Meanderings: September 3, 1999

Friday,
September 3, 1999

Well, today was interesting. I told you that we had dropped off our big bags at my friend Lisa's last night, right? Well, it turns out that we still had an overnight bag and a knapsack full of camera equipment, as well as my bag of crocheting. Poor Lyndon wound up lugging the overnight bag around most of the day, as it was heaviest and he won't let me carry heavy stuff, the angel.

So, there we are, with two marginally heavy bags and nowhere to go until 7:00 pm. Oh, did I mention that we made a hurried exit from the hotel after the front desk called us at 11:30 am, while I was in the shower, and informed us that we were supposed to be out of the room by 11:00 am? Lyndon said, "Well, this information sheet here says that checkout time is 12:00 noon." "Oh, no, sir, that's incorrect," the desk clerk chirps. "Well, we weren't aware of that, and this official information card constitutes a contract," Lyndon replies crisply. "We'll be out of here in half an hour." Of course, then I had to towel off quickly and dive into some clothes so that we could leave before they started getting snippy, so I wandered around for a good hour and a half with wet, unbrushed hair until I found a park bench where I could sit down and brush my mop.

Anyway, we decide to make the best of things and wander up and down Fisherman's Wharf for a bit, stopping off frequently to sit on a park bench, snuggle and admire the scenery. And then, genius struck as we passed Pier 39. A bus tour of San Francisco operates from there -- what better way of getting off our feet for an hour and a half? So we bought tickets, tossed our bags in the back of a motorized trolley car, and toured San Francisco. It's a very interesting city -- apparently property is tres valuable, so there's really no such thing as a front or back yard unless you're out in Seaview, which is the rich folks' colony out on the coast. SF is pretty much wall-to-wall apartment buildings, with the occasional civic erection or church to break things up and keep the landscape interesting. Anyway, the tour poddled around Union Square, through Chinatown twice, across North Beach (aka Little Italy) via Columbus, around the Tenderloin (note: if you go to San Francisco, do NOT head through the Tenderloin on foot. It is not a nice neighborhood, and gets even more dangerous after dark) and then back along the waterfront on the Embarcadero. I saw a lot of neat museums and shops I'd like to hit next week, and I was well and truly impressed with the size of the bloody hills -- Nob Hill is steep, baby.

After that, we headed back to Pier 39 for a crab dinner and a couple of hours sitting at the picnic tables thoughtfully provided on the waterfront. It got a bit windy and chilly after a while, but I have to admit that it was a hell of a lot of fun -- I like people watching under normal conditions, and a place like San Francisco is made for people watching. Eventually, though, it got cold and late enough that we decided to risk it and just head over to Lisa's. Lyndon reasoned that if she wasn't home yet, we'd just sit on her stoop and look like pathetic orphans when she got there. I thought, hey, works for me.

As it turned out, Lisa wasn't home, but arrived minutes after we did, so we all trooped up the two flights of stairs to her apartment, which is absolutely adorable. It's got a gorgeous view of the Bay Bridge and part of the Financial District, and her bedroom has a bay window that I would kill or die to possess. She also introduced us to her two kitties, Sebastian and Samantha. Gorgeous cats -- Sebastian is grey-striped and likes to have his belly rubbed, and Sabrina is this tiny, timid, black and white with the cutest "milk moustache" of white fur over her mouth -- she really should be on a "Got Milk?" advertisement.

And yeah, I know I'm rambling, but we're just bloody tired and ready to crash. Lisa's funny and gorgeous, her apartment is adorable, and her cats are yummy -- this should be a good weekend.

Can I go take a long, hot bath now?

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