Today, Noga's brother, Ziv, and his wife, Christine, showed us around San Fransisco. We got off to a late start (out by noon), but the extra sleep was very welcome at this point. A 1-1/2 hour drive from Mountain View in Ziv's new BMW 330CI (the ultimate gadget), San Fransisco opened up like the rolling hills of the ranches to the south, only there are streets and houses on these hills. We drove through several neighborhoods, finding ourselves on Haight Street. So, we parked the car and walked down the sidewalk, to the corner of Haight and Ashbury, where we had a light lunch of cr�pes. After a bit of window shopping, we headed back to the car, and off to other unique neighborhoods. Of course, we drove down the winding Lombard Street (twice). Finally, we struck out for the Golden Gate Bridge. On the Marin County (North) side of the bay, we took a scenic cliff-side drive up into the fog, stopping to take pictures with this beautiful backdrop. Then it was back into the relative warmth of the car, and down to the Fisherman's Wharf area. Since it was Independence Day, the crowds were out in force, and we could not find a parking spot so we decided to forego our plans to watch the fireworks here and head back towards Palo Alto to try and catch the pyrotechnic show out there. On the way out of the city, we stopped for a restroom break at a McDonald's, and Noga (always the lucky one) happened to look down and find, on the sidewalk, a crisp $100.00 bill! In Palo Alto, we had enough time to have dinner at a charming trattoria where the owner greeted Ziv and Christine like long-lost relatives. We were seated by the poster-sized picture of Slick Willie, Hillary, Chelsea, Bill's Parents, and the restauranteur. The food was simple, yet delicious, and after a quick picture of the five of us, we were off to the fireworks. Parking was much easier to find, and the fireworks were very nice. Ziv, the techno-geek/semi-pro photographer, brought with him a $2,000.00 Canon digital camera that has all the functionality of a high-end SLR camera, but uses a micro-hard-drive versus film. We spent the day snapping shots and reviewing them on the LCD screen. During the fireworks show, we captured some spectacular images of 'bombs bursting in air'. Immediately after the final�, we hastily made our way back onto the interstate to avoid post-event traffic, and made it safely back to Mountain View.
