Hey, all,
So Patrick and I decided this year that we'd like to get out of town more often. Now, we don't have a whole lot of extra money (out: trips to Paris, Hawaii), but so far we've managed to schedule two trips: the one we're on right now to Portland, Oregon, and one in June to Washington, D.C.
We're staying in a hotel that Pee Wee Herman would be perfectly comfortable in, the Inn at Northrup Station. It's right off the streetcar line (STREETCARS ARE AWESOME), and I'll post a picture of our room after the lady comes by to clean up (we had a very early dinner last night at an Irish pub, where we sampled all the beers; when we got back to our room, we turned this neat day-glo space into... a disaster area; no, we're not riding motorcycles up and down the halls, but let's give things a chance to settle back into place).
When we got into town yesterday (the flight was okay, but the last minutes during which we made our descent were a little hairy; maybe next time I won't eat both bags of chips as offered by the pretty blond Jet Blue flight attendant; I was hungry during the flight but as we started down through the clouds, I suddenly... wasn't), it was on-again, off-again raining, but it wasn't as cold as I expected. I'm wearing thin layers, but my wool coat and scarf kept me warm enough, even during our wet, wasted walk through the streets of Nob Hill last night.
Today we have planned a trip to Powell's bookstore, more food and drink, and hopefully to stay dry. It's not supposed to rain today, but who knows? It's the unknown that makes a vacation fun.
Photos and more later.
...
So, Friday is over, and we had a great time today. We got up kind of early and went down for a so-so continental breakfast at our hotel. I should've known better, but I had high hopes. Well, one English muffin and hardboiled egg later, those hopes were pretty much dashed. After that, we boarded the street cars for Powell's Books.
(Before I say anything about Powell's, I just want to say that the streetcar has been one of the highlights of this trip. I've never found getting around a city so convenient and easy!)
Anyway, we got to Powell's, where we quickly separated. I stayed in the front room for awhile, checking out all the staff recommendations and cookbooks. Then I wandered off into the Rose Room, which had a stunning hodgepodge of just about everything. I found a couple of really cool children's books I've been looking for, for my niece and nephew (the first of each series: Trixie Belden for my niece, Danny Dunn for my nephew). Needless to say, I found a shitload of books in all the other various sections of the bookstore (definitely need to check out the sci fi section more next time), and by the time I met up with Patrick again, we'd both managed to collect quite a lot of books and t-shirts and other stuff. I also made a list of things I wanted, but wasn't going to get now. All in all, we spent a couple of very happy hours there, and by the time we came out, were pretty hungry. It felt like a good time to eat lunch, so we headed back to our hotel to dump our purchases and to find a good place to eat. We chose Laughing Planet; it was just fine, and quite filling.
Then, Patrick took me to the coolest place I've been to in a while: McMenamin's Kennedy School. To get there we took the streetcar, a bus, and walked through a very cool neighborhood. Once we got there, all that traveling was totally worth it. The Kennedy School is an old elementary school that's been transformed into a hotel/movie theater/restaurant/bar/concert venue, and it's totally cool. We walked around and hung out in the bar, where I tried a Vintner's Sidewalk and, um, three Dutch Drops. Patrick kicked back with several Hammerhead beers, and we chatted with Goldie, our waitress, who was a cute and nice red-head whose outfit was reminiscent of Dorothy Gale from Kansas. After that, we weren't quite ready to go, and it turned out that we were right on time for the 5:30 p.m. showing of "Twilight." I wasn't all that interested in seeing the movie, but the couches and table service (pitchers of beer, pizza, whatever) sounded like fun, so we got in line, forced ourselves to drink yet more beer, and giggled through the movie.
I'm not going to review the movie. I will only say that I found it at times to be compelling, ridiculous, silly, and stupid. It felt like a CW TV movie.
Anyway, by the time the movie got out, it was getting dark and cold outside, so we walked down to the bus stop, where we stood on the corner in front of a lovely red and green house for about 10 minutes until the bus came. Bus drivers and streetcar drivers have all been really nice on our trip, and even though at the airport we purchased all day tickets that are good for 7 days on any type of public transportation, we have only been required to actually show our tickets once.
By this time, we expected to be hungry, but we really weren't. Patrick wanted to show me a place he visited when he was here a few years ago with the band, so we got off the bus and walked through kind of a sketchy part of town to Berbati's Pan. We had yet another beer there, and then decided to head back to our hotel, with a quick stop in at Voodoo Doughnuts. I'm glad we tried it but honestly, I wasn't super-impressed. They do have a fun collection of dirty names for the doughnuts, though, and while I considered ordering something called "Cock-n-Balls," in the end I stuck with Raspberry Romeo. I was glad to have the doughnut to eat while we walked to the streetcar, it kept my mind off of how darned cold I was.
The weather today was beautiful: clear, blue sky, not too cold. The local news guy just said that winter will be back, tomorrow, so that's going to make things interesting. Ah, well. We won't melt.
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