We're back from San Francisco
May. 18th, 2004 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasFirst, I want to apologize for not managing to meet up with anyone. We didn't finalize anything before we left on Thursday, and didn't have internet access while we were there. We probably could have gone to the library or something, but we didn't get a chance. Anyway, lemme tell you about our trip!!
We left the house on Thursday at about 7:30 EST, drove to Manchester, got on a plane, and flew to Oakland. There was at least one stopover, but I don't remember if we changed planes that trip or not. I read Trollope's Little House at Allington on the flight, and I can see why people find Lilly Dale so goddamed frustrating, but I actually think I kind of understand her -- at some point, she falls in love with the idea of being a tragically romantic figure. Johnny Eames, unfortunately, has the same problem -- if not to the same extent -- and so they feed off each other.
We landed in Oakland at around 4 PM Pacific time, so we'd been traveling for somewhere around 12 hours all told. My parents picked us up at the airport, and we drove to the San Francisco airport.
My parents had come into town a day earlier. We were staying at Betsy Rose's and David Stark's house in Berkeley. Mom and Dad had already dropped Betsy and Matthew (Betsy and David's son) off at the airport; they were flying to Seattle to visit her parents.
Anyway, we got to the San Francisco airport, and sat down at an airport restaurant/bar to wait. After a half hour or so, Mike Witbeck showed up
Mike is an ex-boyfriend of my sister. He was flying out to Boston for the weekend, so we arranged to meet at the airport to say hi. He's working as a street performer -- juggling, yo-yo, and firespinning, mostly. We caught up with him for a bit, and finally my sister arrived. She came out the security gate chatting with another couple of young women about her age.
Leila has the "gift of gab" -- she'd made friends with two Israeli women who were travelling around the States, and who had one night in SF before they flew off to Hawaii. They talked to Mike about what they should do for one night in SF, and decided to hang out at Pier 39. Then Leila, Mom, Dad, Lis, Mike, and I stood around and chatted until it was time for Mike to leave to get through security for his plane.
We then drove to Berkeley, walked the dog (using the house included taking care of Penny, a Daschund/Golden Retriever mix -- "Just don't think too hard about it -- it's better that way," David Stark says), and went to bed. Lis and I got to use the master bedroom, so we got David and Betsy's bed. Mom and Dad had Matthew's bedroom -- they always travel with an air mattress, so they just used that on the floor. Leila had the sofa.
Being three-hours time-shifted, we woke up around five thirty or so. We went out for a walk around the neighborhood, with the dog, natch, found neat bakeries and so forth and thus had breakfast. And we planned out our day.
We went down to Pier 39 to hang out for a bit, and then, at 11, took a three and a half hour bus tour around the city. The tour was great -- our driver clearly loved the city, and had a book for sale which included his tour patter, poems, and photographs. One of the tour stops was the Mission Dolores, the Spanish mission which San Francisco grew up around. We had 20 minutes there; I went into the mission to see it, but Mom, Dad, Lis, and Leila all went down to the corner, because they'd seen a synogogue.
Turns out that that is the second-largest mainly-GLBT shul in the country. They all got shown around, and Lis decided that I had to see the place at some point.
We also stopped at the Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Park outside the Japanese Tea Room, and both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge. I noted with interest and approval that the Golden Gate Bridge has sidewalks -- you can walk or ride a bike across it.
After the tour, Mom, Dad, and Leila went back to Pier 39, and Lis and I went to Pier 45 to see the museum of antique coin-operated thingies. It's free to get in, but each of the antique coin-operated thingies takes a quarter.
Yes, San Francisco has a retro arcade. And it's cool.
Mom and Leila went to the Aquarium, Dad took a tour of a WWII submarine, and we met back at six and drove across the city to Iran and Anu's house somewhere in the south part of the city.
We were there, mostly, for Iran and Anu's wedding, and they had decided to have a pizza party the night before so that everyone could meet each other. Pizza from a local Indian pizza place.
Curry pizza, mostly.
