SF

Ok, so I've been up since 4:30 this morning, so pardon my perfunctory post here. I shouldn't be boring you with a vacation slide show here. I should be in bed right now dreaming of handmade pop tarts and pretending the hum of my air conditioner is the roar of the Pacific.

But I'm not. Anyway, fair warning, there will be no theme, no order and no meaning. Unless you can find them.
Oh, and no proofreading either.

The short version is this: I've only been back from San Francisco for only a few hours now, but I already want to go back.

Thankfully, I got finally to meet our beloved MrP, who is truly the best tour guide anyone could ever hope for. I mean really.
I even got to see the famed (and fabulous) Chez Peenee and meet his R-man and their lovely Saki. It was all too wonderful. You should be jealous. I felt like I was meeting celebrities for the first time. Everyone is much better looking in real life, especially Saki.

I also got to see one of my oldest friends, Dani, who's been living out there for ten years now. Unfortunately, it was an all too short visit.

Very sadly, I missed getting the chance to meet Joe(-to hell), however.
ahem
Oh, how I wish I had had more time.
But let's get on with some bad photos.
My own camera was destroyed by being caught in the taxi door, oh, 4 hours or so into the trip. just my luck....thankfully, my friend Michael let me borrow his.

This photo does not do this scene justice. It really does not. (which gives me some slender hope that I'm not as horrible as my pictures prove) Peenee drove down to the street below and picked me up off the street. That's chivalry, for you there, bub!

Somewhere up here lives Danielle Steele, he assures me. I was hoping I might be mistaken for one of her team of maids, one who hadn't had the chance to shave her beard that day, but no such luck.

Peenee took me to a beautiful restaurant....where they make homemade Pop Tarts. No lie. I'm telling you this San Francisco is like paradise.

We had artisanal poptarts and jumbo Louisiana "Prawns." God bless Peenee for ordering them as "shrimp." Our waiter and his jumbo ass weren't amused, I'm sure. But whatever.

Tacos with Michael's friend Elizabeth in the Mission. The place was crowded with customers at 11 pm on a Tuesday night. They were so good, but...uh...don't eat tacos at 11 pm on a Tuesday night when you need to be on a plane in 6 hours or so.

Couldn't help but think of Carlos when I saw this. It's the Sound of Music sing-a-long at the Castro Theater

Couldn't help but think of any number of people seeing this.

Or this.

I want a Dionne Warwick pinata one day, just to see if candy comes out of her nostrils.
At lunch on Sunday, Peenee introduced me to "must". I'd never had it, never even heard of it. Now I have. The next day, based on what he'd mentioned a while back , I had some burata, at some very slow restaurant in Sonoma.

From Alcatraz. Doesn't it look like we're in Italy or something? But we're at a prison. Even the prisons are paradise there.

Waited in a long line. Unfortunately, it was not affiliated with the store. (yeah, I know, sucks, huh?)

Couldn't help but think of Frontier Psychiatrist when I saw this

Some bar we were taken to by Michael's friend. Bars don't seem to have a typed up "philosophy" around here. I know that's hard to believe.

The view from the Chinese restaurant. The waitress took an instant dislike to me when I asked for sugar for my iced tea. Sorry, but I'm from the South.

a buckwheat crepe, which were much better than this looks, at a Breton restaurant completely staffed by Mexicans.

Flowers on the street. Why can't we have this too? We just have feces and beads.

We have streetcars back home, but what was really kind of cool were the ones from various cities around town. This one was from DC. I guess it clashed with the decor there, so they sent it to SF. It was my favorite.