For the first time since we moved here three weeks ago, we were able to get away and have an afternoon and evening in the city. Jordan, Sam, and I left HMB around 3:00 in the afternoon for a fun filled night.
Here’s what I saw, smelled, tasted, and felt:
First stop: Golden Gate Park
We were lucky and saw…..a running buffalo!
Yes, there are buffalo in the park in a small-gated area…and we were fortunate enough to see one gallop from one side of the field to the other….Before you scoff, answer the questions: have you ever seen a buffalo run?
Second memorable sight: Sam not only falling down a slippery grass incline, but doing a back flip!
After the park we drove into the city and parked near Chinatown.
We entered through the infamous gate and ambled along the streets, under red lanterns, past shops selling t-shirts for two bucks and necklaces and earrings, and even fortune cookie change purses. We passed noodle shops and sushi shops and tea tasting houses. We walked from one end to the next, and ended up on Columbus street, where we ate dinner at E Tutto Qua …across the street from “fancy” topless show clubs with thugs outside the door charging twenty bucks entrance, yet where lap danced where on sale for only five bucks! What a bargain- I can only thank our pitiful economy.
Our most delicious dinner was served to us by real Italians (as opposed to story book Italians), who shouted across the dining room at each other in EYE-talian! The Maitre’ D had a most impressive beer belly and tats lining his arms with not one, not two, but multiple piercing. Can you say mafia?
Jordan and I both ate a potato crusted oven roasted succulent Chilean Sea Bass. Sam savored her saffron gnocchi with clams. After tiramisu and espresso, we went across the street. Not to the titty bar – but to the Jack Kerouac museum. They charge $5 for tickets, but I was hoping to sweet talk them into letting us in for free, as it was late, and we were the only customers. But low-and-behold, lady luck was by our side that night. Not only did we get free entrance, but we were invited to the poetry release party. It didn’t start for an hour, so we explored the streets. First we worked off dessert by climbing a mini city- mountain and enjoyed a glorious nighttime view of the city. We walked up and down streets and even stopped in a candy shop where Sam bought too many different kinds of taffy to name. Then on to the poetry reading…
In a dark room in the Beat museum we listened to modern day beats twist and tangle their words into perfect rhythms and imperfect rhymes to a spattering of perfectly timed “snaps”. It was my first time at a poetry reading and I felt...encouraged, inspired, creative, saddened, deceived, enraged, engaged, and more, more, more. I guess that's the point though of poetry - to transform mindless words into meaningful words that cause the reader to feel....
It was at the poetry reading that I watched a grown woman lick every last trace of dip off her paper plate.
The night was too young to end, and we were hoping to listen to some live music or karaoke, but, alas, yours truly was truly tuckered out.
A sweet drive home along highway one with the ocean always accompanying us on the left…
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