Friday Fun With Summer

Yesterday, I had a chance to spend some time with Summer in the awesome city by the bay. We always have fun, but there is something about sight-seeing, having a great dinner and seeing a show in that fabulous city that seemed extra-special.

I arrived at Summer's at 2:00 as planned, deposited my overnight bag, and then we were off to the Rockridge BART station. We rode BART to the Mission district--home of, coincidentally, San Francisco's own California mission. Our plan was to visit it for a little bit (I've now been to nine of the twenty-one) before heading off to dinner.

Of course, I took some pictures.

Waiting for BART, looking towards San Francisco.

The Oakland Children's Hospital has a GINORMOUS rubber duck on its
roof!

A big mural in the Mission District.

This church is right next door to the mission.

Mission Delores is the oldest building in San Francisco,
and one of the only missions in its original state--so many
have been destroyed and rebuilt. It survived the quake
and fire of 1906 and the quake of 1989, too. Impressive!

Original adobe.

I waited 'til Summer went to the loo, so as not to embarrass her with the duck.
She actually doesn't care anymore that I photograph the duck in public.
I'm not sure she ever really did.

Junipero Serra

A baby...

As we left, these men (yes, both men) ahead happily walked down the street,
admiring the left one's skirt as he twirled it about. I love San Francisco.

After the mission, we caught BART and took it back to Powell Street, where there is a large shopping mall near Union Square. Summer had come up with the idea of walking over to Macy's and having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory on the top floor.

"I've never been to The Cheesecake Factory," was my reply. "Sounds good!"

"You've never been to The Cheesecake Factory?" she gaped at me.

So we went.

I took sign pics as we walked back to BART.

Macy's is so helpful with this stuff.

The view of Union Square from the 7th floor of Macy's.

I'll say it again: I love San Francisco.

I had a Lemon Drop with dinner. Yummy!

My endive salad with pecans, apple, blue cheese and a yummy vinaigrette.

Corn fritters

Summer had the chocolate mousse cheesecake.

Swimmy and I shared the red velvet cheesecake. It was amazing.

Swimmy loved it.

From Macy's, it was but a short walk into the Tenderloin--a...shall we call it "spicy?"--neighborhood in San Francisco. I came very close to stepping in what might have been human excrement. But in spite of its drawbacks, I have a certain appreciation for the Tenderloin. It is, after all, home to the Warfield, where I saw Mt. Desolation and Mumford and Sons last October.

The Warfield

...and it's next-door neighbors.

Behind us as we queued, a dice game was thriving.

The show, of course, was Ben Folds. Summer has been a fan since 1997. Last year, she watched me sing along and go bananas to Keane--last night, I got to see her do the same to Ben Folds.

Ben is an immensely talented musician, and his show was chock-full of musical puns and jokes that only a music nerd could laugh at. Summer and I got them. He's really, really good and I am glad I went along.

He has a tendency to beat the crap out of his piano, and in the middle of
the show, his sustain pedal stopped working. His tech guys came out, took
the keyboard out, and fixed it in a few minutes. Ben ran backstage and got the
"Wet Floor" sign.

Blurry, but you can see him smiling appreciatively at us all.

After the show, we caught BART back to Oakland, and arrived back at Summer and Ben's place (Ben, Summer's husband, not Ben Folds) at about midnight. I slept in their guest loft and came back to Stockton this morning. There was no way I was driving all the way home in the wee hours, when I was so tired from all that fun.

All in all, it was a terrific little adventure. Summer is a great concert buddy and of course, we always have a great time hanging out together. Here's to old friends!