Cindy Lou: San Fran...Day 1

Today, Joshua and I woke up in Milwaukee at 6:30 so my dad could take us to the airport to catch our 9:15 flight. Not so crowded at the airport today. No gropage at the metal detectors. However, I was a bit scared when Joshua was joking around in line. There was a random check of explosives, just a simple cotton swipe of the hand. Joshua was saying that if he was picked he would say 'It's because I'm black huh?'. I told him to stop joking around cause I would get on the plane without him if he got detained.

Our flight ended up getting delayed about an hour and half because of fog in San Francisco. Go figure. We had a blizzard a couple days ago and it's fine in Milwaukee but not in San Fran. Another thing, my sister flew out of Milwaukee the day after the blizzard and had no delays. I did however ended up finishing book one of the Harry Potter series (don't ask, I never wanted to read them but now I have to).

Best flight ever minus the turbulence! Our flight was not full. Joshua and I had our own row, the row behind us was empty but not for very long as someone claimed it as their own row and the seat in front of me was empty. Didn't have to worry about bothering anyone or anyone bothering me on this flight!

While we were waiting for my cousin Marie to pick us up, I began stripping off my fleece jacket and sweater even though it was 55 degrees out. But it felt like 80 degrees considering when we left Milwaukee, it was 5 with a wind chill of -10. She took us to one of her favorite sandwich shops that we didn't have back in Wisconsin where I got an avocado, spinach, tomato, basil sandwich. Delish!

We got settled into her place but not for long because we went to go meet up with my sister Linda and her boyfriend Andrew who were already out and about in San Fran. Marie had lots of wedding stuff to do so she dropped us off near where they were.

Joshua and I met up with Linda and Andrew in the Haight/Ashbury area aka the hippie joint. It started raining pretty hard (good thing I put my fleece jacket back on) so we ducked into the first bar we saw before heading to the destination bar that Andrew and Linda wanted to go to.

Interesting bar...Magnolia Pub and Brewery. As soon as I looked at their beer board, I knew what I wanted. Cole Porter...it was a delicious porter. For those that live in the Madison area, it was very similar to Lake Louie's Tommy's Porter. Joshua tried a Winter Warmer which was a Scotch Ale. Not bad but not my style of beer.

It was about dinnertime but we weren't starving so we nibbled on some apps. An assortment of cheese, proscitto and trotter tots (which I thought were going to be tater tots and I still have no idea what it was we ate) with some bread.

We hung out long enough for the boys to grab another beer then off we went as the rain had let up.

We walked along Haight Street and could not get the boys to stop drooling. There were 'specialty' smoke shops everywhere and it was determined that Joshua would find a shop that sold the actual stuff. He actually got the address off of someone who worked at one of the smoke shops and as we walked to the next bar, he was surveying the stores and shops in hopes of finding it.

We arrived at the Toronado Pub and Joshua was sad he had passed his shop. Well, that sadness ended soon as we had a nice pick of beers to enjoy. After drinking the porter and eating, not to mention eating right after we got into San Fran, I was starting to get full so I chose a lighter beer, if you even call it a beer. Two Rivers Pomegranate Cider. It was interesting and I would stick with my Woodchuck Amber from now on, no more pomegranate in my cider. Joshua chose a Russian River Pliny the Elder, an Imperial IPA.

Drinking Pomegranate Cider at Toronado

The impressive list of beers on tap

Chimay and Lindemans are just as expensive as in Madison

Joshua's Pliny the Elder beer

After the boys had a few, they decided to look for Joshua's shop. I guess they found it and Andrew took a picture of Joshua in front of the store. I guess they couldn't go in because they didn't have a prescription.

It was definitely weird in Toronado but pretty cool. They had bumper stickers from all over. We saw a Lakefront Brewery (located in Milwaukee) and a I closed Wolski's (also in Milwaukee). I guess home is always close even when you are far away from it. Linda and I kept seeing people leaving and coming back with food. I was so confused. But I figured it was a bar that only had beer (no liquor or food).

Linda and I were getting pretty hungry so we left to look for the food that people kept bringing in. We found two, one right next to the bar and the other on the other side of the bar. We decided to get pizza instead of sausage dogs. Mythic Pizza reminded me of Ian's in Madison but whereas Ian's has weird pizza combinations, this place had normal toppings but huge slices.

We brought the pizza back and by now, the boys are pretty out of it. Good grief, we were only gone for 10 minutes! What happened? I don't even want to know. By the time we left, they were both acting goofy. And of course, we had to endure this the whole 40 minutes or so of taking public transit back to Marie's place.

What a great first night!