Did you know that curry pizza is really good? I didn't until last Friday. It also goes exceptionally well with a locally-brewed IPA which was available.
Anu's brothers, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, and so forth were there. Iran's cousins, aunt, uncle, stepbrother, stepbrother's roommates, and we were there. Iran's estranged mother and stepfather weren't there of course, and I, for one, was happy about that. Iran's father wasn't there either, of course, since she's never even met the guy, and he's apparently an Iranian fundamentalist of some sort.
I hadn't seen Iran's aunt and uncle since I was twelve and went up to Vermont for a week to stay with them one summer. But I have such wonderful memories of that summer -- looking through boxes in the attic of the barn and finding photographs on glass plates, swimming in their pond, her uncle's woodworking shop. . . neither of the two sons remember me, since the older one was five at the time. They also have a daughter in college who wasn't born when I was twelve. She was wearing a Dresden Dolls t-shirt.
Iran and Anu own a house in San Francisco. He's a programmer, was one of the main designers of www.listen.com. She's a graphic designer, works out of www.irannarges.com. They just barely managed to afford an all-but-condemned little place -- it was structurally sound, but nothing more than that. It's now gorgeous. They turned half the garage into two studios, one for each of them, since they don't have a car, and two motorcycles don't take up as much room as two cars would.
Anyway, we had a fantastic time. And then we went back to Berkeley and walked the dog and went to bed.
Saturday, Lis and I figured that, if we were three-hours time shifted, we really didn't have an excuse to NOT go to shul. Mom and Dad were going to a meditation shabbat thingy in Berkeley, and Leila wanted to sleep, so Lis and I walked to the BART station and took it to 16th St./Mission. We were WAY early, so we wandered around for a bit, and found a place on Market Street, nearish to Castro, called Baghdad Cafe, where we got a really good omelette to split for breakfast. We wandered around Castro a bit, then headed back to the shul. I talked for a bit to one of the teachers at their Hebrew School, mentioning that I was also a Hebrew School teacher, and that I'd love to steal curriculum ideas from them. It was a Reform service, and not a hugely traditional one, but we liked it. There were only ten people there -- and five of us were out-of-towners who just saw the shul and decided to come to services. This was a good thing, since this meant that there was a minyan for the guy who'd showed up to say kaddish.
After that, we walked down Haight Street to Golden Gate Park. We got a photo of the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets -- including the Gap on the corner.
Iran and Anu's wedding was in the Rose Garden of Golden Gate Park. We met my folks, who'd brought our clothes to change into, which we did at one of the restrooms. Which wasn't ideal, but it worked okay.
The ceremony was wonderful, of course. Iran's aunt officiated.
After that, there was a reception at the Swedish-American Hall, which was also great. Apparently, Pete was in town partially for Iran's wedding, and partially for the Wired Magazine NextFest at Fort Mason. He was demonstrating his robot dinosaurs.
Eventually, we went home. But not before going back to Castro Street for a bit.
On Sunday, we realized that we'd done a lot of the things that we would have felt really, really bad if we didn't get a chance to do them. David Stark tried to talk us out of going to the Stinking Rose, saying that it was very touristy, and suggesting a really good restaurant in Chinatown.
But we went to the Stinking Rose anyway.
We also drove down the twisty bit of Lombard Street.
The Stinking Rose was actually pretty good, but the food wasn't really all that garlicky. I mean, there was SOME garlic in it, but other than the minced raw garlic and parsley spread, pretty much everything I make that has garlic in it has more garlic than the food there. But it was fun.
Yes, we had the garlic ice cream. It was good, but it could have had more garlic.
We then wandered through Chinatown, and I bought a dragon-handled sword-cane, since the handle on my existing sword cane broke. Mom bought various presents for people.
Then we drove to the Pacific Ocean, and stuck our toes in it. It was amazingly windy. Then we dropped my sister off at the San Francisco airport for her overnight flight back to Florida, and went back to Berkeley, and packed.
In the morning, Mom and Dad drove us to the airport.
