The Honeymoon Day One

These two handsome men chaperoned us off of the Island, and made sure we arrived in Vancouver in time for our flight. The one on the left is the debonair Balash (our hero) and the other is Amanda’s handsome and handy brother Eric. I could go on for hours about these two, but that will have to wait for another time. We have trolley cars to ride.

Judith of course had to (had to) work before she went out to play. As you can see in these photos, she is taking advantage of the modern workplace (laptop/cell phone) me on the other hand; I continued my relentless on-line research to ensure we didn’t miss anything good while we are here visiting.



As you can see we’re safetly in San Francisco staying at the Argo Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf for a couple nights before we hit the slopes on Friday at Northstar at Tahoe. The trip was fast and easy from Vancouver to here, so easy I surprised myself we waited this long to hop on a plane down here. "O right, I remember why, it was the deep deep deep discounted flight that got us here today".

We found a city tour to jump on to quickly get the “lay of the land” as they say. And as always (old consultant trick) it was money well spent. The tour took us to all four points and everything in between in less than four hours. So we can carry on a conversation about the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Palace of Fine Arts, Union Square, Cable Cars (Judith’s favorite) Coit Tower, Nob Hill, Presidio National Park, Victorian Homes (Very nice), Civic Center, Golden Gate Park, Twin Peaks (Think Cypress Mountian Lookout), and of course for islanders, "Haight/Ashbury" I swear it was like being at ringside, these hippies have nothing on Hogan and Bobcat.

After getting our bearings of the city we decided to brave the trolley car at Union square to get us back around China Town for us to get lost in the firecrackers (Chinese New Years is starting here), people and to find some authentic city food and a unique or just weird experiences (My Favorite) and of course we were not disappointed.

FYI, The trolley cars are too cool and a must. This is how it played out for us, first we had to run out into a busy street and hang off the side of an already “bursting at the seams” full of passengers trolley car (the conductor insisted that the one square inch at the front was a perfectly good place to hang from), and then as I was dangling off this side having my bum pinched by the various drivers out their car windows (including a guy that looked just like Rob), I was required to remove money from my wallet (picture standing on a six inch platform no hands going up and down and swaying back and forth balancing as the trolley cruised along in a nothing close to smooth ride). So with Judith riding point and me hanging off her we climbed the hills this city is famous for. I had to apologize to the woman (more than once) we were standing in front of, because Judith kept screaming and yahooing like it was a roller coaster (The conductor thought it was all pretty amusing and seemed to hurl insults whenever possible at disobedient passengers, car drivers, and anyone else that he could). The moral of the story is even if there are seats on the trolley car make sure you ride point standing up off the side, it is worth the fare and some.

After I pried Judith away, and we jumped off the trolley in the middle of another busy intersection "suddenly lost in the middle of the road". It took about ten seconds for someone to ask if we needed help, and after she pointed us in the direction she decided we needed to go in, off we went down the dark alley and into the night.

We walked through a part of China town (nothing like the East End, don't worry, the area to walk faster in SF is called Tenderloin) looking at various city scenes including a nice street lady from, get this “Nova Scotia” that pointed out all her favorite restaurants, always ask a local where to eat, I say!

After our little walking adventure we eventually popped out in the North Beach area to find our nice little Italian bistro before walking down Columbus back to the Argo to hit the pillow after a 20 hour day!

"My poor feet" Of course Judith was hanging onto the front door jumping up and down screaming that she wanted to go back to the trolley car and not to bed, so I left her with the door man and gave him instructions to send her up to 466 when she let go. He smiled and said he was used to this effect with trolley riders and knew what to do.