Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick, Take a Ride on the West Coast Kick

At first I thought I might take a little break from the travelogue posts and talk about the demise of that fun casual thing I had going with the wedding date guy, but then I realized I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger yesterday. So, I'll finish that tonight and leave you with another cliffhanger for tomorrow. Damn, but I should be hired to write the last season episodes for TV dramas. If only I wasn't so full of importance from all the paper pushing I do here in Iowa, I'd be right on that.

When I last left you, I believe Coadster and I were fleeing the drama on Haight Street. Our plan was to go to bed early and try to get up in time to go to the awesome farmer's market in Half Moon Bay that we heard about. Lord knows we tried, but then there was this raging party across the hall from us. Some mom had rented a room for her high school aged kids to party in. I guess she was even there and everything. At around midnight, the motel owners went over to close it down and kick everyone out. Then at 2:30 in the morning, the fire alarm went off and stopped and went off and on and on. So, we shuffled outside with all the European tourists and stood around in our pajamas for almost an hour while several attractive firefighters came by and made sure there wasn't a real fire. The owner thought that the kids who got kicked out of their room came back later and pulled the alarm. Assholes.

So, we missed the farmer's market, but we did make it to Half Moon Bay a little later.
Where we played in the sand and did some sightseeing of surfer dudes.

Forgive me if you're a lesbian or a heterosexual male, but here's another gratuitous hot surfer guy shot. I promise I'll stop now.

Because I'm up for the mom of the year award, the girls and I decided to eat ice cream for lunch and head into the city to see the bridge. Stinky was so not impressed. Her reaction was much like that of the Griswold's when they went to the Grand Canyon in the first Vacation movie. I told her that this was one of those times she had to just suck it up and traipse around and look at stuff that I was interested in for a change. I'm not saying that her eyes didn't roll into the back of her head or anything, but she definitely sucked it up and let me and Coadster check things out.

On our last day in the city, the girls opted to make one more swipe back at Pier 39. There were a few souvenir clothing items they wanted to get before we left.

In the afternoon I told the girls that if we couldn't make it back to my old neighborhoods in the Mission and Noe Valley, I at least wanted to check out Chinatown before we left. So, we wandered around until we got hungry and splurged on a late lunch of green onion pancakes with spicy peanut sauce, sesame chicken and pork chops sauteed in basil and onion. It was soooo worth it.

Then it was time to say goodbye to the beloved city. Good-bye awesome Chinese restaurant.
Good-bye cool shaped buildings, rolling fog, and hippies with really long hair.
Good-bye street people sleeping everywhere.

Good-bye San Francisco Chronicle building across from our stop and all those really cool stores. We're getting on the bus and closing the doors.

12 comments:

rel said...

Churlita,
We did S. F. 6 years ago. Our son's inlaws live in a suburb and showed us around to all the touristy have to sees. I have to say that I was overcome by the numbers of street people that are all over the city.
rel

Anonymous said...

pretty good story to go with the cliff-hanger....wild kids with enabling mothers, fire fighters, European tourists...it had everything

I like the photo of the homeless person...I am thinking of starting something like that, maybe freaky street preachers as well.

Mrs. Hairy Woman said...

I worked once in a hotel doing security and some hockey kids did the same thing to me.. Couldn't kick them out, but I had called the PO Po.. and they had a nice little chat with the parents.. Sounds like you had a good time inspite of all the distractions of fire alarms and partying brats..

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you gals had a blast in San Francisco - what a fun city! But a 2:30am fire alarm? No fun!

Tara said...

Thank you for the photo of the firemen! I wonder if people pull fire alarms just so that they can see the firemen in their uniforms? Not that I would do that, but I'm just wondering.

storypeople said...

When I have loads of money, I'm flying you back to San Francisco to do things you do when you live there.

It's kind of a toss up between California firefighters and surfers. Got to say, in Santa Barbara, the firefighters win. We have us some serious handsomeness wielding hoses.

NoRegrets said...

No stories of the drive back?? I always want more..

DJSassafrass said...

So glad that I don't have to deal with kids in hotels anymore!

Poptart said...

i love that you just take pictures of hot firemen and surfers. You RULE the school.

Was Stinky just wanting to do more shopping? Or just sick of touristy stuff? Or what? She'll be glad later that you made her suck it up.

laura b. said...

Once again you have provided all daily blog requirements. Cute boys, your own cute girls, and even some bitchin' poetry. I ♥ your vacation!

Still...can't wait to hear about what's up with Wedding Date guy.

Churlita said...

Rel,

There are way less homeless people there than there used to be in the 80's, but I think the climate is going to ensure that are always a fair amount.

Evil-E,

I'd love to see that new feature play out. Cool idea.

Mrs.,

I guess they were really pissed off because she kicked them out and wouldn't give them their money back since there was so much room damage.

jenny,

It's a great city because there's so much to do for free there and the people watching is off the hook.

Tara,

No problem. It was really more for me than you all. Just kidding. I have no idea why they're so hot, but almost everyone of them was more attractive than the next.

Cris,

Thanks. When my girls are older all of that will be easier and I'm sure I'll take that trip and go to the old movie theaters there and eat a burrito as big as my head in The Mission and drink margaritas...

Nor,

Don't worry. I still have one post left. I'm just taking a day off to give everyone a breather.

DJ,

I'm so glad you're out of there.

Poptart,

Stinky wasn't feeling well for most of the trip and that clouded her outlook. If we did it again, I bet she would have loved it and looking back, I'm sure she'll have great memories.

lauraB.,

I was kind of trying to spoof Goodnight Moon there, but it turned out pretty darn dorky.

AlienCG said...

I've been waiting to find out how this story ends. This tells you why it took me 3 days to get to reading this post.