We are in portland the brewery capital of the usa. Wifi not much good at hotel so are a bit slow publishing. The more we see of the us the more the simpsons looks like a documentry. They dont stop eating, the food is so cheap so big and so fattening. They would double deep fry a salad wrap it bacon fry it again and serve it smotjered in maple syrup. .being nearly halloween pumkin is in everything shakes,pies, burgers even beer… Pumkin beer not that bad…really

Scenery here is incredible mount hood towers over the city with a cap of snow. They are expecting first snow falls on friday. We did a loop of the mounyain today and spectacular orchards,wineries and a great little brew bar where we had lunch.
Nights here we hit the breweries beer is between 3 & 5 dollars a pint and each place does 7 or so varieties rhey are delicious and no nasty chemicals so you wake up sparky. Food is decent too gary had an elk burger last night reckon tasted like sweeter version of beef…i stuck to beef.

We saw this gm suburban in lake taeho. The cops shot the wheels out and rammed it to get a couple of trailer trash to stop. We will post our photo when can but heres the news story.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20101015/NEWS/101019852/1068&ParentProfile=1056

This pic below explains it all.

When I picked up the hire car the guy at Hertz said why on earth am I going to Reno, and my reply was because i’ve heard its crap. He said yep it sure is.  He wasn’t wrong this place would have to be the tackiest and crapiest place I have ever seen.  The dirt is even so crap weeds wont grow.  The city is fairly run down with plenty of very scary motels and quiet a few trailer parks on the boundaries. The casino strip is Las Vegas 1969 everything is old and totaly over the top. Theres awful carpet, country music playing everywhere, old poker machines still with arms and buffets galore. (although they were closed by the time we left the brewery pub..bugger always tommorow).  Like Vegas they have themes, but bits of everything, theres one with a giant mine shaft in the centre then a lovely italian like fountain with chipped cement horses and green water.  The casios are very quiet,  a few are closed for renovation, but think they have gone bust. Even the larger ones had very few people in them.. But Saturday night might be a different story. Shame we are not here next weekend, Kenny Rogers is here with his brand new face, gee he looks weird.   We are staying at the Hyatt a brand new little hotel near the airport no pokies, so we caught a taxi in..the taxi driver couldnt wait to tell us about all the great brothels in the area. The guy we got coming home would have been 90 im surprized he lasted the distance. 

We took the ferry to Sausalito which is over the other side of the bay, the trip took about 30 mins and offered some spectacular views of the bay and city.  Sausalito is a bit like Portsea or even Lorne, full of trendy art galleries, dining establishments and some pretty tasty burgers we took back to the pub to eat with a few tasty Big Tyre beers.

Gday Mick… today we went to Alcatraz… We went down to the ferry dock and asked the lovely lady for two tickets, she replied what time would you like to go. there are free time all day.. So easy… It pays not to drink beer all day and leave it to the last minute and miss out… (that was 1997….. we need to move forward)….. anyway  We went to Alcatraz and it was pretty koowl!

To burn of  the burger for lunch we took a bus ride to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked the mile or so across.  It’s not anywhere as big as the Bay Bridge on the other side of the city but is just as impressive. The bridge is a fair way out of the city centre. The views were spectacular and the 3 foot high barriers were all that stopped you from ending up in the drink below, other than the signs saying it wasn’t a good idea to jump.  At Alcatraz the other day they made a big hoo har about how dangerous the currents were, we thought it was just adding to the legend they had cleverly crafted but from up on the bridge you can see them and they were amazingly strong.

There’s always a seagull near the seaside.. here they are a bit bigger than ours, and they have a real evil eye, watching your every move. Is that a chip in your pocket?  Anyway they made good photos.

What a life, one of the best positions in the world but these fat lard arses just lay in the sun and haven’t got a care in the world.. We saw one do a huge dump spray on his mate and he couldn’t have cared less, he just rolled over and let the sun bake it into his blubbery fur… And the smell..oh the humanity…absolutely dreadful.   Gary was wondering what they would taste like… I thought a bit like chicken.

It’s day 4 and we are off to alcatraz while waiting for our boat we had an early lunch at pier 39. We needed to try a san fransisco favourite, the clam chouder in a sour dough bun. Our hatered of clams led us to order the second favorite the chilli con carne version. It is as tasty as the pic looks.

San Fran’s  Japan town is great, its only small but you really forget you are in USA and have popped into Tokyo for a moment. There are heaps of cool Japanese shops and plenty of dining options.  Most of the buildings have a Japanese theme and the streets are landscaped just as they are in Tokyo.

The archetecture of San Francisco is amazing, there are suburbs and suburbs of these beautiful wooden Victorian houses looking at them takes some of the hurt of walking up these steep hills..they are killing us.  Anyway,,, not far from the next pub…and whats the bet its an Irish bar..