Hi all:
Today, guess what, I really went for touristic stereotypes. We started after a nice breakfast in our newly rented Beetle to Corte Madera. There we were initially looking for a certain clothes store, but could not find it. But hanging out there and having a nice coffee was nice. Then we went to Sausalito, where we went for a nice little walk. We saw a ferry almost leaving, but by the time I had decided that taking it was not a bad idea it was gone. We looked at the schedule and decided to postspone this trip for tomorrow. Instead we walked along the street, only to see loads of gift shops and art galleries.

However, then Shadow stopped, and suddenly I found a little bird sitting on my right arm, a Cacadoo. He very gently held on to my arm and did not even fall when the owner made me turn my hand. He put a few seeds in the palm after he had shown me that the bird was a gentle little fellow by putting my finger in his mouth. As soon as the cacadoo saw the seeds, he very gently picked up one after another and quite noisily ate them. He had really nice feathers. We left, only to return to take pictures.
This bird owner was really nice. He made the cacadoo sit on my arm again. Then he put a single seed into my mouth and had me make kissy lips. The little bird really took the seed from me this way, it was quite a bit of fun I tell you.

Then came the really touristic part, Shadow drove to Golden Gate Bridge. When you walk underneath it to get to the pedestrian lane, you really fear the bridge is going to come down, the sound of the cars rolling above you is not too trustworthy. Finally we walked up on the bridge, and this is where picture-taking started. Walking to where the bridge actually starts crossing the water takes quite a while. We only walked until it hit land again on the San Francisco side, and then I decided to go back. Thinking about it, it is amazing how such a huge bridge can hold this many cars and pedestrians and bikes all at once, just hanging from huge metal wires.

By the time we arrived back at our car we were both hungry. So we drove back to Corte Madera, where we decided to have Mexican food, my first encounter with real Mexican food, not counting the experience in Estonia. And what I ate was delicious. Then we went into a store, where both Shadow and I found some items we wanted - and I finally got him his belated Christmas present. We were both thrilled to unpack them and play and experiment. We only had to interrupt for cutting the salad and having dinner. Then I found out that te delivered software is not at all blind user friendly, but I like the device anyway. I will see what I can do. Now after having shown me my newly bought little thing Shadow is happily playing around with his, good patient Shadow!
Anyways, have fun everybody and look forward to new San Francisco reports, Chris:-)