying not to disrupt the other patrons. Vesuvio's has featured in many movies, the most recent probably being Mike Myers' So I Married An Axe Murderer - where he recites the poem "Woman" (although the interiors were shot elsewhere).

I thought these candy girls went out of fashion in the 50's - I was lucky enough to find one in Vesuvio's. Turns out we had stumbled on yet another San Francisco icon - The Peachy Puffs! Class, pure class.

Just up the road the famous bookshop City Lights (right next door to Vesuvio's), on the corner of Columbus and Broadway is an artwork called Language of the Birds - 23 open glowing books, which light up in different sequences. Under them is a number of words and phrases - as if they have fallen out of the pages.

This is The Stinking Rose - we didn't go in, but our tour guide had said that every dish is based on garlic, and the sign looks fantastic!

I finally got to eat in the Zoetrope Cafe we saw yesterday. Admittedly, I didn't have the reserve - only the Diamond - but the wine was sub-par (verging on nasty). No lasagne on the menu, so I made do with a half Muffaletta (New Orleans style with ham, genoa salami, mortadella, provolone, mozzarella and giardiniera on house-made bread) which was fantastic. Sitting in this restaurant was an honour - seeing the awards on the shelves, photos of Scorsese on the walls, and listening to the table next to us tell stories of the 'good old days' at Warner Studios in the 70's - there was only one word for this experience - autentico.