Today was our first attempt at trying to master the San Francisco Muni system. Lucky for us it is not so hard to do. We boarded the #30 bus right outside the hotel, and then transferred to the #28. Our trip to Golden Gate Park took us through the Presido and along the bay, but 45 minutes later we arrived at the park.

Our first stop was the deYoung museum. We went up to the top of  the 9 story tower for be beautiful views of San Francisco and the park. The Golden Gate Park is larger than Central Park in New York, is about 3.5 miles in length, and has museums, gardens, a lake, bike and hiking paths, a buffalo paddock, windmills, and appears to be a wonderful gathering place for San Franciscans (and tourists) on a beautiful Sunday. And as a bonus, one of the main roads is closed to traffic on Sundays, so there were lots of dog walkers, rollerbladers, and runners taking advantage of that.

We headed to the California Academy of Sciences next and got it a very long line of people waiting for the museum to open. That’s when the only rain shower of the day let loose but we were all prepared with our umbrellas. It didn’t last long. The museum was great. We took in the planetarium show (a bit of a snoozer according to Jen and Leslie) and then grabbed lunch in the museum cafe. Leslie and I share pork and shrimp rolls and nachos. Both were very tasty. Afterwards, we wandered around looking at the exhibit on climate change and then entered the exhibit on rainforests  ” a living 4-story rainforest, where dripping water sets the beat for a symphony of croaking frogs and chirping birds. Peer into one of Borneo’s bat caves, meet chameleons from Madagascar, and climb into the tree-tops of Costa Rica to find free-flying birds and butterflies. Finally, descend in a glass elevator into the Amazonian flooded forest, where an acrylic tunnel allows you to walk beneath the catfish and arapaima that swim overhead.” It was amazing and we enjoyed looking at all the strange animals on exhibit as well at the aquarium exhibit.

After that we, we went up to the living roof, and then decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful day. We took the shuttle ride down to the far west end to see the Dutch windmill and the blooming tulips. From there, we walked across the busy highway to Ocean Beach where the winds were blowing fierce waves onto the shore but there were lots of people out and about enjoying the day. It was beautiful.

We went in search of a refreshment break at the Beach and Park Chalet. We went upstairs to the Beach Chalet first, and although the views were great, it was too stuffy, so we abandoned our table and headed downstairs to the Park Chalet. It was a much better choice. We had drinks and sweets and enjoyed our break.

We rode the shuttle back to the deYoung museum (getting on the last one of the day – thank heavens!) and started the trip back to our hotel. We got off the 28 bus at the Golden Gate Bridge stop to take photos, and eventually made it back to Columbus Avenue. We enjoyed a bit of a break, but eventually headed out for dinner. Our plan was to go to Tony’s for pizza, but we nixed the idea of a 1.25 hour wait and went looking for another option. We settled on the tiny L’osteria del forno and enjoyed pizza and dessert. We walked the half mile back to the hotel on a beautiful evening.

We were tired but happy from all the wonderful sights and sounds and food of our first full day in San Francisco.

Leslie finishes up some ASB paperwork in Milwaukee

When we pulled in the parking lot we were so excited to see that the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was parked in the lot. So after settling in, we had to go check it out on our way to Walgreens to buy some wine to kick off our trip. Alas, no packaged liquor sales after 9 p.m. in Wisconsin so back to the hotel for luggage rearranging and relaxing.

Cousins reunited and headed out to see...

Leslie, Jen and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! Seems like a good omen that the trip is only going to be about all sorts of fantastic sites!

Posers! Yes we are!

Plans for tomorrow start at 6:00 a.m. – in order to clean up, grab breakfast and be on the shuttle at 7:45. Let the adventure  begin.

While my supper was cooking – a hamburger, salsa, bean and corn chili which turned out very, very tasty – I cleaned out the bottom part of the pantry. I know how to have a good time! (And I now know that I don’t need to buy anymore diced tomatoes for a month or two – for some reason I seem to be stockpiling them!)

Had to throw away a few past dated items (including one box of cereal that was purchased while Leslie was still in high school. Guess we’re not eating much cereal these days). My garbage guy is a little concerned about the extra output this week. Sorry Paul!

One step up from taxes is cleaning the pantry. Don't ask about the expiration date on the cereal.

We headed down to the Quad Cities at 3:30. First stop was to pick-up Eric for an early dinner at Applebees. It was good to see him, and hear how his job is going and learn more about his trip to Florida. Hope it all goes well. Should be both fun and challenging and warm – that will be nice. Then we took him back to his house, and headed down to the Adler Theater for the Joe Bonamossa concert, my surprise Christmas gift to Paul. It was a theater that I had been to before with Leslie for a dance competition. A nice old theater and we had good seats in Row O on the main floor. He is a phenomenal guitarist. Truly amazing. I think he must have been a loner growing up, as you couldn’t learn to play the guitar that well unless you spent most of your young life practicing.

He played for 2 1/2 hours straight and thank goodness it was not ear-splitting loud but just enjoyable loud. I could still hear at the end. Wonderful. Paul did the driving home and I did my best to stay awake but that only worked for about half an hour so good thing he doesn’t get tired driving at night like I do.

It was a great day all around. :>)

Joe Bonamossa at the Adler Theater. AMAZING!

After lunch, I finished Leslie’s taxes in short order. She gets $8 back – you go girl! Then onto ours. Having gotten all the figures organized in the a.m. really helped and I finished it in less than an hour. We get quite a bit back due to school credits and I was happy to see that what I paid for tuition at Columbia was mostly credited back to me. Wish I could say the same for Leslie’s but she maxed out the Hope Credit so it does help. What a nice relief to send this paperwork off to the the IRS. (Oh yeah, a dedicated person would have gone ahead and filed state taxes too, just to be able to cross Taxes off the list. I am not that person).

Is this how I want to spend my Saturday? That would be a big NO!

Tried new recipe for dinner – a marinated pork roast which was tasty with mashed potatoes and green beans and finally cut up Bob (what we call fresh pineapples lest anyone think we’re pulling a Sweeney Todd at our house). Love, love, love fresh pineapple.

Later we watched the movie “The Hangover“. It was funny, actually better than I thought it would be. We both laughed a lot and it was a good “rent it” movie.

I'm ashamed to say this is my messy desk. And even though it's not working real well for me; will I do something about it.

It was a cold and rainy and very dreary day. I picked up take out at Imperial Palace after work and it was just OK. I hadn’t gone there for quite awhile and I remember it being better than it was tonight. Oh well, if not good, at least we got a lot of just so-so food.

Worked on my paper to finalize and hit submit – it’s probably my least favorite topic of the whole semester and I’ve got the A so I’m a little apathetic about the effort. I considered (just for a second or two) not doing it at all but couldn’t be that lazy or disrespectful of the class.

The appointments continue as I had an eye check-up after work. I’ve been taking my glasses off to use the computer at work because I couldn’t do the awkward head tilt to get the glasses at the correct position for eight hours a day without serious neck pain at the end of the day. I picked out some new frames for all the time use, and ordered single vision lenses to put in my old frames for computer use.

What I want is prescription sunglasses which I may treat myself too sometime soon. I’ve wanted them for about 3 years now. So I will just economize for awhile (no more shopping weekends) and save up some money and order them.

The good news was that I won a massage from Chiroworks for my excellent estimating skills. I’ll be using that sometime soon!

I'm a winner! And the heavy breathing massage thearapist is gone!