Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Char and I walked down to where she was doing her training this morning. We grabbed a bite to eat at “Specialty’s” along the way, then she went on to the training group while I went and checked out the Wells Fargo Museum that Char had recommended, located – not surprisingly – in the Wells Fargo Bank. This museum is probably not something that most visitors to San Francisco know about. I found it interesting. And those coaches were really cool. You could actually sit in one upstairs. Surprisingly, they held 9 people INSIDE and another 9 on the top fully loaded (3 on the driver’s bench and 6 up on the very top).

I then went back to the hotel to upload some photos, do final email checks, and check out. Because the valet parking would’ve gone in to another 24 hour period (and at $43 a day I didn’t want that!), I asked them to get the car and I loaded it up (on the hotel staff’s advice), then put it in the parking garage up the street.

Off I went. I visited the Museum of Crafts and Folk Art (they had a textiles exhibition on), but for $5 it was a bit light on… Then I went to the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) where I saw Klees, Mondrians, Dalis, Lichensteins, Warhols, Matisses, etc. So it was a bit of an arty farty day, not the normal stuff most people go to see in San Francisco.

But I had a problem. I realised that the hotel staff had really given me bad advice by telling me to put the luggage in the car and not leave it there in storage for collection late in the day. Silly me. I got all paranoid and stressed out that the luggage was at severe risk (memories of my sister and her husband having all their luggage stolen from the trunk of their car and having to deal with embassies etc. to get replacement passports).

So after leaving SFMOMA and having a quick bite to eat at a Californian Pizza Kitchen (HUGE appetizer!), I skedaddled back to the parking garage, checked that the luggage was all there (relief!), then drove on out of there.

But what to do for about 3 more hours, until Char finished her training course?

I ended up driving down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and on to North Point as I remembered it being a nice place to just sit and relax, and vaguely remembered that there was open parking there. Yes! I found a 4 hour parking spot in view of where I sat. I read my book, glanced every so often at the car, and just chilled out looking over the bay watching the ships come in and go out. The day was nice and sunny, but the wind was pretty cold. Some very brave people were swimming….

Char called just before 5, so I headed back to the financial district in downtown San Francisco, picked her up and we hit the road north. The traffic was surprisingly good considering it was peak hour, and we were over the Golden Gate Bridge within 30 minutes.

We headed north as far as Santa Rosa, checked in to the local Holiday Inn Express, and had a nice meal at Applebees. Boy, have they got the marketing down right!! They do these ‘dessert shooters’ for $1.99 – they are just mini versions of desserts in a smallish glass cup. By being small and cheap, I’m sure they get MANY more people eating dessert than when they had those big slices of pie etc. I had the BEST Key Lime Pie ever – it was superbly tangy and with hardly any sweetness. Most Key Lime Pies I’ve had in the US have had a little tang and a LOT of sugar. Not this one. Highly recommmended.

The Holiday Inn Express had free wireless broadband, so at the moment Char and I are sitting on our respective beds working on our latops. Sad, really. And geeky. We even talked about playing Scrabulous online while we’re in the same room, as we don’t have a Scrabble board. What a couple of nerds!!