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Further Tales of the City
Sep. 1st, 2005 09:54 pmHappy Birthday to Scott (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xkot)!
Well, the good news today is that Chris (f__k) has found the deleted files that contain our pictures from the first half of our California trip. Yep, there were more photos than just those I sent with my cameraphone. The thing is, Chris is so much the better photographer than I am (and he had better equipment). It's not that my pictures are bad, they will hold a lot of memories, but I know my style of point, shoot and forget it gives me some really crappy, blurry shots.
Otherwise, once we left the Marin Headlands in the dark on Saturday night, we crossed a Golden Gate Bridge that was slowly being shrouded in fog. We had to go all the way to SOMA to get to our new hotel. The streets were crowded. The hotel, on 7th and Mission, wasn't the greatest place in the world, and in fact the room was suffering from too many different loud wallpaper choices.
We needed to get some dinner, so we decided to take the shuttle to Union Square. Since it was so late, we found that there was no way that we would catch the last shuttle back to the hotel. We had a good meal at one of the many Max's restaurants and then, somewhere around 11:30 pm started making our way back. Since we didn't think about heading to the Muni Metro, we managed to make our way through a rather seedy Tenderloin neighborhood. I think we were solicited for drugs at least once, and still there was a Green Lantern fan out there, recognizing Chris' shirt. Chris gets more comments on the shirt.
After making it the several blocks down to UN Square, we reached our hotel again, and strangely decided to walk the several blocks down to the Lone Star. Still we were rewarded by finding Richard and Steve there, as well as some others that Chris knew. Several people remarked that we should go to the Planet Big dance on Sunday night, and we thought we would see after going out for more sightseeing. Still, the three men from Manchester were keeping everyone entertained.
The next day we got up and went off for lunch in the Castro. All through the trip neither one of us was big for early mornings, and really I think that kept us both sane. Had I tried to plan the mornings not only would we be completely burnt out, but Chris would have probably killed me. Still, he had asked me to find all of the sights that I wanted to see on our last full day. Lunch in the Castro was OK, and we sat out in front of Bearbucks for a while, just watching the crowd. Hurricane Katrina seemed to be the subject of the day. We walked around the neighborhood, just soaking it in, before we went back to Harvey Milk plaza and the Metro back to the hotel.
While we were going back, we decided to go to the Apple Store. Chris had discovered the night before that the pictures had been erased off of his computer, and we'd need something to restore it. While we were on the Metro we saw another bear on the train. As we left at the Union Square station (the one we should have used the night before, he followed us and we talked for a bit. He was a nice daddybear, with a dripping Tennessee accent. He was also going to the Apple Store, but we were after different things. As we decided on what restoration product to buy, he had already returned his item and left. We didn't even get to lure him back to the hotel room with the cake Chris' mother had made. So much for that.
We went back to the hotel and grabbed the car. We drove out to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies, a row of victorian homes. The park is high on a hill and has a great view of the city. It's also a dog park, so we saw the various pets that were there. Alamo Square was one of the places in town that I can think of that there wasn't a homeless person, perhaps because of the dogs. In most every other place we went, there was a homeless person there, almost as if the city placed one or two in each place that they would think a tourist would go. Many would leave you alone, but there were a few that would be saying something weird or a few that were more aggressive in asking for change.
Our last sightseeing destination was the Palace of Fine Arts at the north end of the city, then we crossed the city originally intending to go to the Sony Metreon, but finally deciding to go to the Planet Big dance at the Stud. When we got there at 6 there weren't many people there, but we did talk to a few people before moving on to the Lone Star with was much more crowded. You couldn't even make it across the patio. We met up with Pat and Bob, a couple of guys Chris knew from San Jose. When we went back to the Stud, the dance was a little more full, though even the organizers said it was a little quiet. When we left the first time the organizers seemed really sad that Chris and i were leaving, being the "new meat" at the event. We danced for a while, where I could tell that Bob was kinda interested in dancing, but then again, so was I. We had a good time on the dance floor.
Afterwards we got with Richard (bear_with_me), Scott (sftekbear), Matthew (mamoosh) and Cory (ibubtoo) for the previously mentioned dinner at Max's in the Opera Center. As you might expect, Richard and Matthew kept us in stitches for the entire meal. They drove us back to the car, which was good, since I was still in shorts and was freezing by that time. Shorts=tourist. I wished that there was more time to get with more people while we were in the city, but time slipped away quickly, much too quickly.
We packed up and were ready to leave the next morning, and we quickly ate as much of the cake Chris' mother baked for his birthday since we couldn't carry it with us. We had lunch in San jose and took off from the airport there, getting the Prius back just in time after filling the tank with gas that was $2.80, a seeming bargain now.
Chris had to go back to work the next day in Dallas, and I went and did some shopping for his birthday, getting him a copy of Katamari Damacy, the book Wicked, and the DVD set of Earth2. I gave them to him at dinner, which was really late since the servers at his office had gone down and he was answering a lot of calls. Still, it wasn't the latest drive home to Houston i had ever had. What sucked was having to leave Chris after being with him for so many days.
