*Arrive in SF on Tuesday around 4pm. The city is intimidatingly pretty. Busy Old World feel, there's obviously big money here.
*First mission is to go across the Golden Gate to see if it's even possible to throw onthewhat's Habs t-shirt down below.
*It is.
*Now, the thick fog that was covering Cambria a couple days earlier is back with a vengeance - can't see shit on either side of the bridge. This is rather underwhelming after seeing so many picturesque shots of it.
*In-dash temp sensor says 56 - I'm still wearing shorts and flip-flops since it was about 80 in Monterey that morning. Ugh! It's hotter than that back home in Montreal!
*After crossing the bridge, my GPS craps out and I get lost in the most beautiful little marina town ever, Sausalito. Weather is perfectly clear there for some reason - wall of fog is restricted to the big city.
*Back to SF, my hotel (Cathedral Hill Hotel) is a dump located in a bad part of town. That'll teach me shopping prices instead of locations. Guy working the counter is over retirement age and his suit looks like it followed him throughout his career. He could be from any era, most likely 1930's, like the rest of the building. Signs on the wall use a typeface that also points to the Art Deco period.
*Rooms haven't been redecorated since I was born 30 years ago, that's for sure. There are ghosts in this place.
*To add insult to injury, counter guy tells me that parking is an extra $20 a day... I don't mind paying, but why not tell me beforehand? I then find out that Internet access is an extra $10 a day... that's customary and understandable in Vegas, where they don't want you to stay in your room and play on the Internets, but everywhere else had been free up to now.
*I am NOT a happy camper.
*On Wednesday, Giants-Dodgers game at AT&T park. Stadium is great. Atmosphere is great. Nice civilized rivalry between LA and SF - it's sort of rowdy, but a playful kind of rowdy. I keep watching for fights to erupt in the crowd, to no avail. There would've been half-a-dozen at a Habs-Bruins or Habs-Leafs game.
*I'm sitting next to a couple of very friendly lesbians from Sacramento who are die-hard Dodgers fans. I tell them that smitch wouldn't approve. They shrug.
*After the game, stop in a liquor store on 3rd street. Pick up a bottle of 2003 Fladgate - no price on it, but from memory, this is a sub-$30 affair in Montreal (wine.com later says $20). Clerk looks all over the bottle, can't find a price, so he taps something at random on the cashier - $69.
Me - Uh sorry, but it can't be $69, that's a basic Fladgate.
Him - It can't be $69?
He substracts $69 to reset the cashier, then he types a new price. $69.
Him - It is $69.
Me - (pause) Fine, bye.
WTH was that? Did I get the tourist special cause I had a camera around the neck?
*I really miss the free Vegas booze, the dry and hot weather and the real-life sportsbooks.
After visiting the SF MOMA today and Alcatraz with RogueScholar tomorrow, am going back to Vegas as fast as I can. **** this wet, overpriced mess.
*First mission is to go across the Golden Gate to see if it's even possible to throw onthewhat's Habs t-shirt down below.
*It is.
*Now, the thick fog that was covering Cambria a couple days earlier is back with a vengeance - can't see shit on either side of the bridge. This is rather underwhelming after seeing so many picturesque shots of it.
*In-dash temp sensor says 56 - I'm still wearing shorts and flip-flops since it was about 80 in Monterey that morning. Ugh! It's hotter than that back home in Montreal!
*After crossing the bridge, my GPS craps out and I get lost in the most beautiful little marina town ever, Sausalito. Weather is perfectly clear there for some reason - wall of fog is restricted to the big city.
*Back to SF, my hotel (Cathedral Hill Hotel) is a dump located in a bad part of town. That'll teach me shopping prices instead of locations. Guy working the counter is over retirement age and his suit looks like it followed him throughout his career. He could be from any era, most likely 1930's, like the rest of the building. Signs on the wall use a typeface that also points to the Art Deco period.
*Rooms haven't been redecorated since I was born 30 years ago, that's for sure. There are ghosts in this place.
*To add insult to injury, counter guy tells me that parking is an extra $20 a day... I don't mind paying, but why not tell me beforehand? I then find out that Internet access is an extra $10 a day... that's customary and understandable in Vegas, where they don't want you to stay in your room and play on the Internets, but everywhere else had been free up to now.
*I am NOT a happy camper.
*On Wednesday, Giants-Dodgers game at AT&T park. Stadium is great. Atmosphere is great. Nice civilized rivalry between LA and SF - it's sort of rowdy, but a playful kind of rowdy. I keep watching for fights to erupt in the crowd, to no avail. There would've been half-a-dozen at a Habs-Bruins or Habs-Leafs game.
*I'm sitting next to a couple of very friendly lesbians from Sacramento who are die-hard Dodgers fans. I tell them that smitch wouldn't approve. They shrug.
*After the game, stop in a liquor store on 3rd street. Pick up a bottle of 2003 Fladgate - no price on it, but from memory, this is a sub-$30 affair in Montreal (wine.com later says $20). Clerk looks all over the bottle, can't find a price, so he taps something at random on the cashier - $69.
Me - Uh sorry, but it can't be $69, that's a basic Fladgate.
Him - It can't be $69?
He substracts $69 to reset the cashier, then he types a new price. $69.
Him - It is $69.
Me - (pause) Fine, bye.
WTH was that? Did I get the tourist special cause I had a camera around the neck?
*I really miss the free Vegas booze, the dry and hot weather and the real-life sportsbooks.
After visiting the SF MOMA today and Alcatraz with RogueScholar tomorrow, am going back to Vegas as fast as I can. **** this wet, overpriced mess.
That's not too far from me. That cafe sounds like a good place to go should German chick call tonight.
