Adventure Recap

Flavio, Angie, Jake, Mattia

Well though my bags and packed and I've no where to go I haven't let that MINOR detail stop me from enjoying my week off work. Not really sure how that ended up being my schedule but I'll take it! I did manage to fill up most days with fun things at least.
I had my usually 3 day camping trip last Thursday which ended Saturday night. Sunday I did a wine country tour with a bunch of weirdos and one really cool Aussie guy who's on a whirlwind tour of the US before he heads back to Oz, so I gave him all the advise I could think of (poor guy) but that was to be the highlight, my group was really quiet and not in the mood to drink wine so much as learn about the wine...hmmm nothing wrong with that but it changes the mood in my van.

Cannoli's at Mara's

Monday I had arranged to meet up with 4 people from my camping trip (this group got along so well! They hung out Sunday together and had great adventures and made silly movies about speaking each others languages. They were a Taiwanese couple and 2 Italians.

Oh so delicious!

Monday I met them in Union Square and then took over the tour guiding again and walked them along my favorite route through SF. Jake the guy from Taiwan had found a place to have as close to authentic Chinese food as there is and so that was our only objective. Otherwise I walked them through tourist Chinatown and then up to Stockton where the Chinese people live and work and shop, we wandered up to my favorite pastry shop Mara's and had a cannoli. A Sicilian pastry it turns out. The Italians were from Milan.
That was fun at any rate. We walked back to Chinatown and had our Chinese lunch. Jake and Angie made us each learn a dish in Chinese and order it from the waiter, it was really fun. The food was really good too!
After that I took them to Belden Place, the alley I found in the financial district. I have always wanted to try it out and so we went there and had a coffee and relaxed for a bit.

From there I took them back through North Beach, we took a snooze in Washington Square and then continued on to Fishermans Wharf. That place was insanely busy as usual, I about lost it by that point. I was hungry and had turned into grouchy "feed me now" Karen. She's never fun. :)

The group wanted to try sourdough so we went to Boudins for a chowder bowl and then I coaxed them into the Musee Mecanique. They were all reluctant at first, its hard to describe the antique arcade idea to people. Once I got them in there and they got some quarters into some games they all perked up and we ended up spending at least an hour in there. It was hilarious!

Dueling Robots

We ended our day by having seafood at a restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf. Its a tough choice when there are so many places there!! We found one that had everything we wanted on the menu and ate a good meal.
It was late by this time and  time to find our way back over the hill to where they were all staying. After much wandering and debate about paying for a cable car and trying to find a non existent taxi (why on earth are there no taxi's in Fisherman's??)
We finally caught the #30 bus through Chinatown to Union Square where we parted ways. I walked Mattia and Flavio to their hostel since they were turned around by then. And we discussed my going with them on their next leg of the journey. They were headed to Monterrey and I suggested Santa Cruz and Carmel too, they took me with them! Tuesday they came and picked me up in their rental car and drove me to the beach! It was the first time I wasn't driving! It was really nice to just hang out and take in the scenery!

We laid on the beach for a while and walked around and then drove to Carmel. The beach there was so cold! It was foggy and windy, not like sunny Santa Cruz! We didn't stay long and then went to Monterrey to find the hotel and go get dinner. I got a room in Monterrey (thank goodness for internet on my phone) and we all went to dinner on Cannery Row.
The whole trip was a lot of fun. I took a shuttle van back to SFO and caught BART back to the city. I miss those guys already, they were so fun!