Sasha must be feeling better – anything with lungs that powerful at 8am on a Sunday morning can’t be nearly as sick as she looks.

I could probably go back to sleep, but then I’d miss out on this lovely silence and the sun beating down on my naked back. It feels quite lovely; almost enough to make this unexpectedly early morning somewhat worthwhile.

I had planned to spend my Saturday scooting to the Sunshine Coast, but that didn’t end up happening. It’s Ed’s birthday weekend, and as such, I left the plans completely up to him. He really wanted to be home to see the first game in the Stanley Cup finals, so we instead opted to stay local and do the coast another day. We have all summer with no plans other than “scoot the planet”, so it’ll happen. I can wait.

Instead, we headed east into Port Moody and to Buntzen Lake. We took the back roads and did some fancy parking, ending up right on the crowded-but-manageable beach. We hadn’t really packed to do any swimming, so I waded in the water a little (bemoaning my dryness the entire time) and made a pact to play hooky from work one day soon to have a mid-week beach adventure. We headed back towards home just in time for the puck drop, and I alternated between napping and DS Scrabble while Ed yelled at the TV.

After the game, we gathered Shan and the three of us scooted to the West End to go to a housewarming party. The house was beautiful, the company fantastic, and I got to hold a hedgehog (and now I want one or 20). It was a beautiful night for a scoot both to and fro, and my earlier soreness had all but disappeared (the afternoon’s ride was uncharacteristically painful due to a bad sleep and a pinched shoulder nerve). All in all, it was a very nice night – turns out, being social is fun!

Today is Ed’s birthday, and our plans are up in the air. We had originally planned to see Up, but seeing a matinee on the opening weekend seems like it might be a bad idea. The day is entirely up to Ed, and we’ll go for a fancy dinner later tonight. It’ll be fairly low key – we had decided that the San Francisco trip was our mutal birthday present, so no gifts were necessary (it’s a one-way agreement: not only did I buy him a present; this rule absolutely does not apply to MY birthday in 19 days). A nice weekend filled with a variety of fun is always welcome.

scooters are awesome.

It is somehow fitting that my first day back in the Lab after my vacation is one that is wet and rainy and dripping. I can’t complain about it – this is the first rain I’ve seen in almost two weeks, and the glorious weather held until the very last minute of my vacation. Not too shabby.

What IS shabby, however, is the 796 emails sitting in my inbox waiting for me to read them. I purposefully avoided checking my email until I came into the office this morning for fear that the overwhelming amount of crap would scare me into hibernation, and lo – if not for the giant Diet Coke permanently affixed to my left hand, I would be cuddling a grizzly right about now.

796, by the way, is not an exaggeration or hyperbole. It is truth. Time to apply some filters, I guess. And here I was all proud of achieving Inbox Zero at home!

Our drive home was less scenic than the drive out, but still fun. We took the Bay Bridge on the way out, driving past Berkley and Oakland to eventually meet up with the I5 and a pretty direct route home. I missed the ocean, but there were mysterious mountains, Red Bull in frightening 16oz cans, and a very fancy rest stop with free cookies and Tang. Ed discovered a deep and satisfying love for Carl’s Jr (I stand by my claim that Burgerville is the greatest ever), and there may or may not have been a stop along a deserted road in southern Oregon for a quickie in the back seat of the Mazdabator. What? Road trips make me horny.

We stopped in Salem for the night. I had an excellent reason for not going all the way to Portland, but I forgot it by the time we checked in to our horrible little hotel – I really wish we had just kept going for the last 40 miles or so. The room we ended up in was smelly and gross and it had no internet access; a complete fail all the way around. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner because it was the only thing in the phone book that looked halfway appetizing, and even though we shared an entrée it was way too much for me to eat so I pushed it around on my plate to make it look as though I was eating it, and picked at my salad instead. I’m sure Salem has some charm somewhere, but we didn’t find it that evening. I was glad when it was time to sleep.

We woke up bright and early for our last official “away from home” vacation day. We were going to PORTLAND! Oh, I love Portland. We took advantage of the whole “no tax” thing with a stop at a mall so I could stock up on skanky summer clothing and shower gel, then a trip to the Corazzo office where Ed tried on every scooter jacket known to man. He eventually chose a really cool jacket in this style, and we both picked up a pair of fancy gloves with armoured knuckles. I also bought a pair of these for Shan as a belated birthday present, and $400 later, we were on our heavily armoured way.

By the time we finished lunch at Burgerville, it was almost 2pm – we had to hit the road if we wanted to make it home before Sunday some time. Getting out of Portland was a huge hassle as the holiday weekend traffic started early, but we were soon on our way north. We’ll be visiting Portland again for a weekend later this summer, and I’ll get to go to Powell’s then. I love Portland. I think I may love it more than Seattle, and I *adore* Seattle. I would probably move to Portland if I could – we knew it was time to head home when we started looking at “for sale” signs and wondering how much a condo would go for in Oregon.

We stopped in Seattle to see Ali, Doug and River and avoid the rush hour holiday traffic at the same time. We gave River the dress we bought her in Chinatown while in San Francisco, and had a great time visiting. River is very talkative, and showed me all her cool things. Ali had made a delicious salmon dinner, and Ed and Doug got in some quality Guy Time. Before long we had to hit the road again, but we made promises to visit again soon – at least in July for Ali’s performance, if not sooner.

The border crossing was almost empty, and we rolled into Canada with no trouble. We eventually made it home just after midnight, making our trip almost exactly one week long. Josh and Shan were still awake, and helped us unload the car and hand off the borrowed items for their trip to Sasquatch. Exhausted but glad to be home, we poured ourselves into bed and looked forward to the three days of nothingness ahead.