That's when the BAD parts of the trip started.
First, lines were long and annoying. Then, I'd forgotten to pack my corkscrew in my checked luggage. So I needed to run across to the other terminal and mail it home. Dunno if it will show up before I need it for work. Fortunately, I noticed that there was NOBODY in line at the OTHER terminal, so I went through security there and then walked back to MY terminal.
Then. . . the first leg of the flight was okay. Then we switched planes in Chicago/Midway. And our plane was half an hour late getting to the gate. We got in. . . and sat waiting for clearance for another hour and a half. We were flying through Baltimore, and huge thunderstorms there caused delays.
Did I mention that I hate flying? And storms while flying? And turbulence? And maybe Oakland-to-Chicago-to-Baltimore-to-New Hampshire isn't the most efficient route imaginable?
On the other hand, I did read the entire Last Chronicle of Barset. And I think I wouldn't have finished the book without the extra two hours.
We landed in Manchester at twelve thirty, local time. Then we got our luggage and our car and drove home. We got home at about two, to discover that the cat had puked, pissed, AND crapped on the bed. So we had to change the sheets before sleeping.
Here's the interesting thing: while I was in San Francisco, my body didn't fall apart the way it always does when I travel. I didn't develop the weird horrible rashes that I always get when I leave Boston.
Somehow, my body considers San Francisco to be an acceptable place to be.
We left the house on Thursday at about 7:30 EST, drove to Manchester, got on a plane, and flew to Oakland. There was at least one stopover, but I don't remember if we changed planes that trip or not. I read Trollope's Little House at Allington on the flight, and I can see why people find Lilly Dale so goddamed frustrating, but I actually think I kind of understand her -- at some point, she falls in love with the idea of being a tragically romantic figure. Johnny Eames, unfortunately, has the same problem -- if not to the same extent -- and so they feed off each other.
We landed in Oakland at around 4 PM Pacific time, so we'd been traveling for somewhere around 12 hours all told. My parents picked us up at the airport, and we drove to the San Francisco airport.
My parents had come into town a day earlier. We were staying at Betsy Rose's and David Stark's house in Berkeley. Mom and Dad had already dropped Betsy and Matthew (Betsy and David's son) off at the airport; they were flying to Seattle to visit her parents.
Anyway, we got to the San Francisco airport, and sat down at an airport restaurant/bar to wait. After a half hour or so, Mike Witbeck showed up
Mike is an ex-boyfriend of my sister. He was flying out to Boston for the weekend, so we arranged to meet at the airport to say hi. He's working as a street performer -- juggling, yo-yo, and firespinning, mostly. We caught up with him for a bit, and finally my sister arrived. She came out the security gate chatting with another couple of young women about her age.
Leila has the "gift of gab" -- she'd made friends with two Israeli women who were travelling around the States, and who had one night in SF before they flew off to Hawaii. They talked to Mike about what they should do for one night in SF, and decided to hang out at Pier 39. Then Leila, Mom, Dad, Lis, Mike, and I stood around and chatted until it was time for Mike to leave to get through security for his plane.
We then drove to Berkeley, walked the dog (using the house included taking care of Penny, a Daschund/Golden Retriever mix -- "Just don't think too hard about it -- it's better that way," David Stark says), and went to bed. Lis and I got to use the master bedroom, so we got David and Betsy's bed. Mom and Dad had Matthew's bedroom -- they always travel with an air mattress, so they just used that on the floor. Leila had the sofa.
Being three-hours time-shifted, we woke up around five thirty or so. We went out for a walk around the neighborhood, with the dog, natch, found neat bakeries and so forth and thus had breakfast. And we planned out our day.
We went down to Pier 39 to hang out for a bit, and then, at 11, took a three and a half hour bus tour around the city. The tour was great -- our driver clearly loved the city, and had a book for sale which included his tour patter, poems, and photographs. One of the tour stops was the Mission Dolores, the Spanish mission which San Francisco grew up around. We had 20 minutes there; I went into the mission to see it, but Mom, Dad, Lis, and Leila all went down to the corner, because they'd seen a synogogue.
