I Heart San Francisco

It gets me every time, that delicious view when you come out of the tunnel, and there are the high green rolling hills, the bay, and the Golden Gate bridge. So beautiful. Especially with loud music blaring, sweet sea breeze, sunny sky, and hours of unscheduled wandering time stretched out ahead of you.

That's what I did on Monday, and it was wonderful. The kids were spending an extra night with their dad, so I decided to take advantage of the free day and drive to the city on my own. I've never really done that before, and I loved it. I blared my Missy Elliott mix cd, and my "Rolling in my Subaru" mix cd, and then switched over to the Smiths after I crossed the bridge. I didn't get lost, and that made me proud.

I wandered around Japan Town looking at stuff. I spent a long time in the Japanese bookstore, and I bought a book and a magazine, I resisted buying the cute things in the stationery shop, I found some great stuff at the Goodwill (which I'll write about in my new weekly "thriftshop scores" feature). I had a late lunch at a little pizza place with outdoor seating so I could people watch. Then I drove over to the Haight and wandered around looking at things. I checked out the "Tree Show" at Giant Robot SF, and found some stuff at the Haight Street Goodwill where they were rocking the P Funk All Stars, instead of the lame soft pop or christian music they play at the thrift stores here.

I got a little tiny bit lost trying to leave the city (wrong way on Geary), but I worked it out and made it back to Petaluma by 5, happy with my day and happy that I was going to spend the night with Scott on a Monday. He wasn't feeling all that great after work, and I was super perky and in a great mood. We went for a walk and cooked a veggie stir fry and rented a movie.