Escape from Alcatraz!

This morning I visited Alcatraz Island and now I'm at San Francisco airport. They feel sort of the same. Actually, I suppose I just said that for dramatic effect, they don't really feel anything like each other.

My flight back to the UK leaves in less than an hour and I am feeling exceedingly glum about leaving California. Over the last two weeks I've visited San Francisco, Davis, Sacramento, Truckee, Reno, Fresno, Tahoe, San Mateo, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Jose and Santa Clara [though I'm not sure that Santa Clara really counts as a place, so much as a series of roads with strip malls attached... Barefoot Cafe is a very very cool place though, and seemingly operates a sexy-baristas-only policy, which was nice]. I've met some wonderful people, gotten great feedback from audiences at my gigs and have been overwhelmed by the general kindness and friendliness of everyone I've encountered. Two people said they'd pray for me; one said I was very wrong to swear.

Santa Cruz was a major highlight of my trip - I spent most of my time there on the boardwalk and actually cried in excitement when I saw the old railway bridge behind it. I went on the merry-go-round and waited for someone to say "I've told you before - stay off the boardwalk" but, alas, no one did so I walked into Santa Cruz proper and met a man who said he was a leprechaun, horse whisperer, woman whisperer, musician, stand-up comic and comedian. Yes, apparently they are two separate things. I also drank coffee in the garden of a tiny anarchist cafe/bookshop called Sub Rosa, whilst gnarly ageing hippies sang, tapped their semi-shoeless feet and played guitar. It was everything I had hoped it would be - and more, because the day I went was Halloween, so everyone looked like oddballs, which I am choosing to believe is representative of SC's general aesthetic.

.

Here is a review of my gig in Fresno: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18356-Fresno-Poetry-Examiner~y2009m10d30-UK-poet-visits-Fresno-for-Across-the-Pond