I don't have any idea how I'm going to condense the whole trip into a blog entry - I have, no kidding, 300 photos that tell the story better than words could, but I'm not going to put them all here. So, highlights (and lowlights) along with photos where Blogger will let me!
Thurs afternoon, VJ gathered her women and took us all to the
Henna Lounge to have Mehndi done on our hands (and her hands, arms, feet, and legs.) Darcy was amazing, such a brilliant artist. We were all there for about 5 hours drinking wine and having a blast. My mehndi is still on - probably will stay on for close to another week (longer if I really take care of it.)
When we made it back to the loft, we all climbed up onto the roof - it's amazing up there. Living in The Mission, Velma and Mark have such an great view from up on the rooftop.
Friday started with a morning walk with Velma and a stroll through the Mission where she surprised me by sneaking up on the Women's Building. I am still blown away by the gorgeous murals on the walls.
Friday was also a day of travel to the beach and through the mountains while listening to some stellar tunes (thanks, VJ, the cd's made the trip.)
We stopped in a great little town called Half Moon Bay and had lunch at the
Main Street Grill. The owner of the place is this amazing man who just randomly starts singing, loudly, along with the music in the jukebox. He talks to everyone, sings great songs, and when the music stops, he opens out the jukebox, takes out his own dollar, and then puts the same dollar back in and picks more music! I fell in love with this guy, so Velma took a picture of us.
Down the street was
Fengari, a precious little yarn shop that sells Ozark Handspun. While I was there, Ann, the owner of Fengari and wife of the owner of the Main Street Grill, noticed my bag and realized that I'm the owner of
Kohleidoscope. She was so complimentary of my work, saying that they have printed out nearly every picture to use as inspiration. She even gave me quite a nice discount on some yarns that I bought in her shop.
I'm telling you, I love Half Moon Bay.
And then we went to the coast. As we arrived, I got a text message from my friend, Jason reading, "If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair. Of course, the flower could never possibly be as beautiful as you!" Man, I love that guy. So Velma found a flower for me and we hit the beach.
I'm telling you, that water was COLD, but of course I had to get my feet wet and write a few sand messages.
The 2 hour drive back to the city was filled with gorgeous scenery, a fantastic little trading post, and nice 40 oz of Pacifico (Thanks, Mark C.)
That night was the rehearsal dinner, although there was no rehearsal! We all walked through Chinatown into North Beach and had dinner at
Tommaso's, a family owned business that doesn't take reservations and is packed every single day of the week (with good reason - the food is outstanding!!!) Much laughter took place there and, to no one's surprise, we were that rowdy table that takes forever! What can you expect -they sell their wine by the liter pitcher.
The rather interesting thing about Tommaso's, however, is that it's directly across the street from Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, Home of the Hustler Honey's where, apparently, you can get a lovely lusty lady for a quarter.
Choosing not to spend our quarter on what we already had, the girls all walked back to the hotel and decided that what drunk ladies need when they are out of wine is a cable car ride. Makes perfect sense. And, since one of us was getting married the next day, we got our return ride for free!
Saturday was the most amazing day - my VJ got married to her perfect man, someone whom I lovingly call my friend, my new brother. A day like this needs a great start, so J&J and I hit a lovely French cafe for breakfast. I had such fun just sitting there bullshitting with those girls and eating a great meal. I cannot help but smile ear to ear right now just thinking of it.
Following stuffing ourselves, we went back to the hotel to get the bride ready for her big day.
I've seen countless brides, been one myself a time or two, and I can honestly say I've never seen a bride more beautiful than Velma.
Chinatown had a parade which ran right in front of the hotel! Pretty cool, except it prevented our rides from getting to us, so we all had to grab bags and run up a very steep hill to make it to the cars, which then totally illegally backed up another huge hill to get out of the neighborhood. FUN! This is CA J doing some crafty driving.
The Hitchin' Party was so much fun. Lots of kind, like minded folks eating yummy organic foods and hanging out in the redwood forest - how could that possibly be wrong? Everything was perfect, perfect, perfect. There's just not too many words to describe it other than if you managed to somehow blend Velma and Mark up into some sort of mystic sauce and then poured that sauce onto everyone and everything in the area, well, you'd get pretty close.
I hit Chinatown on my own that night for a little shopping. Nothing spectacular to report other than I got the cutest red satin shoes and some lovely earrings and had a bizarre conversation with the folks at the 7-11, but hell, what can I say?
Sunday, J&J and I went down to Market Street to have breakfast and cure the hangovers. Found a great little place called The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. We had a great view of some guy's ass,
heard a few crazies screaming on the sidewalk, and I walked in on a 200 pound man in the bathroom pulling up his pants (folks, you have to LOCK the door!) More shopping in Chinatown. Then we took BART to the Mission. Much fun - my first ever public transit experience. Must be documented, of course, so here are the pictures -
Once we got to The Mission, we needed more food, so we ate some serious burritos. Honestly? The BEST burritos I've ever had. Ever. Period. The end.
More shopping : a store for
Open Enterprises,
ImagiKnit where I nearly had to be dragged out by my toes,
and
826 Valencia where I loaded up on pirate supplies for myself and the kids.
We then hit Bombay Ice cream for some funky flavored ice cream. YUM!!!!!!!
That night, we were all too pooped to pop, so we skipped the Decompression and just hung out at the loft instead.
After everyone left, Mark and Velma took me to Twin Peaks. We tried to do a Streets of San Fancisco thing, but the stoopid people in front of us were obeying traffic laws, dammit. Regardless, I cannot tell you how much fun it was hanging out up there, just the three of us. MUST be done again.
And then they drove me through The Haight so I could see Haight Ashbury.
Monday morning was my last for this trip. Velma and I got up and walked to Katz Bagels to get some eats.
We took it back to the loft and ate ours on the roof. It was a lovely way to end my trip.
I feel so alive after doing this trip. I had sooooooooo much fun.
xoxoxo