As for San Francisco and the Bay Area, it's definitely a place I will return to, and having Chris' family there just makes it an easy proposal. what's interesting is how easy the family has taken me in, and I'm very happy with that. The area is beautiful and the people were friendly and the experiences were great (except for the food poisoning, which I could do with out). The interesting thing is that I can already think of a dozen places I've yet to see.
xkot)!Well, the good news today is that Chris (
f__k) has found the deleted files that contain our pictures from the first half of our California trip. Yep, there were more photos than just those I sent with my cameraphone. The thing is, Chris is so much the better photographer than I am (and he had better equipment). It's not that my pictures are bad, they will hold a lot of memories, but I know my style of point, shoot and forget it gives me some really crappy, blurry shots.Otherwise, once we left the Marin Headlands in the dark on Saturday night, we crossed a Golden Gate Bridge that was slowly being shrouded in fog. We had to go all the way to SOMA to get to our new hotel. The streets were crowded. The hotel, on 7th and Mission, wasn't the greatest place in the world, and in fact the room was suffering from too many different loud wallpaper choices.
We needed to get some dinner, so we decided to take the shuttle to Union Square. Since it was so late, we found that there was no way that we would catch the last shuttle back to the hotel. We had a good meal at one of the many Max's restaurants and then, somewhere around 11:30 pm started making our way back. Since we didn't think about heading to the Muni Metro, we managed to make our way through a rather seedy Tenderloin neighborhood. I think we were solicited for drugs at least once, and still there was a Green Lantern fan out there, recognizing Chris' shirt. Chris gets more comments on the shirt.
After making it the several blocks down to UN Square, we reached our hotel again, and strangely decided to walk the several blocks down to the Lone Star. Still we were rewarded by finding Richard and Steve there, as well as some others that Chris knew. Several people remarked that we should go to the Planet Big dance on Sunday night, and we thought we would see after going out for more sightseeing. Still, the three men from Manchester were keeping everyone entertained.
The next day we got up and went off for lunch in the Castro. All through the trip neither one of us was big for early mornings, and really I think that kept us both sane. Had I tried to plan the mornings not only would we be completely burnt out, but Chris would have probably killed me. Still, he had asked me to find all of the sights that I wanted to see on our last full day. Lunch in the Castro was OK, and we sat out in front of Bearbucks for a while, just watching the crowd. Hurricane Katrina seemed to be the subject of the day. We walked around the neighborhood, just soaking it in, before we went back to Harvey Milk plaza and the Metro back to the hotel.
While we were going back, we decided to go to the Apple Store. Chris had discovered the night before that the pictures had been erased off of his computer, and we'd need something to restore it. While we were on the Metro we saw another bear on the train. As we left at the Union Square station (the one we should have used the night before, he followed us and we talked for a bit. He was a nice daddybear, with a dripping Tennessee accent. He was also going to the Apple Store, but we were after different things. As we decided on what restoration product to buy, he had already returned his item and left. We didn't even get to lure him back to the hotel room with the cake Chris' mother had made. So much for that.
We went back to the hotel and grabbed the car. We drove out to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies, a row of victorian homes. The park is high on a hill and has a great view of the city. It's also a dog park, so we saw the various pets that were there. Alamo Square was one of the places in town that I can think of that there wasn't a homeless person, perhaps because of the dogs. In most every other place we went, there was a homeless person there, almost as if the city placed one or two in each place that they would think a tourist would go. Many would leave you alone, but there were a few that would be saying something weird or a few that were more aggressive in asking for change.
Our last sightseeing destination was the Palace of Fine Arts at the north end of the city, then we crossed the city originally intending to go to the Sony Metreon, but finally deciding to go to the Planet Big dance at the Stud. When we got there at 6 there weren't many people there, but we did talk to a few people before moving on to the Lone Star with was much more crowded. You couldn't even make it across the patio. We met up with Pat and Bob, a couple of guys Chris knew from San Jose. When we went back to the Stud, the dance was a little more full, though even the organizers said it was a little quiet. When we left the first time the organizers seemed really sad that Chris and i were leaving, being the "new meat" at the event. We danced for a while, where I could tell that Bob was kinda interested in dancing, but then again, so was I. We had a good time on the dance floor.
Afterwards we got with Richard (
bear_with_me), Scott (sftekbear), Matthew (mamoosh) and Cory (ibubtoo) for the previously mentioned dinner at Max's in the Opera Center. As you might expect, Richard and Matthew kept us in stitches for the entire meal. They drove us back to the car, which was good, since I was still in shorts and was freezing by that time. Shorts=tourist. I wished that there was more time to get with more people while we were in the city, but time slipped away quickly, much too quickly. We packed up and were ready to leave the next morning, and we quickly ate as much of the cake Chris' mother baked for his birthday since we couldn't carry it with us. We had lunch in San jose and took off from the airport there, getting the Prius back just in time after filling the tank with gas that was $2.80, a seeming bargain now.
Chris had to go back to work the next day in Dallas, and I went and did some shopping for his birthday, getting him a copy of Katamari Damacy, the book Wicked, and the DVD set of Earth2. I gave them to him at dinner, which was really late since the servers at his office had gone down and he was answering a lot of calls. Still, it wasn't the latest drive home to Houston i had ever had. What sucked was having to leave Chris after being with him for so many days.
As for San Francisco and the Bay Area, it's definitely a place I will return to, and having Chris' family there just makes it an easy proposal. what's interesting is how easy the family has taken me in, and I'm very happy with that. The area is beautiful and the people were friendly and the experiences were great (except for the food poisoning, which I could do with out). The interesting thing is that I can already think of a dozen places I've yet to see.
