Bike Loop with good Closing Music

I have my Marin Bear Valley with me this time around. Its been getting increasingly in need of care and attention in New York (I didn't really fix it in any way for two years), so its been a real enjoyment to spend some time - and money - getting it fixed. New tyres, saddle, pedals, brakes, and on Saturday a new drive system (gear cones and chain). To celebrate it I took it for a 40km ride on Sunday, doing a loop around San Francisco to Lake Merced in the south west corner of the city, and then up along the Pacific coast. The photo of the crockery car is something I encountered on the way - its a city of eccentrics.

California is one of those cities (like Barcelona) which turns its back to the coast
and this is the first time I've seen the Pacific since coming back here. The suburb alongside the beach is called 'Sunset', which is a way of reminding people that live there that in the evenings in other places, such a thing occurs. In San Francisco, all you get is a deepening of the gloom as the fog blows in each afternoon. The beach itself is sandy, but that about the best thing you can say about it. The water is freezing cold and there are vicious back currents which make swimming risky.

My trip took me to the gorgeous Golden Gate park, which is San Francisco's equivalent to Central Park, and then (by plan) to the amazing Amoeba Records, in the Haight-Ashbury (back in the 1960's, this area was the center of the 'Summer of Love). Amoeba is a warehouse sized space packed full of music and DVD's, all of which you can listen to in their entirety at listening stations. This makes it both a very amazing place and a dangerous one, especially when - like me - you haven't bought any music for a while and the urge to do so is strong upon you. I walked out, two hours later and with $150 less in my account, with a varied selection of new and used CD's (if you're interested: King Kahn & The Shrines, Trentemøller Chronicles, Birdy Nam Nam, Bonny "Prince" Billy (Lie Down in the Light), Walter Meego (Voyager), Amadou & Mariam (from Mali, with contributions from Manu Chao) and Damien Jurado (On My Way to Absence).

Music isn't the only thing I've been spending money on recently. After a long time being a student, the temptation to spend when you're suddently on a full salary again is strong. Witness the bike, the $100 shirt and the $500 reading glasses (although that last item is more an example of what you have to pay in chronically under-insured America).