No more sleeps!

 We have spent the past few days in San Francisco and Sacramento (with our daughter, Kathy, and son-in-law, Ken) just being tourists.

San Francisco was wonderful! The weather was fantastic and all the places we remembered were just as delightful as we remembered: the BV (Buena Vista to those new to San Francisco) for Irish coffee; the Top of the Mark (the Mark Hopkins Hotel) for a martini and the view; the cable cars; the trolleys. The trolleys were especially fun as they really weren’t there—or we don’t remember them—when we lived in the area. Each trolley car is different and began its trolley life in a different city. We rode on one from Philadelphia; one from somewhere in Italy (the signs were all in Italian); one from Denver, I think; and another from yet another city. Fun! Lunch was outside on Maiden Lane at Bistro69; really nice!

The Top of the Mark has a weird idea of what constitutes a martini! Jack and Kahlua is a martini (!). So is “3Gs”: vodka, lemon juice, orange juice, ginger beer, ginger ale, and fresh ginger. How about the “Sunset Martini”: Prairie organic (!) vodka, crème de cassis, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and a squeeze of lemon juice. What part of “martini” do they not understand? Randy and I are purists, James Bond notwithstanding: Bombay gin, VERY dry—just whisper “vermouth” over the glass—one olive, stirred not shaken as shaking bruises the gin. Or so my father taught me!

We watched the Kentucky Derby from the bar in the Hyatt Regency. We used to bring visitors to the Hyatt just to see the awe on their faces when they came up on the escalator into the HUGE atrium that soars about 20 stories above you. Now it’s commonplace to see such an atrium lobby, but 25 years ago it was an astonishing sight. Boy, am I showing my age!

And we almost rented a GoCar, the same cute little vehicle we are planning on renting in, I think, Barcelona (I have to practice pronouncing it “BARTH-a-lona” since they use Castillian pronunciation). We have one other couple going to do it with us; I hope we can get one or two more. Anyway, it looks like a ton of fun!

Kathy is driving us to the airport for our 2235 departure. We’ll have dinner with her after we drop off our six, yes SIX, pieces of luggage and check in for the flight. I know I could have printed a boarding pass, but since we have to check six bags and we’re going first class, I thought we might as well just do it at the gate.

It’s been a wonderful start to our Grand Adventure. Now, onward and upward to Sydney!