Never thought I'd say...

Grrr...San Francisco.

This city is truly a great place in many many ways. However, in terms of internet cafes, Vancouver has it beat hands down. I'm currently paying $7 USD for an hour of internet time and can't even upload pictures. It's this way all over the city as far as I can tell...whereas in Vancouver, I could pay $2 CAD for an hour. And then, in Victoria (capital of BC...still in Canada...on Vancouver Island...) it was like $6 CAD per hour, but I could still use the USB ports on their PCs for uploading pictures. *sigh* Well, so I get more and more incentive to buy a laptop for my next trip. :-) Heh.

So, you gets to reads my ramblings instead of checks out me pics. Sorry. :-)

I'm in this ice cream/crepe store that also has a coupla internet terminals. And the guy who runs the place (great big swarthy fella of "meditteranean descent" I think) seems to really like Elvis. Which isn't the end of the world, except for the fact that he insists on singing along at top volume. Oy. Vey.

BTW, this is at LEAST the third time in the last 40 minutes that I've heard "It's a Matter of Time" by The King................................

Argh. OK...now that that's out of my system...

So, last time I posted pics, Karen and I were in Seattle, Thorp and Vashon Island. Turns out that Vashon Island is one of the major growers of pot on the west coast. A very mellow, age-ing hippie vibe on that island. Fun enough for what it is, but you can only take so much... :-)

We left the Seattle area on Tuesday the 2nd, and drove our Alamo rent-a-SUV down the coast. For a long while it was pea-soup-foggy, but then we left Eugene after spending the night there, and things started to clear up. Just an interesting aside (well, it's interesting to me anyways)....we stayed in a Motel 6 just outside of Eugene, and tuned in to The Weather Channel to see if the fog was going to continue. You know how TWC does "local weather on the 8's"? Well, they didn't have a local weather forcast for Eugene. I kid you not. Totally blew my mind.

Holy smokes. Jackass just put "It's a Matter of Time" on again. I think I'm gonna be sick.

The good news is that the people watching is kinda fun. Maybe things heat up after 10PM. Lots of couples of every variety you can imagine. I'm constantly feeling underdressed here. Right now there is a group of 8 Koreans with sportcoats and cigarettes out front. Hehe. And here I sit in my weatherproof Eddie Bauer coat, REI convertible pants, Birks and SmartWool socks. Definitely more Vancouver than SF... :-)

Anyways.......back to my narrative......

Which I know you were just waiting for with baited breath... :-)

So, we're driving down the coast, and we end up in Redwood National Forest. And all I have to say is "wow". Even as I was taking pictures of that amazing place, I knew there was no way I could do it any justice at all. So green, so dense, so quiet, peaceful...I could have walked off into that woods and never come back. Oh...and that place really is "the Forest Moon of Endor". That's where they shot the film.

I have lots of cool pics to share....I just gotta figure out how to upload them.

Be back soon....

Off to LA this coming Tuesday...

Back in MI the Tuesday after that...