Left last Saturday for a vacation via Amtrak to San Francisco.
First train trip and first time to San Francisco.

2 1/2 days on the train both ways.
This would drive some people crazy but I really enjoyed it.
It forced me to relax, stare out the window, eat and sleep. The train served pretty good meals in the dining car, and I would either stare or nap in between meals. Every meal we sat with different people and got to know them a little. Luckily most of the people we somewhat liked or had something interesting about them. A father-son traveling together, a guy we called "scanner guy" that walked around with his scanner hooked up to his ear at all times, and all the people working on the train were pretty nice.

We got to Emmeryville Monday, and Addy picked us up from the train station. We were close to Berkley and after work traffic was heavy so we walked around there. Brad bought himself a Berkley shirt at the campus bookstore. I ate an apple and cheese crepe at Crepes A Go-Go. Delicious! We don't have crepe places like that in Chicago, but in the Bay area they are everywhere! Then we went to Bongo Burger and I had a bite of a falafel sandwich. Lots of people and activity there.

Went back to Addy's place in San Bruno and got to meet her 2 pugs Kismet and Karma, and got covered in pug love.

Tuesday Jeff and Addy took off work to hang out with us. We drove through to Twin Peaks. Went to Castro. Split a meal at La Tortilla and Tom's Peasant Pies. CANNOT RECOMMEND TOMS'S PEASANT PIES ENOUGH TO YOU! Fabulous.

Then walked around Haight-Ashbury, went in and out of shops. Sat in a coffee shop for awhile.

Then went to Mission. Stopped in King's Bakery and got a few things for us all to split. Very good! Then split a taco and some chips and salsa at La Taquerita. Then walked up and down Valencia. Lots of really cool shops there. Pirate stuff, rat bones on display, spiritual candles, hairless cats and robot toys! Went to Tokyo A Go-Go, sat at the bar and had some drinks while we waited for friends of Jeff and Addy's to get off work. Jeff and Jeanie joined up with us later and we ate sushi there and then walked down the street to Ti Couz and had crepes for dessert. Brad and I split a nutella banana crepe. Then we headed back home for the night.

Wednesday - Just Brad and me. Today was out 9 year anniversary. Addy dropped us off at the BART station, we took it to Powell and then took a cable car to Fishermans Wharf. I ate a sourdough roll from Boudin, and got a coffee from somewhere else, then split a spinach cheddar and feta crepe from some other place. Saw a bunch of Sea lions laying on the floating docks. All sizes, some were small and some were massive. Watched them play and bark at each other. Got some salt water taffy from Candy Baron and then took a Ferry to Alcatraz that left at 11:15am. I really enjoyed Alcatraz, we did the audio tour. Got to do the audio tour, otherwise might be kinda boring looking at a bunch of empty cells.

Alcatraz took about 2 hours. Then Brad tried some of the local crab. It was just ok, not as buttery as snow crab. So we headed to In-N-Out burger. We had heard so much about this place but never had before. It was a tasty burger. Went back to Boudin, sat and hung out there while it rained. Watched people, ate some more sourdough rolls and got some sourdough baguettes to take to Addy and Jeff for dinner. The rain wasn't picking up and it was getting late so we went to get in line to take the cable car back to Powell. We stood in line for an hour. We both were sopping wet.... I kept thinking of being the Virgin Mary in my school play, cause that how I was holding the sourdough. Arms clutching it, protecting it from the rain as I got sopping wet. It was still an enjoyable ride on the cable car and getting wet with Brad. Jeff and Addy picked us up from the BART station and we went grocery shopping for dinner, got some corn and steaks. We gave the pugs a bath that night, so I got some bath time fun pics from that too to post later.

Thursday - Jeff and Addy took the day off with us again. First we went to Pacifica, watched the waves roll in at the beach. Really cute town, walked along and got a coffee. Then took BART from Daly City to downtown. Went to the Ferry Building Market. Fairly new place. Lots of food samples. Brad & Jeff got to share a bunch of food stuff together Addy and I won't eat. They split an oyster sampler, a caviar sampler, then we split some gelatos. Had lunch a a mexican place there, we all liked it a lot.

From there we walked to Union Square and then sat around there staring at people. Then went to Union Square Mall. Brad bought a fancy pencil he had been eyeing, and we split a slice of pizza, and sat in the food court for awhile. Then we took BART to 16th & Mission, had some iced tea from Pork Store Cafe and sat at one of the sidewalk tables. More walking around, then to Luna Park (Very excellent!) and split an order of mushroom ravioli. From there we headed to a reading off of Mission at Femina Potens that my friend Shauna was doing. Lots of good stories. Got to finally meet her boyfriend Dan at the reading too. It was late and we had to get back after our long day, so we didnt get to spend more time with Dan & Shauna, but got some hugs and listen to her readings.

Friday we got up early. Addy dropped us off at the train station on her way to work.
We really enjoyed hanging out with Addy & Jeff, liked their friends Jeff & Jeanie too. I wished Addy and I lived closer and could do more stuff together.

Back on the train for 2 1/2 days. This time I was more social, sat in the lounge watching cartoons like Riki Tiki Tavi, Chicken Run, and Bugs Bunny. Met a family of kids, 4 of them, ages 3 thru 9. They were moving from Reno to Nebraska, excited to see their new home. First time on a train. Spent all there money on candy and got a sugar overload, they shared their pixie sticks with me :) They all had gold teeth, not like Flava Flav, not as shiny as that, not sure why that was. But they were all really sweet. Then Monty, the dining car guy, sat a ghettolicious girl next to me and told her I was nice. She was from the sight seeing lounge and was really cold up there. They brought her and I a hot chocolate (that was nice), I told her she could have mine since she was so cold. She was leaving her family and friends in Sacramento and going to Omaha. Like some boyfriend thing or something maybe. Her family didn't want her to go but she felt she had to. She told me she didn't know the word for making babies without having sex, I thought she was trying to be funny and say something about immaculate conception, but what she meant was she wanted to make babies for a living, and her plan was to ask around people and doctors and find out how she could do that. Make babies, get money for it and them give them up. She looked really young, and I thought it was kind of sad.

The guy in the room next to us (another Jeff) broke up with his boyfriend and had a very emotional goodbye back in Emmeryville. He said he cried all night in his cabin. I sat with him in his room and he showed me all his digital pictures. His dog Keisha, him and Disney land, his family, his ex, and his friends. He says he is gonna enter in the Leatherman contest here in Chicago at the end of this month. Him and I became friends, I am gonna call him tonight and see how he is doing. I am thinking about taking my mom to the Leatherman contest, I think she would get a kick out of it and it would be a good experience for her. The people across the hall from us were icking him out. The girl took an interest in him but he was afraid she just wanted to steal from him, and she seemed to get mad when he started hanging out with me and asked him what he was spending so much time with me for. There was this guy I called Grizzly Adams, really scary mo fo! Big guy, and ranted and raved a lot, tweaking out bigtime. He was our lunch mate for one meal and I sat next to him. He said he grew pot and the cops were always fucking with him and he was gonna have to bust some heads and how they didn't know who they were fucking with. Went off on dogma, his aborted baby and other sorts of interesting stuff. Me and this old lady at the table did a lot of nodding and smiling while Brad just looked away. The old lady was really sweet and understanding, she was from the Bay area and seemed very open minded, didn't show disgust when he talked about a bunch of narcotics, and even got a little mothering-like with him. It was very sweet, but I think he was too tweaked to notice.

Emily and Chris picked us up from the train station and took us home.
House was still there...not burnt down.