Yesterday was the San Francisco Trip II: Electric Bugaloo, and it was pretty awesome overall. We (Shannon, Lauren, Tahleen, Shannon's friend Chris, and me) left at the unholy hour of 7-something AM, but a stop at Starbucks made up for it, as I discovered the greatness that is their morning bun. We made it to San Francisco with plenty of time, since the tours started at 10 AM, so we putzed around Borders, then walked down to Pier 40.

The ship was way cool, and we were the first people aboard. Our first guide was Natalie, who took us literally from stem to stern, since it's not a very long ship (Wiki says 68 feet on deck). Then she was needed elsewhere, so she handed us off to "Sparky" (I think his name is Dennis), who, halfway through his spiel on life on deck (the sailors on the Lady Washington are volunteers - they get room and board in exchange - but have to keep the ship moving 24 hours a day, just like in the 18th century), when he noticed that Tahleen had written the Lost numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) on one of her shoes. This launched a discussion on the finer points of Lost conspiracy and the like. I hate Lost, and so I took the opportunity to take some really cool pictures of crew members up in the rigging.

We left the ship in search for some lunch, and then headed back to the ship to do some souvenir shopping (walking all the way; keep this in mind for later). We found Sparky putting together some fancy knotwork around the handle of a Lady Washington mug, which Tahleen decided to buy, and so we just chatted with him and another sailor named Owen while he worked, and then Owen left to take care of some stuff (he's the steward), and so we met another girl named Patty who came down to work the store, which was down in the hull, right next to the kitchen and the head (aka toilet). We just hung out and chatted about a lot of things, mostly stuff about the ship and living on it, whether anybody had been on the ship when it was in Pirates of the Caribbean (nope). It was the coolest time. Chris decided not to follow us back onto the ship, as we figured we wouldn't be long. We were probably gone 30ish minutes, maybe longer. Oops. After we all collected our souvenirs, we walked back to our car (which was at AT&T Park, not too far from Pier 40, where the ship was moored). Then Shannon and Tahleen wanted to go to Pier 39, so we caught a bus.

At this point, I need to pause to explain something. In the middle of the waterfront stands the Ferry Building, and the many piers extend in both directions along the coast - the odd-numbered piers to the north, and the even-numbered piers to the south. So the two are roughly 40 piers apart. The five of us just chilled at Pier 39 (we didn't go to Alcatraz partly because Lauren was done with boats for the day, and mostly because the tours were sold out for the day), and Shannon stocked up on about $16 worth of salt water taffy, but we decided we wanted to get something more substantial to eat than just candy, so we decided to drive back across the bay to Emeryville and try this public market, which has all sorts of ethnic foods, then check out the Ikea store, which only Tahleen had been to. However, the car was still back at the ballpark, and for some reason nobody wanted to catch a bus, so we started walking. This map here shows you the length of the Walk From Hell, and frankly, I'm surprised it was only 2.6 miles. The reason I hate this walk so much is that yeah, I was getting tired from all the walking we did, but I was relatively fine... until we started walking to the car from Pier 39. It was murder on my feet, so much so that they still hurt (especially my right foot). What made it worse was how Chris got way annoying - he would sing something random at the top of his lungs, like the Mr. Rogers theme song. Everything sort of snowballed from there: the more he talked (or slammed on the brakes, or almost crashed my parents' car into a pole, or refused to listen to our freeway advice - I swear he could have taken the 24 and Shannon and I could have navigated him to 580, but no, he had to listen to every word the GPS said), the more annoyed I got, and I never said anything for fear of completely unloading on him and ruining the trip for everyone.

As a result, Ikea wasn't so interesting (though it was cool that they can make 250 square feet so comfortably livable), and the best part was their restaurant (yes, Ikea has a restaurant!) and the pasta marinara. I don't remember much about the car ride home, because I chose to sleep through most of it so I wouldn't have to deal with anyone. Naps are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy (and I don't think Ben Franklin will mind that I borrowed his quote).

Also, tomorrow I start tutoring at a new site. The entire schedule got overhauled for March, so I'm now driving to Ceres five days a week. Yay.

Location daybed Mood sore Music Billy S - Skye Sweetnam Tags: adventures