Hark! Cocktails

This little diddy because the theme quote from San Francisco '05:



While I got back over 48 hours ago, I have not had the verbal capacity to relate our goingons until now. When I should really be doing work. I love being a PostDoc.

Our trip was SanFrantastic. San Francisco is a beautiful city... definitely one of the top three in the entire United States of America. It also didn't hurt that my travel compadres were a hell of a lot of fun as well. We managed to see pretty much all that we wanted (well, LMD (in spirit not body) missed our jaunt into Northern California, but more on that later), while not feeling rushed in the slightest. All in all, signs of a great trip for Anderson.

We landed late Thursday night after a 5 hour flight where the feature film was "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants". It was pants alright. I promptly fell asleep about 12 minutes into the movie. Michelle, on the other hand, watched the whole damned thing, and even admitted to shedding a tear or twelve at the end. Somebody please remind me never to watch Sophie's Choice with her.

Our hotel (selected by Cleavage herself) was situated in the heart of downtown San Fran, right by Union square, and yet was still affordable. Fantastic. If anyone is heading there in the next little while, the Hotel Beresford is the place to stay. AND... it has a pub attached to it. Next to that is a bar called Whose Your Daddy. Hee hee.

Our first day saw us walking along the waterfront towards the Golden Gate bridge:



which turned out to be an inordinately long haul along a very, very windy stretch of land. The walk was well worth it, though, as approaching the bridge a little bit at a time built up the impressiveness of the structure:



I have to admit that I was a little afraid that I would be disappointed in the bridge, as one always is when first encountering landmarks that are world-famous (Stonehenge... I'm thinking of you). However, the engineer's daughter did show up in the end, and impressed she was. Walking along it and looking back over the city really is something one must do in their lifetime.

That evening, we headed back to our hotel to begin celebrations for LMD's birthday. Bottles of wine, $12 frilly frew-frew drinks (which, I have to admit, were pretty damned good), gin and tonics, beer and more wine led us to a night of debauchery indeed. This was all soaked up by 8 pieces of sushi:



Word to the wise: sushi DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT do a substantial job in soaking up inordinate amounts of alcohol. Although this was the best damned sushi I've ever had. Afterwards, we headed 'round the corner to a wine bar to enjoy wine from an authetic wine cellar (which was really cool), and I got to taste my first $16 glass of wine, purchased for us by a nice gentleman at the bar for allowing him to hang his coat on the back of LMDs chair (Mental Note: the next time I get to try expensive wine, make sure to do it BEFORE all taste receptors have been numbed). Yes, a fun night was had all around.

I bounced out of bed the next morning at 7am, excited and raring to go on our daytrip to Napa Valley. Michelle was a little bit more sluggish, and LMD was still drunk. But we rented our car anyway, and off towards Highway #1 we headed, with me behind the wheel. Around the time we were crossing over the Golden Gate bridge, LMD was starting to sober up, and realizing that she wasn't doing that well after all. By the time we hit Highway #1, she was white, shaking under her coat, and repeating over and over again "I"m so fucking hungover. I'm so fucking hungover". Hee hee. Probably didn't help that we drove about 425 354 hairpin turns while taking 45-50 degree hills. Sufficed to say, LMD left a little bit of herself along the side of the highway that day. Apparently, it was pink.

Regardless of LMDs condition, however, that was definitely the coolest driving experience I've ever had. I can't wait to go back and do the whole highway a la Sideways.

We also went out for dinner that night after touring a couple of wineries, but I ended up sick as a dog (cold... NOT hungover), so I had to book it back early for a restful sleep.

The next day saw a decidedly more alert LMD and myself at the Exploratorium, hands down the coolest science museum I've ever been at. Why? Because about half of the place was devoted to vision and vision science. Michelle (after serious amounts of mocking) decided that she was not as nerdy as the two doctors, and instead went for a run along the waterfront. Both LMD and I could have easily spent another 3-4 hours at the museum, but we had a trip to Alcatraz booked for later in the afternoon. As we hopped in the cab to head back to the hotel, the cabbie says "No offense... but isn't that place meant for kids?". Some people just don't get it.

Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf was pretty cool too. LMD got in touch with her roots, the Birdman of Alcatraz (third from left):



Yes, it turns out they are related. And ironic, considering that we also discovered on this trip that LMD has an illogical fear of birds. Thus, Birdgirl she will be christened.

Back to the hotel for another wine night, which (after a more substantial dinner this time) ended up in a pyjama party with Michelle jumping on the bed:



Ahhh yes... a good girlie end to a good girlie weekend.

I've been sitting here trying to figure out what we did on our last day. I can't remember AT ALL. Is that a bad sign? Did neurons die? Whoops. I do remember flying home and landing at the ungodly hour of 6am. Sufficed to say, I wasn't that productive in the lab that day. Nor any day since really.

Thus ends our trip to San Francisco. I was hoping that Cleavers would blog first so all that was required of me was some hole-filling-in, but apparently she won't have her pictures up until the weekend. Damnit. She has better (and more) pictures than I do. So be sure to tune in to Cleavers for even more of an update from San Fran '05.