What College Vacation Looks Like This Week...
I got a call from Graham asking if I wanted to go up to the City and meet some of his high school friends...
9:29am - Time to catch the train north to San Francisco. I spend an hour knee-to-knee with a very large, very talkative man. So much for napping on the train...
10:32am - I alight at 4th and King, where Graham rings me on my cell phone to say that they're running late, and can I meet them at Montgomery Station? Sure, no problem! I hang up.
Now where on earth is Montgomery Station?
10:40am - I see my first Starbucks of the afternoon. I decide to keep a running visual record of Starbuckses, so as to prove my theory that you can judge how far you've gone in SF by how many Starbucki you've seen.
11:05am - I finally find a BART station;
unfortunately, this station is Powell, and not Montgomery.
11:06am - Starbucks #2, 4th and Market
11:30am - After I finally find Montgomery and meet up with Graham and his friends Elizabeth and David, it is decided we will go to the Metreon for lunch. Nothing like noodles and space-age technology. Elizabeth and I spend $5 on one game of DDR, while David promises us he won't spend more than 10 minutes in the arcade, honest...
12:50pm - David and Elizabeth check out some kinda robot.
1:02pm - Starbucks #3, entrance to Chinatown.
1:03pm - We set off through Chinatown, in spite of warnings that we "may all get SARS and DIE!" Frankly, chirping plastic crickets and a license plate with my name on it are definitely worth massive respiratory malfunction, don't you think? Anyway, David is on the hunt for pornographic ivory figurines...
1:10pm - Graham suggests we check out the "Liquidation Center," which proffers goods like glow-in-the-dark Buddhas, inflatable furniture, "magic" scarves, and bobble-head dolls.
I buy a bobble-head doll modelled after an Ezra-esque Beatnik. Excellent.
1:45pm - The Buddha Bar - but would Buddha approve?
1:46pm - These proprietors have a serious target market in San Francisco...
2:25pm - Graham ponders the rich cultural heritage of Asian cuisine...
"Those birds look like they're still alive..."
2:41pm - Check THIS action out! We spot a group of people watching a sinkhole forming in the middle of Columbus Avenue! This crater is about three feet wide and three feet deep...
and growing! We decide to get out of there...
3:00pm - We finally see the bay! We can actually see the bay, more to the point...
3:06pm - We arrive at Ghirardelli Square, where we walk through two different Ghirardelli stores before deciding to get sundaes at a non-Ghirardelli-affiliated diner. But the sundaes are goooood...
3:55pm - Starbucks #4 - Fisherman's Wharf. David has been desperate for a coffee all day, so we stop to sit down in the AC. Outside, we catch a "historic streetcar" that will take us back to Market street for $1.
4:47pm - Starbucks #5 - Across from the Metreon. Graham, David, and Elizabeth walk me almost as far as the train station, then decide that it's way too far away, and see me off from a few blocks away. I take the 5:25 train home and sleep for most of the way back. Ahhh... a day in the City...
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Nine
Christmas Break
January 20th, 2003 February 13th, 2003 Spring Break! May 2nd, 2003
