Travelin Fool: Monday Madness

My Monday started out at 5:50 AM! Can you believe I woke up at 5:50 am!?!?! I still can't believe it! I wanted to have a good early start to my day as the forecast for the next two days was partly cloudy on Monday and rainy on Tuesday. I rode into the city with Danielle, got off at the same BART station she did so I could go see the building she worked at. She showed me where she worked, and wouldn't let me go much farther because we had already gone around one corner and she didn't want me getting lost and to not be able to find my way back to BART. I assured her that I'd be able to find my way back just fine, BUT she is my sister and knows me too well. So I said good by, did a turnabout and captured a few shots on my walk back to BART. I still had to get back on and go to the Embarcadero station. I was very pleased with some of the pictures I got with the early morning sun still coming up. I guess that's "maybe" one advantage to being up so early. So back to BART I went, got off at the Embarcadero station and set out. I actually knew where I was going for the first leg of my trip. My plan for the day was to go to the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB), Golden Gate Park, then come back to Fishermans Wharf for lunch, do my Bay Cruise and go back up to Ghiraradelli Square. All those reasons are why I woke up so early, I had a lot to accomplish by 5pm. I walked down Embarcadero to Pier 1, the Bay Bridge was covered over with clouds and the sun was just barely peaking around them. It was beautiful. I tried to capture it with my pictures but didn't do it justice. There were people sitting on the back of the pier reading, some were working building things, others arriving from a boat. It was kind of surreal to see, like out of a movie. So different than what I'm used to.

I walked from Pier 1 to the Muni station just down the street, paid my $2 and rode that down through the Wharf and just about to Ghiraradelli Square. I asked the guy driving where to go from there to get to the Muni I would need to get to the GGB because last time I ended up walking all the way to where the interstate started and that was A LONG way. So after about 3 or 4 more Muni bus changes I was at the GGB. I could see the entire bridge this time! It was so great! Last time I was so frusterated after I had practically walked all that way to see it and could only see the bottom 1/3 of it. It was still partly cloudy, I would've loved for it to be "all sunny" because those are my favorite photographs to take, not a huge fan of cloudy day photographs. I started to walk along the bridge again, I took one look down over the bridge, got a photo looking down and immediately turned around. I didn't even get onto where the bridge really starts. That day just did not feel like the day to conquor my fear of heights.

I went back to where the Muni had dropped me off and started waiting for the next Muni to come so I could make my way to the Golden Gate Park (GGP). Last time I remembered waiting for a while, so I sat and just did the old person thing and people watched. A muni came by and I asked if it would get me to the GGP and they said no, you need the Daly City Muni. (There were 2 Muni's coming through there). So I thanked the gentleman, went back to my bench to wait and awaited the next Muni. The next Muni to come through wasn't the Daly City one either. So I continuted to wait. Before I got to the bench there was a middle-aged Asian woman sitting there. I don't know where her final destination was but she needed the same Muni that I did. Well after 2 Muni's went by she got a little peeved. So she gave that second driver a piece of her mind. They told her to call and complain and that their bus was on time, sorry lady! I just sat there and chuckled. Calling and complaining wasn't going to get another bus there any faster so I didn't crap my pants about it. It was funnier to watch her crap her pants about it. So she gets on the phone and calls them and gives them another piece of her mind. Her head was kind of shaking or tremoring a little. I didn't know if it was because she was irritation and mad or if she had Parkinsons or something. I think it's because she was irritatied. So after a little while a 3rd Muni comes by. And this one (in all it's glory) says "Daly City"!! So that little woman goes and gets on that bus and I (thankfully) asked the lady driver if this bus would get me to the GGP. And she says "Oh no, this one won't honey. I just changed my sign. This is the nineteenth street one." So I thanked her and told her that the little Asian lady who was just talking to her (and telling her that she had to wait so long and was not happy) needed to get off this bus also. So she told her and off comes the cranky lady. So I (once again) took my place on the bench. By this time I'd been sitting on the bench so long that four black birds with yellow eyes were just chilling around me. Two of them were about one foot away from me.

FINALLY the fourth Muni was ours. It was a beautiful moment. That little lady sure did have a lot to tell the driver of that bus though. So we get on the bus, and she sits down in the middle of the bus and I sat down at the front, and she starts telling the passengers how she had to wait almost an hour. Then this fat red headed guy missing all his top teeth starts (loudly) complaining about how half the drivers never show up for work, and how everything going on is a bunch of crap and how she needs to go to the meeting that is being held on Tuesday night to voice her opinion. Basically they had a big gripe fest. Then this little old lady goes "can't we all just have peace?" She was way too adorable! Well chubster would have none of the peace talk. He just kept on yapping and so did irritated tremor lady. But that little old lady threw out her "peace" line a couple more times. If that wasn't annoying enough to listen to for about 15 minutes later on this other guy gets on and starts complaining about the people who were voted and elected to certain positions and just fuels that conversation. I was SO glad to get off that bus. I was with little old peace lady.

