When I was 15 years old, I went on a 2-week cruise up the Nile. My mother got us each a journal to write about all the places we went. In her book, she kept copious notes about each landmark — I fell alseep on mine, and then lost it. So now, when I see a picture of any Egyptian temple or landmark I think “Oh, I’ve been there! Maybe. Hm…I know I went somewhere with statues.”* In hindsight, this seems like a shame. So I am now going to recap my week-long trip to San Francisco with Will in an attempt to pay attention to what I’m doing, no matter how tedious I might find it.
We flew on a plane! (Good start, Eliza.)
Airlines don’t feed anyone anymore. I suppose it’s only fair since we spent that last 40 years mocking airline food, but now I’m hungry and I apologize, Delta. Please feed me your horrible food.
We checked into our hotel — the Hotel Des Arts — on Sunday afternoon. It’s a nifty little hotel with “painted rooms” designed by local artists. Our room featured a mural of a red-haired lady drowning prettily. The hotel also has lots of great photographs and paintings in the hallways, most of them part of a program called Visual Aid, which encourages artists with life-threatening illnesses to keep creating. I think that’s super. You go, Visual Aid.
On Sunday afternoon we bought a Lonely Planet guide and did the walking tour of Chinatown (a block from our hotel). I discovered that 1) Chinatown is pretty much the same as in NYC, and that 2) Will loves Lonely Planet walking tours. Most of his pictures from our trip are of signs and plaques he found listed in Lonely Planet walking tours. We ate dinner in a sushi-boat place, which was cute and tasty, and then sleep attacked me from behind at 9 pm.
Monday we did more walking tours. First off was the North Beach — the Italian neighborhood — also close to the hotel. Again, there were lots of signs to photograph, and a great famous bookstore, City Lights. Mostly I was in it for the coffee Will & Lonely Planet promised me at the end of the walk. As we sat with our coffee we tried to figure out the rest of the day. Will wanted to go to Haight Street, and I wanted to go everywhere, which includes Haight Street, so that was fine. Hm, North Beach to The Haight…should we walk or drive? If you know San Francisco you are yelping “Drive! You drive!” We walked. This was a stupid choice, especially since Will had a cold (Thanks, Delta!) It was long, and it hurt (those hills are for reals, ya’ll.) We did get to stop in Japantown, which was actually pretty neat, but it was all exhausting. The up side was that once we got to the Haight I was super hungry, which is always a good way to start a vacation meal, since you are allowed to eat anything.
We did the Haight walking tour, and I shopped while Will stood outside and drank coffee — which he is inclinded to do anyway, so I didn’t feel too bad. By the end of the day we had both bought shoes and books, but it took me much longer to do it. We took a cab home and sleep sandbagged me at 10pm.
Tuesday! Road trip! We knew we’d probably only get to go on one roadtrip, either Sonoma or Santa Cruz — we picked Santa Cruz because I really wanted to drive south, the boardwalk sounded fun, and who wants to DRIVE around wine country? I want to BE DRIVEN around, so that will wait for the next trip. Santa Cruz was really fun — I ate fried artichoke hearts and flew my $3 chinatown kite all the way to the end of it’s string! Then I got horribly burned, despite Will’s reminders about sunscreen. We spent some time in the arcade, which allowed me to impress the crowd of 13-year-olds with my drumming skillz on some electro-drummy game. They had an Old-Timey Photo booth, but Will was still sick and didn’t want to do it. I have vowed that someday I will find a man who will take an Old-Timey photo with me and I’ll love him forever — it could still be Will, when he feels better.
After riding the haunted house ride (which always scared me, since I spend them worried some twisted teenager is going to jump out and stab me in the neck) and having some cotton candy, we went to dinner in town and hit the road. On the way back, sleep shoved a gun in my mouth and asked me why I look so pretty when I cry.
WEDNESDAY — What did we do? OH, I remember — this day was great. First we went back to North Beach for coffee, then did a walking tour of Fisherman’s Wharf. We had lunch at the Ferry building looking out onto the water. Fish Chowder, Crab sandwich, and an Anchor Steam. We were kings of San Francisco! We then drove over to the Haight (a ha! We learn!) and rented bikes. We biked around Golden Gate park, where we saw Bison and baby ducks (in two different places) and we rode along the ocean for a while. Will and I decided that it was especially nice that we were together doing all this, since it allowed me to bike safely through a group of freaks hanging around a parking lot I affectionately dubbed “rape alley”, and he got to smile at an adorable little girl without looking like a molester. Romantic.
Wednesday night Shaun Landry — the woman running the Improv Festival that I was performing in that weekend — and her husband, Hans, took us out to dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant. They were fun and we had a great time, and didn’t spill anything, so again — Kings of San Francisco!
After dinner, we went out to North Beach in search of some live music. We found it at a place called The Saloon, which had a little blues band playing for a crowd of 5, including us. They were great! It was so nice to see a happy band that wasn’t desperately trying to get me to visit their myspace page. They just liked what they were doing. Admirable.
AAAaaaand, I stayed up late!
Glad you reminded me of my Egypt diary. Have no idea where it is… must be somewhere. I do remember writing down my rage about our fellow cruisettes’ attitudes toward non-Mormons– especially after one of the “services” we attended (before I realized they would not do a head-count and come looking for me in my cabin). They were nicer to you because they thought they had a chance at proselytizing a 15-year-old. How silly of them.