I was confronted with a very tough decision this weekend. Do I go to the Riverbank Wine and Cheese Exposition, or do I go to San Francisco Fleet Week? "Why can't I do both?" I said, and that's what I did (or at this point, plan to do). I don't know why I never really thought to take the pup with me before, considering that SF is such a dog friendly city, but I decided that today was the day to make her official debut. The pup, the Mr. and I headed out early. Well...early enough. We had a late night with friends the night before dining on huge steamed oysters, hamburgers, sausage and drinking good, cheap beer. There was too much food, including pasta salad, an amazing sun dried tomato dip that I must have the recipe for, and a delicious Chinese Chicken salad. It was so good that I was sure I didn't like that sort of thing but have now changed my mind. We ate well and sat on the edge of our seats as the SF Giants let the Braves take the win last night in the 11th inning. The night would have ended earlier for us if the Mr. and his best friend hadn't egged each other on to rally on Mario Kart for the next hour or so. At that point felt I had to step in to put a stop to it. My tactic didn't work too well because I found myself, with Wii-mote in hand, screaming at Toad to stop falling off the edges and putting me in last place for a couple more games.
I don't know how we managed to get out of bed but we did and were in SF by 11:00am. We stopped to visit my brother at Books, Inc. so that he could give his dog-niece a doggy treat (pathetic I know, don't judge me.) and then the Mr. and I walked on until we reached Barney's. I have been here before and knew the Mr. would love it. We took a seat outside so that the pup wouldn't go nuts (she has a little separation anxiety problem). The burgers are ridiculously large but hard to stop eating. I was hoping that if I ordered the BLT that the meal might be a little more modest. I was wrong. I had to leave the restaurant with half of my sandwich because the first half was more than enough for me. The Mr. had the Chipotle Burger. He loves spicy things and is usually unimpressed when a restaurant insists that a dish is spicy because for him, it usually isn't and he is disappointed. He wasn't disappointed this time. He said the burger had quite a kick.
Oh yeah, the sweet potato fries...um...pretty much the best thing ever and the reason I return to Barney's time after time.
Guys from Cal Berkeley decorating the neighborhood for Fleet Week. Go Bears!
After lunch we made our way down to the water. We walked along the 'St. Fancy Yacht Club' (St. Francis Yacht Club) and strolled through the Marina Green. We walked passed displays from the Marine's and of course the Navy. Walking amongst all of the service men and woman dressed in uniform made me feel patriotic and very proud of my country. These are men and woman, as well as the rest of our military branches, who are risking their lives for the freedoms of our nation. This is something that I couldn't step up to do. No matter what your belief is about the war that we are fighting, these men and woman are the true heroes of our country. Not the celebrities or athletes that we see in front of us everyday and definitely not the pseudo-celebrities on reality television grasping at their last 15 minutes of fame.
The best part of the day was taking the pup to Chrissy Field and finding a spot to watch the Blue Angel's Air Show. We walked to the end of the beach and let her loose to frolic with the other dogs on the beach. It was the first time that she had ever been to the ocean and I thought that she would be fearful (see THIS earlier post) but she wasn't. She charged every wave until she was tuckered out. We caught only the first part of the air show before deciding to get an early start out of the city. What we saw was terrific. I loved watching the synchronized planes leave a trail of red white and blue behind them as they passed. There were jets that, when you heard the rumble of their engines, you looked up and they were already passed you flying faster than the speed of sound. It was insane! We loved it.
Please excuse to excessive amount of photos of my pup playing on the beach...yes, I am THAT kind of dog-momma.
Its not the best picture but this guy was gettin' it. He made me feel very lazy for sitting on my duff watching him cruise by.
I am a pretty sad 'action' photographer so this was pretty much the only photo I was able to get of the air show :(
One last fun note. Below was the most random, but quintessential San Francisco, photo op of the day...
Peace and Love Man!
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