It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

This time with pictures!

Brother Steve and I had a fantastic time in San Francisco this past weekend. He was decked out in Michigan State gear when we went to my favorite SFO Irish Pub Friday night. Johnny Foley's. I seem to always forget the name but never its location. Tons of other people were wearing the green and white as well so we were making friends all over the place. Good times!

Tourists were pretty sparse early Saturday morning, so we hopped the Powell/Hyde trolley to Lombard Street and on to Fisherman's Wharf. At the Wharf we took the harbour tour, checked out the aquarium and toured the Boudin Sourdough demonstration bakery and had lunch. Yum!

After our yummy lunch of soup in authentic San Fran sourdough, we were off to the Michigan State/Cal football game over in Berkeley. On the BART were plenty of young Cal fans drinking beers out of brown paper bags. Yeah, because now no one knows what you are doing. Ha ha.

As a casual observer, I've always been curious as to why you go to class at "Berkeley" but all the athletic teams are called "Cal". It's like they don't want anything to do with the other. Once we passed through the beautiful campus and up to the stadium, it became clear that they don't. It was obvious that the university puts more time and money into academics than athletic facilities, despite what the hippies living in the trees think. (We never did see the Tree Hippies, much to Steve's disappointment).

The stadium is built on the side of a hill, with free seats to be had above on the hill for the hardy souls who climbed that far up. The restroom facilities were fleets of porta-potties circling the stadium and the bleachers were tired old wooden planks. The media booth looked like the one across the street at the high school and had a couple of pop-up shade tents for some overflow.

Despite the lack of rudimentary amenities, we lost. State played like crap. But the MSU fans were out in full force and we were a loud bunch. Everyone was really nice to Steve and I on the way back, so that was nice. Oh, and the halftime show had parachuters, which was pretty cool.

It was also pretty cool to get evacuation instructions over the public address system in case of earthquake. Steve wondered what the NCAA game rulings are if you had to call it by earthquake. Will you have had to play through halftime for the game to be considered done? Through the third quarter?

Sunday: Strolled through Chinatown where I bought some tea and trinkets. Then off to Alcatraz with the LTs! We had a great time, despite that look on my face in jail where I was trying to tell Steve how to work the camera.

Monday morning: Steve took off, I slept in. Then I took myself to breakfast in North Beach, hanging out at Cafe Trieste just like all the beat poets used to do. I made my way up Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower and was happily surprised to see there was a bus! It was a nice little workout up, but I was glad to know I could get a ride down. Whee!

Then the most darling Electric Firefly swung by the hotel to pick me up and we were off to lunch and browsing in the Mission. I can NOT believe I didn't get a picture of us! Sorry, EF!

And Laurie – you might know about this place already, but there is a pirate shop on Valencia! Proceeds fund – of all things – a writers workshop!

So there ya go. A good time was had by all yet again in the great City by the Bay.  

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