Monday, January 15, 2018
Rode Muni to Van Ness Station. Walked to SF Ballet. Met Bertha and Raina and all the Honmas except for the two boys. Raina was admitted to her audition for a summer program. The rest of us breakfasted at The Grove Hayes Valley and chatted for a few hours. I ate a breakfast sandwich with a side of hash browns. I showed Chomp by Christopher Niemann to the kids, and they enjoyed playing with it a while. Afterwards we remet Raina and said goodbyes to Bertha and Raina. I joined the Honmas for urban adventures. We parked at Van Ness Avenue Parking near Beach Street then walked to Hyde Street Pier where we visited three ships—C.A. Thayer, Eureka, Hercules—while they were free today on MLK Jr. Day. My favorite was the Eureka, a passenger ferry. We walked towards Pier 39, observing streetside seafood restaurants. We stopped at Pier 45's Musée Mechanique, then got a bite to eat at Alioto's to go counter: bread bowl, fries, calamari. Occasionally other diners would accidentally drop a cardboard tray of food and we would observe the birds attacking the food until it was gone in seconds. A street busker played Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" and other favorites on steel drums. We walked to Ghirardelli Square. The ice cream shop with the entrance off Larkin Street was a bit full, so we went to the other shop deeper in the square and it was a little less full. The free chocolate sample today was Valentine's Strawberry Bark. Bonus was the great view of Alcatraz from our table. They ordered and shared a single mint chocolate shake. Afterwards we returned to the car and drove to Cafe Bakery and Restaurant at 1365 Noriega Street where Lani bought dim sum to go. They dropped me off at home, leaving me with a few gifts: garlic bread from 85 Degrees Bakery, ginger snaps made by Kiana, and a box of dark chocolate macadamia nut clusters and a Sunrise kona coffee blend from Hawaii. Dinner at home with Patrick: tandoori chicken over green onion rice with vadouvan carrots, san pell, red wine. Finished watching Kong: Skull Island (2017) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Watched Superstore s3:e8 on Hulu Base Plan with Patrick. According to the Apple Health app on my iPhone 6 Plus, I walked 10,020 steps today.