San Francisco Dreaming

Fun Times in the city over the weekend. Unfortunately, all didn't go off without a hitch as Steve's wife, Brenda, took a nasty fall out of a cable car on California Street Saturday afternoon and had to be transported to the hospital. Darla and I missed it as we went back to the hotel to rest up for dinner and the Alcatraz tour that night. They had been standing on the cable car and some seats came available and they all scrambled to get over to them and Brenda missed a step and fell backwards off of the trolley and caught herself with her right arm. She ended up dislocating her shouler. I guess it was quite a scene with the police and paramedics blocking off the street. Brenda kept trying to get up and Steve made her lay down and wait for the paramedics. He told her that as long as the police didn't start drawing a chalk outline around her when they got there, everything would be fine. That got her smiling, but she was pretty embarassed. That episode sort of took the glow off a pretty great weekend.

The weather was great, in the low seventies all weekend and the high 50's overnight. We did get some high, thin fog that swept over the city and the ballpark during the Giants game and some that blanketed Alcatraz on our night tour of The Rock. Our hotel, The Harbor Court, was a block off of the Embarcadero and across the street from the Ferry Building and another block down from the Embarcadero Shopping mall.

I played in our Thursday night twilight league golf league and then met Neil and Lilly back at our house for the drive into the Bay Area. Steve was horrible on Thursday night and shot a 55. I continued my recent spate of good play and shot a one over 37, but we got spanked by our opponents 12.5  to 7.5 and the 7.5 were all my points, believe me. Darla had a Silpada gig Thursday night and got home about 8:45 and we were off like a dirty shirt. We stayed in Richmond at an Extended Stay Inn which was close to the Hilltop Mall and clean and comfortable. We tried to add Thursday night to our itinerary at the Harbor Court, but they wanted $329 for an extra night. We only paid $115 a night through hotelscheap.com for Friday and Saturday night. We couldn't figure it out until we got there and experienced the first class ambience of the hotel. The rooms were relatively small, but had a soft top King size bed in the room and a nice sitting area and bathroom. The front lobby had a nice fireplace, a library and chairs and tables, couches, etc. for a nice gathering area and it had a great view of the bay and the Bay Bridge. The key to the hotel is it's location about a mile from AT&T Park and about three miles to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.

We arrived Friday morning and Neil and I dropped off Lilly and Darla at the hotel with the luggage and picked up Rick and Steve and their golf clubs and we were off to the Presidio golf course for breakfast. The Presidio is an old Army base and the golf course was an officer's club. We had a grand breakfast in the wood paneled dining room and then went and hit balls and putted before our tee time. Steve saved his A game for the Presidio, shooting a 39 on the front to my 40. He struggled to a 47 on the back and I shot 43 for 83. Neil and Rick both shot in the 90's and we all had a grand time in great weather and with good friends. You can see the picture of Neil pointing to his ball about a foot and a half from the hole on the 4th hole. I had put my ball three feet from the hole and he trumped me.

Friday night we cabbed over to Mo Mo's across the street from AT&T Park and had a great dinner and drinks before heading over to the ballpark. The fog was coming in and I bought Darla and I a sherpa blanket in Giants colors and logo for $55. It was worth it as the fog was wet and cold. The Giants came into the game on a four game shutout win streak and promptly got spanked 5-1. Their lone run coming in the 9th inning well after we had packed up and headed home. We tried to get a cab back to the hotel, but they were all full, so we hoofed it, getting home in about twenty minutes

We did go out to breakfast on Saturday morning at a restaurant in the Ferry Building and then walked the shops, stopping to watch a young 13 year old trumpeter and dancer you can see in the pictures. He is a street performer and had just been chronicled in the SF paper that week. We wandered over to the Farmer's Market at Embarcadero Center and Darla and I begged off to head back to the room. I have finally put my bowel issues "behind me" so to speak, but was still feeling the effects of all of the enemas, suppositories, laxatives and other God awful remedies I had used since last week. I was a bit sore from the various treatments and don't want to get more graphic than that. It turns out the issue was caused by the mediction I had used for my ear infection.

 Darla and I relaxed in the room and at one point we heard a scratching at the door, I then heard what sounded like a key tapping at the front door and jumped up in time to intercept a maid pushing her way into the room. I was not dressed (you do the math) and she got the Full Monty on me before I slammed the door in her face. She was very apologetic and I told her we were good to go. I joked later with Neil and Lilly that I saw her later downstairs and she called me "Tripod". Neil and Lilly also had the maid enter their room when they had the Do Not Disturb sign up and brought them fresh towels when they were out. They specifically didn't want the maid in the room and Neil went down and talked to the Manager. He also told them about our experience and the hotel sent each of us up some truffles ands a bottle of Merlot with a card apologizing for our inconvenience. I told Lilly our card had a PS on it that read, "Congratulations to Mrs. Lyon. Well Done!" and was signed by the maid.

I finally got a bread bowl and clam chowder from the Boudin cafe in Pier 39 on Saturday night and then we were off to Alcatraz. Brenda was a real trooper as she came along with her arm in a sling and feeling no pain on Vicodin and Percoset. I'm not sure that she remembers much of the tour, but she did get us preboarded on the boat and she was able to take a tram the thirteen stories up to the main prison buildings on Alcatraz rather than walk like the rest of us.  I had been on the tour before years ago and they have really improved it with an audio tour of the cellblock, hospital, dining room, library, solitary confinement and the warden's house and officers quarters. They played alot of the history including the escape that was chronicled by Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. They showed the cells where the fake mannequins were put in the beds and the vents pulled out and widened for the escape into the vents and pipes in the opening behind the wall. They also put in a plexiglas over the wall showing where the escape took place. Much of that was re-done for the movie back in the seventies and left for posterity. They also chronicled the American Indian takeover of Alcatraz in 1969 and the history from that period. Unfortunately some of the buildings were destroyed during the uprising.

We were up early this morning, said our goodbyes to everyone and drove to Fairfield for breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. We got home about noon and rested on the pool and I napped during the golf tournament won by Tiger Woods today.

As I mentioned in the last blog, my handicap did drop on July 1st to 9.3 and it is as low as I can remember it being. I now get 10 strokes at Diamond Oaks and have to shoot 82 to hit my handicap.

Well, that is it for this week. We will have the gang over for swimming and a barbecue of either tri-tip or kabobs on Wednesday July 4th. Neil is bringing some jumbo prawns for the barbecue as well and we will do a potluck with about five couples. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Ciao.