Cousin Trip 2009 started just two days ago, and it's been non-stop AWESOME since Katie and Amy drove into town. Because we don't want to sit at a computer and tell stories, you'll get the group's highlights (or "Happies and Crappies" as Katie calls them) from the past 48 hours...
*Getting into San Fran sucked. That's not worth a story.
*Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, bought $18 three-day MUNI passes for all of the buses and rail cars, then headed towards Fisherman's Wharf, by way of...
*The Farmer's Market in the Ferry building - AMAZING! Delicious peaches, apples, honey sticks, and the. best. cappucino. I've. ever. had. EVER! Too many people puttering around, but the produce and Blue Bottle Coffee Co made it worthwhile.
*Fisherman's Wharf was way too touristy, so we walked through it to get to...
*Ghirardelli Square for sundaes the size of our faces. No exaggeration. Loaded with Ghirardelli fudge. We ate them sitting next to the water and called it lunch.
* We walked down a nearby boardwalk (right past a guy trapping Dungeness crab...next to a sign that said "Illegal to catch Dungeness crab"...), took some pictures, then decided to hop on a trolley towards Union Square for some shopping, when...
*We spied a Patagonia store! Hallelujah! We ducked in, found they were having a 50% off sale, and each of us found one fun little cheap thing to remember our trip. (Can you tell yet that this was the best day of my life??)
*Getting back on the trolley (good thing we bought that all-access MUNI pass), we rode up and down San Fran's famously steep hills for a while before stopping in Union Square.
*We popped into Tiffany's (just because...) and H&M before deciding to find....
*Some pizza in a restaurant near a movie theater, where we wanted to see "500 Days of Summer" later in the evening. (San Fran is too sketchy for the four of us after dark.) Long story short, we had some AMAZING pizza and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the same building as the movie theater. We talked to two delightful older gay men about what to do the next two days and really, really, really enjoyed ourselves. (That was the meal that Grandma and Grandma bought for us. Thanks guys. :) ) We've been quoting those two guys all day - they were hilarious.
*We saw the movie - which was rad - and then found a Starbucks nearby for some decaf lattes for the bus ride home. Then we went to sleep.
*This morning we had breakfast, got ready, and grabbed a bus bound for Golden Gate Park.
*It was much more chilly today than yesterday, so we kept our fleeces on and scrambled around Sutro state park for about half an hour - really cool trees, sand, clifs, seals and the like. We could see the bridge, too, but it was foggy and really pretty. Then we went to...
*The Beach Chalet, a brewpub recommended to us by the concierge in our hotel. We had enormous cheeseburgers (Courto and myself), fish & chips (Katie) and a delicious French dip (Amy) - so many calories it put us in a COMA for several hours. It had a great view of the ocean across the street, so of course we...
*Ran over to put our feet in after lunch. The water was freezing but I was happy as a clam.
*We jumped on a bus to the deYoung museum (I fell asleep on Amy's shoulder - no lie), which was kind of a bust save for the rad view from the rough of the tower, and we walked through a botanical garden/arboretum in the direction of a Starbucks (no, seriously, we needed some iced coffee to get out of that trance).
*Once caffeinated, we headed for the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood - a hippie mecca where all the employees in all of the shops were way too baked to be of any good. There was a guy on a street corner with a typewriter, and he didn't even really stand out.
*We giggled SO MUCH on the bus ride back to the hotel that Courto had tears coming down her face and I almost fell down. Everywhere we've gone, people stare at us because we're just having WAY too much fun.
*Right now we're in the hotel putting on warm clothes before dinner. Rando said he'd buy it for us under these circumstances: we have to go to Chinatown - "deep into Chinatown, in a restaurant where no one speaks English, and just say, 'Dim Sum.'" So that's what we're doing. We have no idea what we're eating, but it'll be an adventure.
*Getting into San Fran sucked. That's not worth a story.
*Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, bought $18 three-day MUNI passes for all of the buses and rail cars, then headed towards Fisherman's Wharf, by way of...
*The Farmer's Market in the Ferry building - AMAZING! Delicious peaches, apples, honey sticks, and the. best. cappucino. I've. ever. had. EVER! Too many people puttering around, but the produce and Blue Bottle Coffee Co made it worthwhile.
*Fisherman's Wharf was way too touristy, so we walked through it to get to...
*Ghirardelli Square for sundaes the size of our faces. No exaggeration. Loaded with Ghirardelli fudge. We ate them sitting next to the water and called it lunch.
* We walked down a nearby boardwalk (right past a guy trapping Dungeness crab...next to a sign that said "Illegal to catch Dungeness crab"...), took some pictures, then decided to hop on a trolley towards Union Square for some shopping, when...
*We spied a Patagonia store! Hallelujah! We ducked in, found they were having a 50% off sale, and each of us found one fun little cheap thing to remember our trip. (Can you tell yet that this was the best day of my life??)
*Getting back on the trolley (good thing we bought that all-access MUNI pass), we rode up and down San Fran's famously steep hills for a while before stopping in Union Square.
*We popped into Tiffany's (just because...) and H&M before deciding to find....
*Some pizza in a restaurant near a movie theater, where we wanted to see "500 Days of Summer" later in the evening. (San Fran is too sketchy for the four of us after dark.) Long story short, we had some AMAZING pizza and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the same building as the movie theater. We talked to two delightful older gay men about what to do the next two days and really, really, really enjoyed ourselves. (That was the meal that Grandma and Grandma bought for us. Thanks guys. :) ) We've been quoting those two guys all day - they were hilarious.
*We saw the movie - which was rad - and then found a Starbucks nearby for some decaf lattes for the bus ride home. Then we went to sleep.
*This morning we had breakfast, got ready, and grabbed a bus bound for Golden Gate Park.
*It was much more chilly today than yesterday, so we kept our fleeces on and scrambled around Sutro state park for about half an hour - really cool trees, sand, clifs, seals and the like. We could see the bridge, too, but it was foggy and really pretty. Then we went to...
*The Beach Chalet, a brewpub recommended to us by the concierge in our hotel. We had enormous cheeseburgers (Courto and myself), fish & chips (Katie) and a delicious French dip (Amy) - so many calories it put us in a COMA for several hours. It had a great view of the ocean across the street, so of course we...
*Ran over to put our feet in after lunch. The water was freezing but I was happy as a clam.
*We jumped on a bus to the deYoung museum (I fell asleep on Amy's shoulder - no lie), which was kind of a bust save for the rad view from the rough of the tower, and we walked through a botanical garden/arboretum in the direction of a Starbucks (no, seriously, we needed some iced coffee to get out of that trance).
*Once caffeinated, we headed for the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood - a hippie mecca where all the employees in all of the shops were way too baked to be of any good. There was a guy on a street corner with a typewriter, and he didn't even really stand out.
*We giggled SO MUCH on the bus ride back to the hotel that Courto had tears coming down her face and I almost fell down. Everywhere we've gone, people stare at us because we're just having WAY too much fun.
*Right now we're in the hotel putting on warm clothes before dinner. Rando said he'd buy it for us under these circumstances: we have to go to Chinatown - "deep into Chinatown, in a restaurant where no one speaks English, and just say, 'Dim Sum.'" So that's what we're doing. We have no idea what we're eating, but it'll be an adventure.