Turns out that that is the second-largest mainly-GLBT shul in the country. They all got shown around, and Lis decided that I had to see the place at some point.
We also stopped at the Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Park outside the Japanese Tea Room, and both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge. I noted with interest and approval that the Golden Gate Bridge has sidewalks -- you can walk or ride a bike across it.
After the tour, Mom, Dad, and Leila went back to Pier 39, and Lis and I went to Pier 45 to see the museum of antique coin-operated thingies. It's free to get in, but each of the antique coin-operated thingies takes a quarter.
Yes, San Francisco has a retro arcade. And it's cool.
Mom and Leila went to the Aquarium, Dad took a tour of a WWII submarine, and we met back at six and drove across the city to Iran and Anu's house somewhere in the south part of the city.
We were there, mostly, for Iran and Anu's wedding, and they had decided to have a pizza party the night before so that everyone could meet each other. Pizza from a local Indian pizza place.
Curry pizza, mostly.
Did you know that curry pizza is really good? I didn't until last Friday. It also goes exceptionally well with a locally-brewed IPA which was available.
Anu's brothers, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, and so forth were there. Iran's cousins, aunt, uncle, stepbrother, stepbrother's roommates, and we were there. Iran's estranged mother and stepfather weren't there of course, and I, for one, was happy about that. Iran's father wasn't there either, of course, since she's never even met the guy, and he's apparently an Iranian fundamentalist of some sort.
I hadn't seen Iran's aunt and uncle since I was twelve and went up to Vermont for a week to stay with them one summer. But I have such wonderful memories of that summer -- looking through boxes in the attic of the barn and finding photographs on glass plates, swimming in their pond, her uncle's woodworking shop. . . neither of the two sons remember me, since the older one was five at the time. They also have a daughter in college who wasn't born when I was twelve. She was wearing a Dresden Dolls t-shirt.
Iran and Anu own a house in San Francisco. He's a programmer, was one of the main designers of www.listen.com. She's a graphic designer, works out of www.irannarges.com. They just barely managed to afford an all-but-condemned little place -- it was structurally sound, but nothing more than that. It's now gorgeous. They turned half the garage into two studios, one for each of them, since they don't have a car, and two motorcycles don't take up as much room as two cars would.
Anyway, we had a fantastic time. And then we went back to Berkeley and walked the dog and went to bed.
Saturday, Lis and I figured that, if we were three-hours time shifted, we really didn't have an excuse to NOT go to shul. Mom and Dad were going to a meditation shabbat thingy in Berkeley, and Leila wanted to sleep, so Lis and I walked to the BART station and took it to 16th St./Mission. We were WAY early, so we wandered around for a bit, and found a place on Market Street, nearish to Castro, called Baghdad Cafe, where we got a really good omelette to split for breakfast. We wandered around Castro a bit, then headed back to the shul. I talked for a bit to one of the teachers at their Hebrew School, mentioning that I was also a Hebrew School teacher, and that I'd love to steal curriculum ideas from them. It was a Reform service, and not a hugely traditional one, but we liked it. There were only ten people there -- and five of us were out-of-towners who just saw the shul and decided to come to services. This was a good thing, since this meant that there was a minyan for the guy who'd showed up to say kaddish.
After that, we walked down Haight Street to Golden Gate Park. We got a photo of the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets -- including the Gap on the corner.
Iran and Anu's wedding was in the Rose Garden of Golden Gate Park. We met my folks, who'd brought our clothes to change into, which we did at one of the restrooms. Which wasn't ideal, but it worked okay.
The ceremony was wonderful, of course. Iran's aunt officiated.
After that, there was a reception at the Swedish-American Hall, which was also great. Apparently, Pete was in town partially for Iran's wedding, and partially for the Wired Magazine NextFest at Fort Mason. He was demonstrating his robot dinosaurs.
Eventually, we went home. But not before going back to Castro Street for a bit.
