I was able to sleep in today. That is a good thing on vacation right? The longer I go away from work, the less I think about it. Which is a good thing. I was reminded of my needed presence with a few desperate emails that most likely can be handled upon my return.
I have this thing that I used to do every morning while I lived in the U.S. I would get up early, go to Jack in the Box and read the sports page. Its quite a routine. Now that I’m in Bahrain, there isn’t much of a sports page, so I read the Bible. That is better for me anyway. But today it was the sports page. I ran across several homeless people. Its amazing, Im certain that we have homeless in Bahrain, I just don’t notice them like I do here. Somehow they remain in the background. Taiwan was a lot like that too. In the year I lived there I didn’t see one homeless person, except for the one crazy guy…that everyone knew was crazy. I think he was considered the town kook. So Im not sure if he counts. Other than him, no homeless people. Families took care of families. Its very similar to that in Bahrain. There are many migrant workers and the facilities they have for them are not desirable in the least, still they are not considered homeless.
I was able to catch up on many of the Flight of the Conchords episodes I had pre-set on my Tivo. That has to be the best show on Television. Then the Czech and I headed over to San Francisco. We wanted to do this old school. So we took BART (subway) over to the city. We got off at Powell St. and again I was amazed at how many homeless people were surrounding us. I guess since we were in the shopping district, there were many looking for handouts. We hopped on the Cable Car. The Czech had never been past Alabama, so certainly she was never in cable car. I told her, the real pro’s stand on the outside of the car hanging on. A few times we had to lean really far in so as to not hit the parked cars we were whizzing by. It seems like only the tourists take the Cable Cars and I’ve certainly given my shares of tours. Still the cable car ride is a tradition in San Francisco, and something I enjoy. The only issue is its getting expensive $5 per ride. Everything seems more expensive this year.
We got to the end of the line and walked along Fisherman’s wharf. There were so many wonderful sights, sounds, and smells. It was a symphony of stimuli. This is one of the greatest cities in the entire world. Three hours just simply isn’t enough. There are several reasons why I think SF is so great. The number one reason, I think, is its such a cultural melting pot. There are so many races that live here, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Irish, Mexican, Russian, and they all have their distinct sections in the city. Growing up here in this multi-cultural environment truly helped me to be colorblind growing up. I don’t think Im a racist whatsoever. I love everyone no matter what race or creed. In fact, I think I have a great friend in every nationality except Eskimo. So if any of you know any lonely Eskimo’s introduce me on facebook.
So I went and way overspent at all the tourist trap places. I wanted to buy everyone in my office a small little memento from SF. I hope Im not spoiling them. Im just trying to use my privileged position to be a blessing.
I spent too much time shopping and we were going to be late for our Dinner reservations at Ruth Chris’ steakhouse, my favorite restaurant. So we rushed off to the cable car. We bought our ticket and stood in line. After about five minutes, we decided the line was too long. Instead we’d try to catch the cable car up the hill. So we walked to the first stop, waited…and the next cable car didn’t stop to pick us up. So we decided to walk to the next cable car stop. Big mistake…it was up a giant Hill, I mean Giant…..a San Francisco specialty. After ten minutes of extreme huffing and puffing the Czech and I made it up. After nearly passing out we realized we were at the top of Lombard St, the most crooked street in the world, and the most famous street in SF. After a few pictures, and waiting for the next cable car, we spotted a taxi. Oh I forgot to tell you. At Pier 39 they have droves of seals that lazily sleep on the docks. There must be a hundred of them. They are quite a sight. So we hop in the cab, but not before I can fortuitously sell our cable car tickets to a couple of girls also waiting in line. So we get to the BART train, it was crowded. We made it to my sister’s, got changed and then met my Uncle Tim, I’ll tell you about him sometime, and my parents at the restaurant. We ate and ate. $379 later, we were finished…well there were 6 of us…still it was really pricey. That’s why I can only go there once a year. All in all…it was a very full…but very good day. I have to get up tomorrow to go to my old Friday men’s group. Im looking forward to that.
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