Who Needs Google Earth When You've Got...

...Commander Hadfield In Space!

When we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and visitors came to town there was nothing we liked better than to show them around by taking them over the three bridges that can be seen in the image above taken by current Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield....

First, we'd hightail it out of the East Bay in the top left corner of the picture over the Richmond San Rafael Bridge (the long one on the left) and muck about in Marin County for awhile, and maybe even take them all the way out to Pt. Reyes, if there was time, via the crazy-legged Lucas Valley Road...

Second, we'd bring them into 'The City' over the skinny little Golden Gate Bridge in the lower center of the picture for a stop in North Beach for sure and then all matter of other crazy stuff (especially if they were Armistead Maupin fans) depending on time also...

Finally, it would be back to the East Bay over the long Bay Bridge on the right side of the picture (with Treasure Island in the middle)...Upon coming off the bridge near all the the cranes and the containers where the Westcoast 'Occupy' movement really got going awhile back, we would make either a left turn for a visit to the Berkeley campus or a right turn for the longer drive down the Nimitz Freeway to Oakland (then Alameda County) Coliseum to sit in the bleachers (before Al Davis came back to town and wrecked them) and watch the fully-juiced Bash Brothers turn batting practice fungoes into monstrous gopher balls that all the kids who paid 4 bucks to get in went crazy chasing after.

So.

What would I do now if I was there?

Hmmmm.... A whole lot.

But if I had an extra day, I'd probably go find all the places I missed the first time around that I've since learned about by reading Michael Chabon's latest, 'Telegraph Avenue'...

And what would be on the car's music machine and/or stuck within my ears?

How about the following freaking freakadelic (but not quite funk in a goodway) freakout! from Oakland transplant Merrill Garbus....

______
Oh, as for that drive...Every single bridge is tolled....But on a trip like the one described above you only have to pay once... Why?...Because you only pay one way going out of town...Oh, ya....And it's free if you're carpooling...Which leads to some interesting meet-ups at BART (raptrans) stations...More about that another time...
And for all you Oakland slaggotronic types out there...Check this out....(thanks CM!)...


.