I love San Francisco, but this morning’s ruling out of California makes me think twice about urging people to experience the city at the first opportunity.

potty time is story time

Monday

• Walked to waterfront from hotel
• Explored Ghirardelli Square; bought all the chocolate
• Ate breakfast at Joanie’s Diner
• Wisely opted to purchase 3-day transit passes
• Started our Wharf Walk (distinctly different from our Worf Walk that one time) at the end of the piers (45-ish)
• Wandered Pier 39: saw (and smelled) the sea lions, rode the carousel, bought souvenirs
• Took the ferry from Pier 33 to Alcatraz – the audio tour was awesome, the overcast day perfectly suited the atmosphere, and we took about 200 photos
• Returned around 6:30 utterly famished; shared a (fantastic) bowl of clam chowder from Chowders in a sourdough bowl; ate bowl while loudly crowing “AND THEN I ATE THE BOWL!” to the horror/amusement/disgust/confusion of those around us
• Stumbled inland, found bus, returned to hotel exhausted and half dead from blisters/wind rash/seafood overload

Our hotel is awesome. It’s a tiny little place that we ended up at solely because of an ad in a magazine I picked up at Denny’s in Crescent City – $49 a night, free wi-fi, on several major bus routes, and located 4 blocks from the water. This place has totally saved our ass – the place I made reservations for turned out to have no parking whatsoever, which was not mentioned anywhere on the website or in any of the reviews. A few people mentioned parking was an issue, but they definitely didn’t say there was NONE AT ALL – the Mazdabator had to go somewhere, and parking 3 blocks away for an additional $20 a day didn’t seem like a very good idea. We cancelled the reservation for a hefty fee, but the new hotel is so awesome we’re still coming out ahead so there.

Tuesday

We awoke on Tuesday to more clouds, but it quickly turned out to be a glorious day. We took the bus from our hotel and:

• Explored Japantown; had major nerdgasm
• Had to be pried out of Kinokuniya Bookstore with a crowbar; was soothed by purchase of early birthday present
• Bought out every Sanrio store I saw
• Took another bus to Union Square
• Ate lunch at Carl Jr’s
• RODE A CABLE CAR! Seriously, I wasn’t expecting this to be anywhere near as awesome as it was. I rode on the edge, at the very front, hanging off the side like some sort of fat Canadian monkey. It was fucking fantastic. I loved it. It may have been better than scooter riding.
• Got off at Chinatown; explored Grant Avenue – Ed bought a shirt with dragons on it; trying to convince him to grow the matching neckbeard
• Bought a parasol because I am a lady
• Took bus to waterfront
• Road the F-Market streetcar to Pier 39
• Finally gave into the irresistable lure of freshly baked waffle cones
• Ate some fruit to make up for the ice cream gluttony
• Convinced Ed to take a boat tour of the San Francisco Bay; sang song; had blast
• Ate dinner at Chowders again; ate OWN bowl as I did not want to share
• Admired Ed’s sunburn
• Took bus back to hotel; collapsed in a puddle of fewer blisters thanks to the sandals I bought at Skechers

We did the waterfront again because it was so much different in the sun. Tuesday was probably the nicest day we had here weatherwise, and the entire day was spent in ridiculously high spirits. The cable car was fucking awesome. I would travel that way all the damn time if I could.

Wednesday

We slept in on Wednesday, our energy levels definitely waning a little. After dragging outselves out of bed, we:

• Took a bus through the Marina district
• Walked to the Exploratorium; marvelled at the Palace of Fine Arts and surrounding parklands
• Changed our minds about actually going INTO the Exploratorium – we arrived just as four or five buses full of screaming children pulled up, and the day was just too nice to be spent indoors doing science
• Walked along the waterfront for a while
• Ate an IT’S IT
• Took the bus back to Union Square
• Wandered along streets of shops I couldn’t afford to look at, let alone shop in
• Went to Westfield Center; ate lunch at the +4 Food Court
• Quickly wandered through the first floor of Forever 21 while Ed waited in line for the cable car
• Rode said cable car to the waterfront again
• Stopped at Cost Plus and Trader Joe’s to stock up on snacks for the road trip home
• Rode back to the hotel room; passed out
• Woke up hungry
• Bussed back to the waterfront
• Wandered around looking at menus unable to decide what to eat
• Finally ended up at Bubba Gump’s; ate epic amounts of seafood
• Splurged on a taxi back to the hotel
• Got naked, started writing

I know Bubba Gump’s is totally gimmicky, but that was one hell of a good meal. We’ve been eating really cheaply our whole trip, but I’ve always wanted to go there and was craving seafood so it seemed like a good idea. And it was! I can’t move, but it was worth it!

It’s been a great trip. This is our first real vacation, and I’m so glad it went well. We’re hoping to hit the road fairly early tomorrow – as awesome as our time in San Francisco has been, we’re eager to get home to our cats and our scooters and the three full days of nothing we have planned.

We’ll be back for sure. San Francisco is so easy to get around via transit that it’s the perfect city to fly to – you don’t need a car here. I would have loved to have my scooter here, but transit is awesome, cheap and extensive. We did almost everything on my list, but there’s a few things we didn’t get to do – stand on the gayest corner in America, go to some of the museums, buy dildos at Good Vibrations. Definitely enough to warrant another trip – maybe I can convince Josh and Shan to come out next time and act as tour guide. I’m an old pro – I’ve been here THREE TIMES now, and I didn’t even get heat stroke the second or third times!

I’ve posted over 150 pictures – check them out why not.

the palace of fine arts is fancier than you

Also, San Francisco has some of the best Diet Coke I’ve ever had. It’s been delicious the entire time!

Yes, that’s important.

Mmm, Diet Coke.