San Francisco, CA 2015 - Day 3

Lombard Street

Chad woke up to me singing “Happy Birthday” in his ear. It’s one of the perks he enjoys being married to me. Our hotel offered a free “grab and go” breakfast but we planned on eating in San Francisco, so we took a couple oranges and granola bars (and then a few more when no one was looking), poured some coffee and checked out.

We drove to the city and went to Lombard Street to drive down the most crooked street in the world. If you don’t know the name, chances are, you’ve at least seen the street. I didn’t get to appreciate the 8 hairpin-turns in just 1 block because I was too busy looking in people’s windows. But I’m sure Chad drove like a champ. Or like Steve McQueen in slow motion. After taking pictures with 75 Asian tourists, most of who used selfie sticks, we drove to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. 

The tower was closed, so we walked the paths and took pictures. A huge statue of Christopher Columbus wearing a cape stands at the base of the tower. He looks like an awkward superhero. We fell in with a group of tourists and the tour guide showed them the statue from a different angle. I felt bad for the Italian sculptor who didn’t anticipate the dirty minds of future Americans when he created this Superman-like Explorer masterpiece.

Explorer Man

A different view of Columbus

Breakfast with Alcatraz in the background

By this time, we were ready for breakfast and drove to Pier 39. We ate at The Eagle Café, which has been at Fisherman’s Wharf since 1928. The restaurant was full, but no one was sitting on the deck because it was "too cold." Being Washingtonians came in handy because it was just right for us outside. We enjoyed an incredible view and the people-watching was fantastic. After breakfast, we went to see the sea lions and that’s when my whole world almost came crashing down.

There were only two sea lions on the docks. A mama (possibly a daddy—I don’t know how to tell the difference) and a baby. An injured baby. That looked like he’d been bit by a shark (that’s my inner marine biologist diagnosis) or maybe cut by a boat propeller (Chad’s guess). I don’t know exactly what was wrong, but I was seconds from diving into the bay to rescue the pup. Fortunately, marina employees were handling the situation and I had to get out of there before I died from depression. It was really strange to see how the sea lions have disappeared from the docks. Or maybe they haven’t. Maybe it was just breakfast time and they were all swimming. There must be a reason. Someone should look that up. I’m too busy.

Only two sea lions 

What it used to look like
  (Photo courtesy of Google Images)

We walked through some of the shops on the pier and Chad stopped at Trish’s to buy his favorite mini-donuts and then we left the waterfront. We drove The Presidio, the decommissioned army-base-turned-park, and spent the next few hours at The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Every Disney lover should go see this museum. It’s 40,000 square feet of Walt Disney and the story of his life. We saw everything from the fiddle his father played when Walt was young, to personal letters, telegrams, and negotiating contracts as he built his empire. We even saw the earliest known drawing of Mickey Mouse which caused a moment of unexpected speechlessness. I couldn’t believe the piece of paper behind that glass was the impetus of...everything.

Creating Mickey - 1928

Chad looking at 348 frames that comprise 15 seconds of motion.

 Every single one of us has a favorite Disney memory, movie, or character. And there was something there for everyone. I saw a facsimile of a letter Walt Disney wrote to Julie Andrews in 1962 asking her to consider the role of Mary Poppins. That movie, that character, that... phenomenon means so much to me, and the Mary Poppins section of the museum choked me up a little. Chad loved the techy-nerd stuff like the multiplane camera, and learning about the inventions and animation tricks that came out of Disney’s ingenious brain.

Watching a film about the Mary Poppins Hollywood premiere

When we got to the end of the exhibition, we dawdled in the gift shop and finally went outside to sit in the grass and talk about what we just experienced. But when we started talking about grass and why Washington grass sucks so bad and California grass is so awesome and doesn't die when then sunshine touches it, we knew it was time to move on.

The afternoon was getting late and we wanted to find the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge, so I used my trusty phone to guide us. The first spot was good; hundreds of people were at the park, grilling, playing games, and riding bikes. We watched a guy catch a flounder and promptly stomp on its head three times to kill it. I’m no vegetarian, I eat meat, and I know animals die so that I can. So I know it sounds hypocritical, but I just cannot stand to see that kind of stuff. As I watched the poor fish not die with the first 2 boot stomps, my knees went weak and I almost reacted like Kurt Singen the Environmental Guy on In Living Color. Need a refresher? Click here.

I wonder what he's modeling for.
I bet it's real classy.

Next, my phone sent us to Baker Beach with fair warning that it’s a nude beach. At first, we didn’t see any nudists (or "nakey-buns as we call it), just a hundred fisherman lining the shore so that we couldn’t walk barefoot in the surf, which was okay because the water was so cold it actually burned my feet with its iciness. Further down the beach we encountered the bare butts. There were 5 of them and what’s interesting is they were all alone, they were all men, and they were all disturbing. One man was there for a photo shoot and, as he stood on the rocks in his see-through pants, I faced the grueling challenge of trying not to look. So, I took covert pictures instead. Another man drunkenly stumbled through the waves into a cove where he peed on the cliff and then stumbled back into the bay. We did get some good views of the bridge, though.

Our next stop might seem distasteful to some readers. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge through thick fog and drove to Tiburon, where I made Chad drive to the home where Robin Williams committed suicide. Settle down, I didn’t ring the doorbell, but I did take pictures as we drove by. Here’s one:

For Chad’s birthday dinner, we went to Brick & Bottle in Corte Madera. Chad had the prime rib with creamed spinach and I had the duck confit with jalepeno creamed corn. I learned something new at dinner: I don’t like duck confit even a little bit. We shared a butterscotch pot de creme for dessert, but I didn't ask the waitstaff to sing because the restaurant was fancy, we were the only ones in flip flops and hoodies, and we were probably on the verge of being asked to leave anyway. Also, Chad would've killed me.

Happy 41st!

After our long dinner, we headed north on 101, not knowing where we’d stop for the night, and as we drove, we watched a sunset too beautiful for words. Sometime around 11, we pulled into a KOA in a town called Willits. We paid the camp fee on the honor system and found our campsite among all the other campers. We put up our curtains and crashed for the night. Besides all the wieners we saw that day, the first day of Chad’s 41^st year on earth was pretty perfect.

Fun Fact To Make You The Life Of The Party #2: In 37 years, Walt Disney received 59 Academy Award nominations and won 32. Here are 26 of them:

"As the original Mary Poppins budget of $5,000,000 continued to grow, I never saw a sad face around the entire studio. And this made me nervous...no negative head-shaking. No prophets of doom. Even Roy was happy..The horrible thought struck me--suppose the staff had finally conceded that I knew what I was doing?"
                                                                      - Walt Disney

-Rachel