My Day in S.F.

I spent yesterday with my good friend from high school. She now lives 2 miles from The Westin St. Francis where I was staying. Heather and I took a cable car from the hotel to Fisherman's Wharf. I wanted Heather to take a picture of me holding a box of Rice-a-Roni and hanging off the car, but she didn't want to look like a stupid tourist. And I didn't have any Rice-a-Roni. And you can't take pictures while you're on a cable car. I really wanted to take some pictures, but I was afraid if I let go, I'd go rolling back and knock over a whole slew of people like so many bowling pins. Seriously, those streets are steep! You could totally get a workout from climbing up Nob (or Snob, as Heather calls it) Hill.

We also saw Lombard Street. I didn't get a picture of it, but click that link for a photo. Seriously, click it! Crazy, huh? People live on that street! Locals, of course, avoid it, but tourists line up to drive down the street so they can say they did it. We walked around Fisherman's Wharf and went to Ghirardelli Square. Mmmmm, chocolate. The smell of chocolate was a bit obscured by the smell of a burning building though. Seriously, a good dozen firefighters and a huge arsenal of firetrucks were rushing to the square as smoke billowed out from one of the buildings. As the firefighters marched through the square, I screamed, "Save the chocolate! Oh, for the love of God, save the chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!" What? You would've done the same.





Next, we had lunch at Boudin. Yummy sourdough. They have things like Caesar salad - in sourdough bread. Clam chowder - in sourdough bread. Crab cakes - in sourdough bread, a hamburger - in sourdough bread. A sourdough baguette - in sourdough bread. When you walk outside, you can watch through the windows as they bake bread. And there's an exhaust fan that blows the most delicious, fresh-baked bread aroma out onto the street.

After passing a cow and a dancing ice cream sundae, we walked on down to Pier 39. What a fun, touristy place. There were dozens and dozens of shops and restaurants there. You could book an ocean tour there, get a snack, do some shopping, people watch, and just hang out.

After doing some more walking around and shopping, we took a cab over to an Italian section of town where they have streets with really long names...

There, we sat outside, people watched, and sipped our fancy Italian coffees hot chocolate. The reason Heather ordered hot chocolate is because she didn't want too much caffeine. The reason I ordered hot chocolate is because I'm coffee-stupid. I have no clue what anything is and I'm afraid they'll look at me like I'm an idiot when I order a latte cappacino macchiato grande iced vanilla low-fat espresso chai steamed decaf.

When we were recharged and ready to do some more walking, we headed to China Town where there's shopping galore!!! We were in heaven! We decided that, had our husbands been with us, they would've ditched us and found a sports bar immediately. We had fun browsing in the stores and I spent a small fortune on souvenirs for the kiddos.


Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody...


And I got these totally cute earrings for myself! Score!


I totally rushed back to Union Square and my hotel so I could get my luggage from the bell station, repack some, freshen up a little, and catch a cab to the airport so I wouldn't miss my flight. Unfortunately my flight was delayed. I don't get this- it was supposed to be a 4 hour flight that left at 6:30 Pacific time. Because we were so delayed, the pilot said, "We're going to try to make up time. We should arrive in Chicago in 3 1/2 hours." OK, so if they can fly to Chicago in 3 1/2 hours, why don't they always go that fast? Why does it usually take 4 hours? Why???

It was actually a nice flight because I got an aisle seat and had an empty seat beside me! As the plane backed away from the gate, the plane made a loud clunking noise and I said sarcastically, jokingly, "Well, that sounds good." The guy by the window looked at me like I'd never set foot outside my house been on a plane before and said condescendingly, "It's supposed to sound like that." I decided to put on my headphones instead of trying to talk to Mr. No-Sense-Of-Humor.

As we neared Chicago, I noticed lightning out the window. We were flying above/around a storm and it was lightning like crazy. I glanced outside, then went back to my crocheting. Mr. I-Fly-All-The-Time-And-Have-No-Sense-Of-Humor looked out the window, freaked out, and plastered his face and hands up against the glass and commenced hyperventilating. I think he may have wet his pants. I laughed at him and said, "It's supposed to look like that." bit my tongue and continued crocheting. Well, maybe I smirked a little bit.

So after I landed and gathered my luggage, I got a cab. Now I always use American Taxi. They've always been on time. They've always known where they were going. Reliable, competent. Good, right? Well, last night, instead of calling for an American Taxi, I went out and let the ground transportation guy get me a cab. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

They grabbed a Checker Cab for me. First off, the driver hadn't bathed in at least 4 years. As I gagged and stuck my head out the window like a dog (literally, I did this), he asked me how to get out of the airport. Seriously? You're a cab driver and you don't know how to leave the airport? Perhaps you should find another line of work, Bud? Maybe something that includes soap, perhaps? So I seriously directed him the whole way to my house. He was clueless and didn't have GPS. When he dropped me off, I had to get my own luggage out of the trunk, then he asked me for directions back to the airport. Then, instead of charging me a reasonable flat rate like American Taxi, he charged me at a "meter and a half" rate! It was more than twice the amount of American! And he had the nerve to ask me to do the math and add it up for him because he couldn't figure it out! So, to all you suburbanites out there, I caution you against using Checker Cab! Yes, perhaps I just got a bad driver. Yes, I'm sure they're not all completely stupid directionally impaired. However, I called the company today to check on their policy of charging a meter and a half and sure enough, that is company protocol when taking passengers to the suburbs. Maybe Checker is better in the city, but for the suburbs, I highly recommend American Taxi.

I have a million more things to tell you about BlogHer and some bloggers I had the pleasure of meeting and some cool new products. I even met a celebrity! And I'm working on making a slide show with my awesome new toy. More on all this later...