4th July Celebrations - Margate

Independence Day-these particular Americans celebrated their independence from a Briton: me! It was unfortunately my last weekend, so that sent me packing back to England too, bit like 1776!!!
I love this picture, that's Andre's hand repeating 'round and round the garden' to me. Big kiss to you Andre, I miss you.
True American style: we sat on the beach and watched the fireworks-loved it.
Look at that smile. Andre is so special. xx

A bit of evening entertainment at 'Tomato'. Angela has this affect on people and their tongues maybe!

Ventnor, New Jersey

This place was absolutely beautiful-we spent the day at Angela's brothers house (amazing!) which is right on the bay in Ventnor-it was beautiful, we took a dive in and went for a little swim!

The views from the deck were great. Another gorgeous beach community just like , and ver near, Margate.

A 'bit' of drinking and dancing went on too.

'Happy hour' at Angela's house!

This is Margate's famous national historical site, its Lucy the Elelphant (in the background!!). It's considered the eigtht wonder of the world (so im told) and huge!


We decided to have a go at a bit of 'sofa-dancing'.





We eventually sat down for a 'civilised' meal-Eric, have you eaten?? Eat Eric, eat!!!

Barnie? Is that You??


This is how its done!!!





Ive always wanted to be a cheerleader so 'stuff' taught 'fluff' how to do it! I tried, unsuccessfully!!

Millville Madness !

I love these 'chickerdies' (as Summer would say) so much.






This was my very last night in Millville with my bi*****s", we ended in 'Sidelines and Summer ended on the floor!!!

Look at Summer face, its just too funny!!

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons - for real !!

Uncle Bob made another one of my dreams come true-hearing my favourite song: "Cant take my eyes off of you" LIVE ! Frankie (and the acoustics!!) were phenomenal.

Uncle B surprised me with tickets to this concert and made me ecstatic. Thankyou Uncle B. You've managed to put a smile on my face, in some way, every single day-a curve that puts so many things straight, hey. In the words of Frankie Valli, you really are "too good to be true". I was genuinely really, really happy this night. It was, for me, just a perfect evening.

San Francisco

The City By The Bay

It must have been fate that I was in San Fran two days after I had surprisingly seen Tony Bennett who is famous for his song "I left my heart in San Francisco". They do say that when you go to this city, your heart always brings you back. Even though I brought my heart back with me to New Jersey, I was extremely touched by this beautiful city - an abundance of things to do, see and most importantly for me- feel.

Ocean Beach

I had to put my feet in the water so I could say that i've been in the Pacific Ocean and IT WAS BLOODY FREEZING ! This stretch of beach was really pretty though and all the surfers were out. Again, it was windy, cold, cloudy but I love this feeling by the beach-again perpetuated and confirmed my dream: to live by the water one day.

Golden Gate Bridge
I am exceptionally grateful to Dennis, who was able to give me a rather 'individualised' and 'personal' tour of the city. Thankyou SO much for your time, and humour!
The famouse Golden Gate Bridge. We were able to take these photos from Vista Point. Typically, picture postcard views!

As you can see from my hair, the wind was relentless. It's a great spot to see the whole of the city-if the famous S.F fog wasn't out with a vengeance! It was just so nice.

We went for a juicy steak in the Marine area. It was delicious!
Dennis took me to two great restaurants. We went for Sushi at the 'Sushi Zone'-very near the Castro district. I really liked this restaurant becasue it was tiny, and you sat so close to the one chef-it was very relaxed and casual atmosphere, it was a very intimate affair-wierd but there was something quite unique about this chef, thats why I took a photograph of him.

Fisharman's Wharf
This is a view of Fisherman's Wharf from the ferry-San Frans focal point-the 24mile waterfront area. Fisherman's Wharf is so energised, its filled with music bands, fishing boats, seafood stalls, steaming crab couldrons and seafood restaurants-my idea of heaven!

Gorgeous views.

Cable Cars
This was one of the most exciting things for me-getting on a cable car!! It's the S.F thing to do-the views you get are quite amazing. You feel so 'cool' hopping on and off, well I did anyway!

Sausalito

I took a 35minute ferry ride from Fisherman's Wharf and arrived and this beautiful and extremely charming little fishing village.

It's sort of like a one road town across the bay-it had stunning views of San Francisco.

I was enthused by it because it was filled with boutiques, galleries and cafes. I thought Sausilto had a lot of character-very quaint.

Alcatraz

Arriving at the island is extremely eerie: cold, windy, foggy, spooky, you really do get a feel for the place and what it was like-very informative tour.

Everyone HAS to get this picture from the prison cell!!!


Alcatraz is Spanish for 'Pelican' as these birds were the only inhabitants of the island. The island served as a military fortification in the 1850's and it was in 1934 that it became the maximum security prison-until 1963.

Some of the famous residents of Alcatraz.