The Otter's Pool - Ady Gould -

	Well this is the page for my travels to the USA that happened with Gareth in August 1997. I finally got the pictures from Gareth at Christmas - and so have lots of scanning to do. I have commenced the scanning, and the first few pictures are here. There are bigger versions of them available by clicking the image.
	Brett is a good mate of mine from IRC, and like so many of the people I met in the USA, he is a wonderful, and thoughtful man. Brett was our host in Dallas/Fort Worth. Whilst we were there, Brett took us to the Six Flags theme park, and also we had the pleasure of visiting the MCC in Dallas.
	On the left are Brett and Gareth outside the MCC in Dallas. The Cathedral of Hope has a wonderful leadlight (or Stained Glass window) which is shown on the right. When I walked into the sanctuary and had tears in my eyes. Ones of peace, and tranquillity, and of the feeling of being home. This short visit must go down in my book of special moments. It defined a bit of my begin that had been left for too long.

	The pictures above are taken at Six Flags over Texas. The derrick is a central viewing platform. The Roller coaster with two loops is unusual as they are "in-line" rather than side by side, or corkscrew style. The wooden roller-coaster is amazing. It is called the Texas Giant, and boy it is possibly more thrilling than the likes of Kumba and Montu at Busch Gardens. The final picture is Brett and Gareth up on the platform of the Derrick.
	San Francisco was our last stop, and we did some walking around the city. We were hosted by Tim and Kurt, who looked after us so well. We have been truly spoilt by our hosts in the USA, both on this trip, and the trip I made in December. Macondray Street is well known for the "Tales of the City" series by Armistead Maupin. When the TV series was filmed, the steps to "Barbary Lane" were actually the ones on Macondray Street. Thus the picture of the sign. There are more pictures of this area to come.
	On the left are Kurt and Tim, our hosts in San Francisco. The picture on the right is a general view of the city of San Francisco taken from the top floor of a hotel .
	The Golden Gate bridge... romance is fun - but I got told off about a comment I made to Gareth - more on that another time... well later! The Golden Gate bridge pictures were taken when Tim, Kurt, and Gareth and I walked half way over (well half way and back is the same as the whole bridge). The end picture is of Tim after he parked his vehicle.

	In a rather unexpected twist - the two pictures here show a cable car having to be pushed, and the passengers back on it after getting it moved. Why this happened I do not know.