We got to walk through San Franciso's mad Chinatown on Chinese New Year's Eve. There was loads of mad people about, selling stuff, doing little shows and dances. The place was filled with lanterns and banners to celebrate the New Year.

I think is my favourite shot from walking up the streets, the two little kids were having a great time, eating sweets and messing about.

Cosmo told me where to go to watch the Obama inauguration and we had a bit of a chat about obama himself. It's great to see Americans excited about their President, not just for their own interests but because they know Bush was hated pretty much everywhere else around the world and was giving them a bad rap. The Yanks aren't that bad, really :)

We bumped into Cosmo again in Union Square a couple of nights later, he was chuffed that we'ld gone down to watch the Inauguration, so I took his photo to whack up on the blog. Cosmo is a cool dude, and if your ever in San Francisco, check down the Deli aisle in the supermarket, he might just be there!

Elaine and I where a bit worn out after just 2 days in LA, but once we hit SF we felt much more chilled out and at ease. I've got so many cool stories from just a week there so I bought a notebook to write stuff down, and I 'll bore you all with its contents when I'm home. Highlights so far though; cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge, getting the best coffee EVER, being in an Apple store (glayvin!), taking the tram at night up from the Pier, seeing some weird lady get her kit off in front of Alcatraz for a photo shoot (sorry lads Elaine wouldn't let me take any photos) seeing sealions and meeting some very cool people.

For now have a look at some photos I've whacked up on Flickr.

The place itself is amazing, the cells and spaces occupied by the prisoners and gurds. There's also a whole load of history that most people don't know and that doesn't get shown in the pictures; it was a US military fort to protect the west coast during the Gold-rush, then a miltiary prison, then a state penateniary that also housed all the guards and workers families, then when Bobby Kennedy closed the place a group of Indians took the place over until they were sabotaged by Nixon who sent in people to subvert the movement because the news coverage of the Indians occupying the island interupted a televised speech Nixon was giving at the same time!

Now it's a National Park and bird roost, it's really weird how quickly the things man built have been crumbled or been taken over by nature. I'll have more photos up soon, still a bit jetlagged from the flight to NZ!

There was a lot of cheering, crying, booing (at Bush) and laughter at the oath of Office slip-up. I was really glad to be in San Francisco to see Obama become President, the city was really buzzing.

More photos on Flickr