November 1st - November 28th.Time off in California.

A lot can happen in a short space of time thats for sure! November being a fine example. Jason and I went  to California. Never ones for convention we found ourselves in Palm Springs for a few days having a back to front honeymoon, before heading to the wonderful city of San Francisco. It was in San Francisco that we made a very special visit to City Hall and did this!!!!!!!

Mr and Mrs Tozer!

Big smiles.

After almost 10 years together we are a Mr and Mrs and couldn't be happier about it! We had a wonderful and memorable sunny day. Taking the tram to City Hall was lovely, everyone asking us if we were getting married and congratulating us. Jason looked so handsome in his best bib and tucker I was really proud to be becoming his wife. I felt lovely in my little cotton frock that I found in Batemans Bay whilst we were house sitting there. It was perfect for the San Francisco late summer sunshine. City Hall is a magnificent setting & it's great that it's a public building too. Anyone can wander in and enjoy its opulent and skilfully created stonework interior. It reminded us of a mini St. Paul's Cathedral and we felt very fortunate to have such a lovely setting to be tying the knot.

The first kiss as Husband and Wife!

San Francisco is a great place to stay and explore. I have always had a hankering to go, which is a little odd as I have no such desire for the rest of America. Its a rich, vibrant, open, and an extremely friendly place. I fell in love with it almost immediately as we drove from the airport to our accommodation in the  very gay and brilliant Castro District. We were meeting up with two great friends from Sweden. Liselotte and Wiktor Ericksson. Not only very talented film and documentary makers but fabulous lovely funny mates who we really enjoy hanging out with. Wiktor was to turn 40 and we planned to celebrate both his becoming an adult and our wedding whilst in the city.

Castro pride

Castro is an amazing area to stay.You cannot stay there and not be aware of its proud gay rights history and its most famous inhabitant Harvey Milk. Harvey, a politician, was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. Terribly, Harvey and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall by Dan White another City Supervisor who had resigned from his post but wanted his job back, making Harvey the focus of his anger.
Harvey served only 11 months in office but was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. Despite this short career Milk has an iconic presence in the Castro and became a martyr in  the gay community. Anne Kronenberg said this of Harvey:

 "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us."

Harvey in 1978

There are so many things to do and see in San Francisco. Eating out most nights, at some gorgeous small and cheap places with amazing food, I found myself notching up on my belt as we put on a few pounds. We sampled some of the best cocktails I've ever had and discovered the wonderful "Aviation" which took New York by storm in the 1930's and when mixed correctly does indeed taste of Spring!

Wise words from Mr Hemingway

Jason and I visited Alcatraz. which was another big surprise, because although touristy was wonderfully moody on the wet and grey day we sailed over. So interesting finding out about all the infamous inmates and failed escape attempts.

Alcatraz as we approach

The tiny cells

The Imposing ruins of the governors house

The landing area. First port of call for new inmates.

Jason has been re discovering his love for black and white Photography which is where his career began and I have enjoyed watching him getting really into it again. He had a great time at Alcatraz wandering around photographising. Here are a few more of his fabulous images from the day there.

We went to Haight and wandered amongst the hippies and buskers, incense and stronger, floating through the air! We revisited the Hockney exhibition we had loved in London at the wonderful De Young Gallery in Golden Gate Park. I felt like I was visiting old friends wandering around his awesome canvasses and slow slow films of his beloved "Tunnel" of trees in Yorkshire.

We fell in love with The Mission District, Valencia and Noe Hill. All so colourful and with beautiful architecture. We rode trams and cable cars around the CBD and explored the regenerated wharf areas.
We went to Foreign Cinema for dinner. Tables are set outdoors, and a movie shown projected onto a huge wall, which you watch in silence whilst eating and drinking delish and unusual plates. We also saw a local production of a play about Chet Baker, with a gifted trumpet player doing a fine job of conjuring up Chetty, his music and his distructive drug abuse, all performed in a tiny speakeasy Theatre hidden below an unsuspecting typewriter shop!

The Mission School such a beautiful building

We talked with loads of locals who are incredibly friendly, they pointed us in the direction of the best coffee at Faye's. A small and avant garde film rental shop, and to Amnesia a packed dark dindgy bar with the best local live music and jam sessions. Jason loved it! We spent a fair amount of time sampling some bespoke and very home brewed craft ales at a wonderful small place called the Cerverateria who also cleverly had the freshest and tastiest empanadas on sale to help soak up the beer.

We didn't want to leave and on our final night we managed to squeeze in another dinner at the hugely and justly so, popular Italian - Delphina. Where I had the mouth watering roast chicken once more and Jason sampled a very expensive and rich truffle pizza before boarding our flight back to Sydney which was long, hot and with such full tummies rather uncomfortable........ Lesson learnt.