Step 10: San Francisco day 5

"If you have wonderful moments, don't second-guess them, just enjoy them."  Martin Short

laughing in San Fran

San Francisco day 5:

I woke up with Heidi and we had a little breakfast over a lengthy goodbye. It had been so good to spend time with her and it meant so much to me that she was the first friend I saw on my trip back to the states. We had some great talks during my time there…our friendship group seemed to be tearing apart little by little, but then suddenly a huge gash was ripped between two friends over a guy and we were trying to make sense of it. It is painful to see our years of friendship broken in such a typical way and still seems unfixable. We had a lot of other great chats about life, family, wants, love, jobs, the future, and the past. We had a big hug and she headed to work.

I finished up my packing and connected with my mom about picking me up. When she came to get me I first directed her to an alteration shop to drop off my new dress which was the perfect length for someone 6ft 5...not me at 5ft 6. After that we headed to the Bayside Inn where Kathy was just getting up and I joined them for their breakfast though I’d already eaten. It wasn’t a perfect morning weather wise, but not bad either. So after they ate, my mom and I put on our raincoats and headed out on a walk. The room at the Bayside Inn was a little too small for three people to just hang out in together. Kathy stayed behind to rest and elevate her leg.

Statue in Fort Mason

Out the door and things started becoming quite familiar. The wharf area; where I had stayed in November 2007 with Ellen (one of the other girls in our ‘group’) when we came to do our first half marathon. Starting from Aquatic Park on the Muni Pier, my mom and I decided to walk the end of the run in the opposite direction (which meant we were walking towards the golden gate bridge) and it was nice to relive those last 10 minutes of my run over a 45 minute walk. We walked through Fort Mason, along Marina Blvd, and then onto Beach St.  As with the rest of San Francisco everything was in bloom and we took it in.

Mom taking in the smell of a lovely rose

When we got back to the hotel Kathy was ready to get out of the little room herself and we hopped on a bus up to Chinatown. Frankly Chinatown was not on the top of my San Francisco list considering I’d been living in Asia for the last 17 months, but still fun to watch all the commotion, smell all the horrible fishy smells, and look at all the cheap trinkets available. We decided from there to walk towards the Ferry building but as we turned the corner out of Chinatown I spotted a Thai restaurant and we decided to head in. I wish I could tell you the name and location of that restaurant…unfortunately all I can tell you is that it’s between China town and the Ferry building and that it was delicious. Best samosas I’ve ever tasted!



We made it into the Ferry building and we all did some shopping and relaxing. I bought some kitchen stuff for friends back in Japan (they love all the cutesy kitchen stuff here!). I really like the vibe that the Ferry building creates. Kind of like an indoor laid back market space with a very eclectic range of shops.

Mom and Kathy outside Ferry Building

From the Ferry building we started walking back towards the Fisherman’s wharf area but along the way made several ‘watering hole’ stops.

Juice shots

One was in an organic restaurant where I got 3 shots of juice, my mom got 3 shots of mescal tequila, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescal and Kathy got an organic martini.

Squeezing the lime for the mescal or mezcal

Our next stop was in a bar around Pier 23 where there was a blues/rock band playing and people were dancing. We sat at watched a woman in her 70’s with loads of plastic surgery trying to lure in every pair of eyes available (including her own in the mirror). It was pretty funny and the music was good.

(no she's not the old lady with plastic surgery!!) This is the 70 year old's dance teacher and another student

Finally we made it the Fisherman’s Wharf and we headed into Boudin’s Restaurant. Mom and Kathy had some dinner, which I passed up (seemed to be nothing without fish, cheese, or meat on the menu). http://boudinbakery.com/ Kathy was exhausted at this point, in fact we all had walked quite far and for her to do it on a freshly surgeoned knee of course she was exhausted! She headed back to the hotel and my mom and I had a little more walking before heading back to the hotel and into bed.

Good night San Francisco

Tomorrow would start the next leg of my trip through the USA.