Did I mention that I like San Francisco? I'd more or less worn out my welcome in Berkeley, and planned to leave the bay area that night. I drove into SF over the Oakland Bay Bridge. It's not as majestic as the Golden Gate Bridge, but it's much longer and pretty nice to drive across.

I got to the city and settled down at Cafe Trieste in North Beach to get some work done. Cafe Trieste is a great little Italian cafe and bakery where a lot of writers hang out. They play jazz music and serve up great coffee, pastries, pizza, etc. Back in the day the Beat Poets hung out here all the time and their pictures are all over the walls. I go here just about every time I'm in the city. Speaking of the Beat Poets, down the street is the famous City Lights Bookstore. Long a hotbed of writers and poets off the mainstream path, the bookstore also operates an independent publishing house. Back in the days when the literature industry shuddered at the thought of offending anybody, it was the first press to publish a Jack Kerouac novel.

After getting some work done, I headed out to the north side of the city. I drove out past Fisherman's Wharf and along the edge of the Marina District and the Presidio. There's a really nice park area along the shore. It was a beautiful day and lots of people were out enjoying the weather. There was a nice view and I snapped a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Then it was down through the Golden Gate Park, a wide swath of land bigger than Central Park in New York City. There's huge park areas, tons of recreational facilities, museums, gardens, etc. I didn't have much time and drove to the Japanese Tea Gardens. They were closed. I walked through the trails a bit but then it was time to go.

I met my friend Tina in the Mission District. We had dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place with pretty good burritos. Then we decided to see 'Tokyo!' - an artsy film about Tokyo - at a theater a few miles away. It was okay but went late and I was tired. Tina graciously offered me her couch for the night. Thanks Tina!