On Sunday, we realized that we'd done a lot of the things that we would have felt really, really bad if we didn't get a chance to do them. David Stark tried to talk us out of going to the Stinking Rose, saying that it was very touristy, and suggesting a really good restaurant in Chinatown.
But we went to the Stinking Rose anyway.
We also drove down the twisty bit of Lombard Street.
The Stinking Rose was actually pretty good, but the food wasn't really all that garlicky. I mean, there was SOME garlic in it, but other than the minced raw garlic and parsley spread, pretty much everything I make that has garlic in it has more garlic than the food there. But it was fun.
Yes, we had the garlic ice cream. It was good, but it could have had more garlic.
We then wandered through Chinatown, and I bought a dragon-handled sword-cane, since the handle on my existing sword cane broke. Mom bought various presents for people.
Then we drove to the Pacific Ocean, and stuck our toes in it. It was amazingly windy. Then we dropped my sister off at the San Francisco airport for her overnight flight back to Florida, and went back to Berkeley, and packed.
In the morning, Mom and Dad drove us to the airport.
That's when the BAD parts of the trip started.
First, lines were long and annoying. Then, I'd forgotten to pack my corkscrew in my checked luggage. So I needed to run across to the other terminal and mail it home. Dunno if it will show up before I need it for work. Fortunately, I noticed that there was NOBODY in line at the OTHER terminal, so I went through security there and then walked back to MY terminal.
Then. . . the first leg of the flight was okay. Then we switched planes in Chicago/Midway. And our plane was half an hour late getting to the gate. We got in. . . and sat waiting for clearance for another hour and a half. We were flying through Baltimore, and huge thunderstorms there caused delays.
Did I mention that I hate flying? And storms while flying? And turbulence? And maybe Oakland-to-Chicago-to-Baltimore-to-New Hampshire isn't the most efficient route imaginable?
On the other hand, I did read the entire Last Chronicle of Barset. And I think I wouldn't have finished the book without the extra two hours.
We landed in Manchester at twelve thirty, local time. Then we got our luggage and our car and drove home. We got home at about two, to discover that the cat had puked, pissed, AND crapped on the bed. So we had to change the sheets before sleeping.
Here's the interesting thing: while I was in San Francisco, my body didn't fall apart the way it always does when I travel. I didn't develop the weird horrible rashes that I always get when I leave Boston.
Somehow, my body considers San Francisco to be an acceptable place to be.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Retro arcade?!
Date: 2004-05-18 03:53 pm (UTC)I also want to see if the Kinokuniya in San Francisco is any better than the one in Seattle. :-)
Re: Retro arcade?!
Date: 2004-05-18 06:34 pm (UTC)Re: Retro arcade?!
Date: 2004-05-19 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-18 04:49 pm (UTC)Hmm... I wonder if your body would consider New Paltz, NY or Portland, OR to be OK. :-)
Anyhow, it sounds like a great trip... except perhaps for the surprise that Boopsie left for you in your bed.
Huh?
Date: 2004-05-18 07:49 pm (UTC)Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-18 08:00 pm (UTC)Given all the hassles at Logan Airport (Boston), business at the Manchester and Providence (RI) airports has been booming.
Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-19 12:17 am (UTC)Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-19 04:07 am (UTC)it is often crowded and under construction.
Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-19 08:27 am (UTC)Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-19 10:08 am (UTC)Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-19 03:35 pm (UTC)The catch is that the buses from Providence's airport sometimes require you to change buses at the Bonanza depot just north of Providence, and the buses from Manchester aren't as frequent, and in either case you wind up at the South Station Bus Terminal...meaning you have to haul your stuff down the length of the station to the T station entrance, and change trains, to get to the Hynes/Prudential area. It certainly is doable, though.
There will supposedly be a train station serving PVD with service to Boston on Amtrak and/or MBTA commuter rail...someday.
Re: Huh?
Date: 2004-05-18 11:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 05:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 05:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 06:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-19 11:59 pm (UTC)Well, yeah. We're like that out here. Glad you had a good time.