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04/24/05 - 04/26/05 - San Francisco, CA & Puerto Vallarta, MX (Photos)

One last day in SF, then our first day back in Mexico

Slept in, and when we finally managed to get up Leandra prepared a scrumptious brunch for us, making it a very luxurious morning for us.  Got to hang out in a leisurely type fashion with Leandra, Dylan, Gerund, and even Tofu (a little bit).  Then we strolled a few doors down the street to Christine & Mark's place, where they were kind enough to cook us up a tasty dinner.  It was great to chat with them, and play 'vaccuum swordfight' with their "four and one third year" old Evan.  After Evan managed to cover us with stickers bearing his very own name, he hit the showers and the sack while we got to visit some more with Mark & Christine.  We managed to stay long enough to make ourselves obnoxious, as Christine is 'with child' and was not feeling so well by the end of the night - while we managed to ignore her repeated pronouncements that she was tired and not feeling so well.  But one must remember how important WE are!  What about poor Scott & Caroline!  Anyway, it was great seeing everyone back in San Francisco, and hope that the next time we see some of them will be when they come visit us here.

Woke up EARLY on Tuesday (5:45am - that just DOES NOT happen these days) for our flight back to PV.  A relatively uneventful flight.  Things seem pretty much the same here, although the weather is a bit warmer and the town a bit emptier.  We learned there was no progress on the closing of the condo, they're still saying two more weeks until we can close.  Spent Tuesday talking with our terrace contractor and looking at stores all over the bay area for furnishings and building materials.  We'll learn the fate of our terrace at our 6pm meeting with our contractor (Adolfo) tomorrow night.

Bye Gerund!

04/22/05 - San Francisco, CA

Touring SF

Spent today walking miles around the city, ended up big time tourists.  Started with coffee in North Beach at Cafe Greco, where they make the best cappuccinos in town.  We then ended up at Fisherman's Wharf, of all places, to get food - since calamari salad and lobster bisque was sounding good - and go visit the sea lions.  We hadn't been down there in a few years, and were hoping we wouldn't get spotted by anyone we knew.  Caroline met up with Leane and some friends from SmithGroup for drinks at Thirsty Bear, while Scott went as Kris' date to Alfred's Steak House, where they dined with John & Carey.  Caroline met up with everyone else at Alfred's (even after Scott gave her wrong directions and she got to wander the dark streets of the financial district alone for half an hour).  Kris had to leave us (booty call?), but we ended up at Vesuvius with John & Carey afterward for drinks, and got to exchange stories about their crazy neighbors - past and present.  

04/18/05 - 04/21/05 - San Francisco, CA

Staying in the Mission is not so different from being in Puerto Vallarta

Nothing too exciting the past few days... some shopping, drinks in SF to celebrate Ana getting her green card - turns out Ana hates dolphins... didn't know that sort of thing happened.  But I guess there are others (see http://www.bluealien.org/subdomains/anti-dolphin/guestbook.php?page=2 or http://www.tangmonkey.com/pulp/2-8/dolphins.php).

We moved from Leane's place (thanks Leane!) to Leandra & Dylan's place in SF on Tuesday, where Caroline has been able to enjoy the company of their two kittens.  Getting some more things done, were going to go to the Mexican Consulate, but apparently there are 3 hour lines you have to wait in at the office here... We think we're better off just talking to people in Mexico (besides, they probably speak more English in Puerto Vallara!).

As I sit here at Phil's coffee (24th & Folsom), a somewhat insane looking woman's parrot just climbed down off of her shoulder onto her lap, where she has now proceeded to massage his cheeks (do birds have cheeks? I think this one might have jowls) while kissing his green, feathery bird-head.  Immediately afterward, a young female customer came in to order coffee, and put on a little show with her banjo while here.  Never a dull moment in SF.

04/17/05 - San Francisco, CA (Photos)

A walk in the Marin Headlands, lunch in SF, & dinner with the Stimsons

Another beautiful day, as we awoke at the Acqua Hotel in Mill Valley.  Leane, Caroline & Scott spend the first half of the day driving out to Point Bonita in the Marin Headlands, always a great drive and walk.  Adding to the always awesome spectacle of the cliffs and waves, there had been a 'shipwreck' out by the lighthouse that morning.  The people survived, but the brand spanking new sailboat was still there, washed up onto the rocks.  If you're like us, you'll see the photos and ask, "Can they recover the boat?".  Apparently the chance of salvage relies on a helicopter and the tides.

