Did I mention I really hate to fly? It's not the idea of it, it's the motion, especially the motion during takeoff. I hate the sensation of being thrown foward.
I mostly held it together, but I did gibber a little during takeoff. I hummed Kelis' "Milkshake" over and over again, because it has just the right beat that it was nice and distracting. That's what happens when you don't raise your kids in a faith. Instead of Hail Marys, we hum "Milkshake".
The Spousal Unit had the window seat. The less I look out of a plane's window, the better. To the right of me was The Bride. Her engagement ring was so new it was still loose on her ring finger. She had a bulging backpack full of wedding magazines, wedding books and a series of worksheets all with titles like, "Your Reception's Menu" all of which she filled out over the next six hours.
She looked a bit older for a first-time bride, let's say late thirties/early forties+. My guess is that she had been starting to wonder if her wedding dreams were ever going to come true. I will say that her self-absorption made her the almost perfect seatmate for a long flight. The only downfall was getting her out of her seat and away from her "Your Seating Plan" worksheet long enough so I could use the bathroom.
I had to keep shutting my eyes during the drive to our hotel, I'm sure he knew what he was doing, but the driver drove like a bat out of hell. But, I opened them long enough to realize that I already recognized bits and pieces of California from the television and how weird that was. Every mountain looks like one you've already seen on M.A.S.H.. every other house looks like something you've seen in the background of the Brady Bunch.
The hotel was a brilliant Expedia find by the Spousal Unit, we stayed at the Mosser Hotel. You should stay there too. One word of warning, the rooms are small. I mean, VERY SMALL. We had enough room for our bed and a sink and not much else. Also, we had a bathroom, but a lot of the rooms are shared baths. But, it's very attractive inside (Victorian building with a lot of contemporary decor to keep it from being too precious) and it's right in the center of the city. Chinatown is a short walk, Fishermen's Wharf is a long walk and we're a quick ride away from the Castro.
We dropped our bags in a daze, and then went out to explore. Because it was close by, we wandered into Chinatown. I have never been in a real Chinatown before, just the baby ones in places like D.C. The San Francisco Chinatown just goes on and on and on. We kept encountering odder and odder stores, with stacks of unidentifiable fruit and herbs and mushrooms and dried seahorses in heaps. There was something pleasing about being foreigners within our own country and also being so incidental to the activities around us. Our presence didn't make a whit of difference, the storekeepers had dried seahorses to sell! Fish to unload from the truck! Herbs to prepare! We finally stumbled back to the more touristy parts and had a very nice supper and then we crashed at the Mosser, ceiling fan whirling at 9pm (West Coast) which of course was 12am our time.
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