Kurt and Sausalito

Last night was great. As I went further into the Mission district to visit Kurt, there were more restaurants and lights and people milling around and more and more latino. In the end I was the only blond person in the bus and felt like I was back in Colombia. I found my way to Kurt's place and went up the stairs and Julia, Kurt's girlfriend, opened the door for me and welcomed me into a really nice semi-detached type house furnished in a really nice arty way. Kurt was there and also a school friend, Marc. Marc had just come from Vancover and after a big trip around the USA will be going back to Australia at the end of next week. All 3 of us had a great night, good food and good company and then the owner of the house (Kurt just rents a room from her) came and we had lots to talk about. She ended up giving me some bath salts that she sells.

This morning I went out to catch a bus to Sausalito to look around for the hiking trails that the Lonely Planet talks about. I ended up talking to a nice lady, Diane, who lived in a house boat on the shores near a place called Strawberry Hills. We stayed on the bus past where we got off the other day and then got off and she showed me where to walk. What an incredible scene!! All the houseboats were different and I walked up and down the wharves amazed at the variety of house boats that were there. One was called Freedom, another The Answer. I stopped to take some pictures and Diane called out to me from a big blue boat and she told me the system, $700 it cost to moor the boat and that includes all the services. Then she ran after me and gave me a copy of a book that she had written and I made her write some words in the front.

After that I walked back and found the Engineers bay Model by the US army Corps. This is one huge scale model of the San Francisco bays used to model and predict effects of dredging and other activities and weather on the bay. Now it's also used for education. All very interesting. Apparently one of the worst effects were caused by the gold diggers who used pressure from streams to wear away soils so that the gold would be exposed.

Then I took the bus back to San Francisco and found the book shop that Kurt had recommended. It's on the corner of Columbus and Broadway called City Lights and is a great independent book shop with big sections on History, Philosophy, American Literature and Poetry. I bought the book that we are doing at the book club in early December.

Whew!! what a day. Exhausted. Must have walked miles.