USA - The Road, 2011 Edition - Part I - Down South

• SAN DIEGO - PACIFIC BEACH

• SAN DIEGO - LITTLE ITALY

• SAN DIEGO - DOWNTOWN

• LOS ANGELES - VENICE BEACH

• SAN FRANCISCO

We arrived at night and admired, bewildered, the Oakland bay bridge in the fog with the lights and the sea and the stars. There was the ebb and flow and the sea breeze.
We haggled with a reincarnation of Groucho Marx over a motel room that smelled of dead feet. The next day we walked the SF hills til we reached lower body paralysis. The bay area energy. The big-city rude and the West coast nonchalance.

Groucho was right — SF is perfect and you'll never want to leave.

• PORTLAND