My Adventure from One Week Ago

Monday night, I was at work and got a call from Sharon. "Liz wants to visit San Francisco, can we pick you up on the way?" Well, of course they can, but I was a little disappointed at being deprived of the excuse to visit the Palo Alto Fry's Electronics. So, Tour Guide for San Francisco I become. Until we actually got there.

I know part of the problem was that nobody was really sure exactly what in San Francisco they wanted to see -- Union Square, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, etc.? Certainly added to my confusion, but I went well past that, and found my brain drained of any information about San Francisco whatever. Chinatown -- how you get there? I've forgotten. It's through a tunnel I think. I can't remember the street names. Pier 39? I couldn't even have told what other two piers that would be between. I actually panicked a little bit, hyperventilated, and babbled lame excuses. Somehow I did get us into Fisherman's Wharf, which I'm not sure was my intention. My God that place is dull.

In the off season at least. The real joy of FW is tourist-watching, and the first Monday in April doesn't see a huge crush of tourists there. At least the Musee Mecanique is worth the time, and it's free, if you can resist feeding quarters into the machines, which I can't. Andrew spent far too long looking into the machine that promises you film of a real live electric chair execution. I thought that was more of his brother's bailiwick.

We locals tend to take the tourist traps for granted, and despite my fears the party enjoyed promenading past moronic souvenir stores and stinky restaurants. Except for Liz, who spent the whole evening taking business calls on her cell phone. And to my relatives' and friends' credit, nobody even thought about ordering clam chowder in a bread bowl.

We did spend about half an hour auditioning sea gulls to be the new AFLAC spokesmodel, though.

My Adventure from One Week Ago

Monday night, I was at work and got a call from Sharon. "Liz wants to visit San Francisco, can we pick you up on the way?" Well, of course they can, but I was a little disappointed at being deprived of the excuse to visit the Palo Alto Fry's Electronics. So, Tour Guide for San Francisco I become. Until we actually got there.

I know part of the problem was that nobody was really sure exactly what in San Francisco they wanted to see -- Union Square, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, etc.? Certainly added to my confusion, but I went well past that, and found my brain drained of any information about San Francisco whatever. Chinatown -- how you get there? I've forgotten. It's through a tunnel I think. I can't remember the street names. Pier 39? I couldn't even have told what other two piers that would be between. I actually panicked a little bit, hyperventilated, and babbled lame excuses. Somehow I did get us into Fisherman's Wharf, which I'm not sure was my intention. My God that place is dull.

In the off season at least. The real joy of FW is tourist-watching, and the first Monday in April doesn't see a huge crush of tourists there. At least the Musee Mecanique is worth the time, and it's free, if you can resist feeding quarters into the machines, which I can't. Andrew spent far too long looking into the machine that promises you film of a real live electric chair execution. I thought that was more of his brother's bailiwick.

We locals tend to take the tourist traps for granted, and despite my fears the party enjoyed promenading past moronic souvenir stores and stinky restaurants. Except for Liz, who spent the whole evening taking business calls on her cell phone. And to my relatives' and friends' credit, nobody even thought about ordering clam chowder in a bread bowl.

We did spend about half an hour auditioning sea gulls to be the new AFLAC spokesmodel, though.