On our way from the North Bay to the South Bay, we stopped in at Barney's in the Marina to share a cheeseburger three ways (along with two baskets of fries).  This left us just enough time to stop off at Leane's place, where we'd be spending Sunday & Monday nights, before going to our friends Jen and Mark's in Burlingame.  Always great to catch up with them (and their cats - hi Casey! hi Simon!).  The five of us went to a great sushi place in Burlingame.  Sounds like there's a chance we could meet up with them in Mexico next September, if they can figure out where they're heading!

04/14/05 - 04/15/05 - San Francisco, CA

Thursday & Friday fly by, shopping and drinking

Thursday, after Scott goes to the GAP headquarters to pick up Kris' keys, we move into his spacious Mission loft.  We then proceed to kill nearly the entire day dress shopping for Caroline (yes, Scott went too, if for nothing else than to tell Caroline how great she looks in everything she tried on).  Dinner at our old neighborhood favorite, Chow, then bed.  Kris took Friday off, so Scott generously offered up his time to go have beer and burgers with him and Tod in Oakland while Caroline completed her dress shopping.  A gorgeous San Francisco day, so Kris and Scott ended up continuing the beer drinking at The Ramp back in the city until dinnertime.  Jen & Tod secured a babysitter, and met the rest of us for dinner at Medjool.  This may have been a good choice if ANY of us liked middle eastern food, but since we all pretty much despise this sort of cuisine.... maybe not the best pick.  Our friend Thao was there with some friends, so at least we got to catch up with her.  They found the food to be quite tasty.

04/13/05 - San Francisco, CA

Just like the old days - errands all over town

Caroline, feeling a bit better, had an appointment to get to with her old hair stylist over by our old house. She didn't want to chance her first Mexican haircut right before the wedding, so it's back to Doreen she goes.  Between the hair appointment, finishing gift shopping (and finding a box & wrapping the gift), getting Scott's suit pressed, and finding Caroline a dress, we had plenty to do before the Saturday wedding.  What started off as a promising day for Caroline's stomach turmoil, turned around after the hair appointment, and forced her back to bed for the rest of the day and night, to subsist on soup, saltines, and other gentle fare.  On the bright side, all errands complete except the dress!

04/12/05 - San Francisco, CA

Start of 13 days back in the U.S.

An uneventful flight brought us to San Francisco, where we BARTed into the Civic Center, where we planned to stay with our friend Kris.  We hauled our huge bags out of the CC BART station and into the Mission, in the direction of Kris's loft, looking for a restaurant large and uncrowded enough to handle us and the luggage.  We made for the New Home Menu Chinese & Vietnamese Restaurant, located on Mission at Van Ness, where we had decided to hang out for an hour or so until we thought that Kris might be home from work.  Home Menu happens to be the first restaurant we ever went to when we moved to San Francisco, where we spent our first day waiting to get into our apartment in the Civic Center, giving us a touch of the deja vu.  Had some delicious food there, and kept hanging out there drinking more and more tea and water, waiting to hear a response from our voicemail to Kris.  Started thinking that maybe Kris didn't want us there?

Eventually we had to check out of the Home Menu, since the massive amounts of tea and water, combined with a tiny bathroom with no door lock, were making it less comfortable.  We decided to go sit in the lobby of the Civic Center Ramada, where we might look inconspicuous with our bags, and could possibly pick up a Wi-Fi signal in case we needed to look up a hotel for the night.  As we waited in the lobby, the Home Menu dinner that we had eaten apparently started going to work on Caroline's insides.  Around 8:30pm, we decided we'd better just find a hotel (we didn't want to STAY in the Ramada if we could avoid it).  Using the Ramada's 'Internet Room' ($4/15 minutes!? C'mon! And we complain about the $1.80/hr in Puerto Vallarta), we decided upon The Mosser, which Caroline recollected as being recently remodeled.  The rooms with a shared bath were cheaper, but due to Caroline's worsening reaction to dinner, we decided a private bath would be worth the splurge.  On we trudged to The Mosser, on 4th Street between Market and Mission.

The room turned out to be quite nice (great bed), but extremely small.  Poor Caroline crashed out almost immediately upon crossing the threshold, and slept a good part of the next morning.  Scott went out in the morning to Eppler's Bakery on Market to enjoy some bad coffee, and a delicious croissant, and utilize their free internet to search for Kris or another hotel room for the night.  Our and Kris's mutual friends, Jen and Tod, both attempted to help Scott track him down (via IM), which they successfully did in short order.  Turns out Kris, who I've rarely seen without his cell phone in his hand, was unable to communicate the previous night due to a dead battery and non-functioning charger.  That, combined with a miscommunication that had us arriving on the 22nd instead of the 12th, let him off the hook (we bought the story).  We stayed one more night at The Mosser anyway, getting a bigger room for $10 less via Yahoo Travel.