I got off and went to the GGP. I planned to go to the King Tut Museum that is there since I didn't go in it when I was there in August. I had walked around the park and gone into the Japanese Tea Garden in August as well so I didn't do that this time. Figure that not as much would be blossoming. I'm right at the doors to go into the museum and this worker asks me if I'm with a school group (really? Do I look like I'm 8?) because there were several school groups there. I told him no and he said the museum was closed for the day. Okay, how are you going to close an entire museum for a day for school trips? That's just messed up. What about the gazillions of tourists that come through all year around and are there on a specific day to go into the museum. It took me a long time to get there and I wasn't just able to "swing by" again the next day. So that was a bit disappointing, but I wiped my tears and continued on (just kidding, I didn't cry).

I found my way through a couple more Muni's (always asking which one to get off and on at) and got to the Daly City BART to start over again at the Embarcadero BART. As I was riding the Muni to the Daly City BART this little old Asian lady sat next to me and started talking about where she was going and how she couldn't drive anymore with all the people that were in California now. And how there's just no way she could live in Southern California, it's just way too populated. She was really kind. Then she was talking to me about how when she started riding the Muni it was 5 cents, and then it went up to 25 cents, then 50, then to $1, and now $2. And she said "You can't even buy Starbucks with $2." I was cracking up! She said that Starbucks is too strong for her anyways though.

Finally I was at the Muni station I had started at that morning. When I got on the Muni the lady on there told me I almost got "bum-ditched." Apparently there's someone that sits there all day and they just saw one person there and assumed it was them. I'm hoping that I don't look like the bum that sits there all day. That would be tragic news for me! I got off at Fisherman's Wharf and went and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, I was hungry! After that I went to find where my Bay Cruise was going to be. All I knew was that it was at Pier 43.5. So I walked for a while and finally found it (after holding my breath walking through the smells of all the fresh crab and lobster they were selling on the street).

A little side note here. I would like to say that at certain points of my life I have envied men. And I had an envying moment on this day. I wanted to use the bathroom before I went on the cruise so I went into the Boudin bread store looking for one and there was a sign saying it was outside. So I follow the signs to a public bathroom gazeebo looking thing. I walked into that bathroom and was appauled! It was disgusting!! I used four of those toilet-tissue/sanitary things on the toilet seat and then I looked at the toilet paper dispenser and was just downright shocked. It was even nastier than the toilet seat! Thank goodness I had packed some kleenex in my purse! Gross, that's all I can say....gross.

The cruise was good, I had to get a headset and a little box to carry around and it told me all about the things that we were seeing as we went along. I did fine with the motion on the boat until we slowed down as we were coming up to the GGB. And ugh....I did not feel so good. It was really funny though to listed to everyone scream and laugh as the boat went up and down, up and down, at the very front due to the waves. I was extremely relieved when we picked up speed again though. It was really cool to see the bridge from the underneath and to get some pictures that I would never get otherwise. It also took us around Alcatraz. That is one tour that I have yet to do. I think that is on the list for my summer trip out there. They explained that 14 people tried to escape Alcatraz, only 3 actually did. They were brothers and they used spoons to pry open the bars and they escaped off the island but no one knows if they made it to land or if they drowned. They were never seen or heard of again. Families of guards actually lived on Alcatraz and the children would go into the city every day by boat. There was one guard assigned to every three prisioners. It was really cool to see. I can't wait to go on the island soon!

After the crusie I walked up to Ghirardelli Square, it was pretty overcast by this point. I went into the Ghirardelli store and got a sundae, I had a request from a friend to get one so I just had to right? So I got Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream with hot fudge. It was perfection. Loved it! After that I made my way up to Kara's cupcakes to get their Chocolate Velvet cupcakes to go for us to have at the house for dessert later. These cupcakes are seriously the best cupcakes EVER. The frosting is so amazing, it feels like silk on your tongue. I don't know how they get it so smoothe. It's remarkable. So I step out of Kara's and it starts sprinkling. I also looked in my wallet to see that I only had a $1 and I needed to have $2 for the Muni and I was NOT going to walk all the way back like I did last time. So I asked a couple people in different shops for change and many didn't have ones or they needed to keep them. Then this very kind man in Cold Stone had ones in his wallet, I was so grateful! I was still walking in the rain, didn't have an umbrella because the rain was supposed to be on Tuesday. So I felt like a wet dog. Gross.

As I was walking to find the Muni there was this "homeless" guy sitting on the street and he was a white guy dressed like he was Jamaican and had dreads. His sign said "all for weed." And as I was walking by looking at him he says, "It's all for weed man, it's all for weed." I just laughed and kept walking. I appreciated his honesty. And he looked pretty well groomed so I dont' think he was homeless, probably just needed money for pot.

I found my way to the Muni and we were all crammed in there like sardines. But darn it, I protected those cupcakes for my sister and they got home unharmed and standing upright. I took BART back to the station Danielle would be getting on at and met her there and we rode back together. She failed to tell me that between the humid and the rain my hair (that had been straightened and tamed at the beginning of the day) was now frizzy and had grown about three times it's original volume. We decided on our way home that we would go get a manicure and pedicure, that sounded wonderful after walking all day! So we went by Starbucks on our way to the nail salon (we had to get cash first, they don't take credit card....that's so weird to me) and got our coffees to enjoy while we pampered ourselves. It was great. And as usual I got nice and relaxed and dozed off a little while my legs were getting massaged. I woke up with the warm towel hit my legs and Danielle and the workers laughed at me. Oh well, I'm used to it.