San Francisco with Sally

It was the last free Saturday we'd have in awhile before fall sports started up.

It was Labor Day weekend.

Justin had schoolwork.

Owen and Drew just wanted to be with their friends.

And I needed an adventure.

So Sally happily joined me for a day in San Francisco.

The number one thing she wanted to do was to play at the Fan Lot at the Giants' stadium.

It's open to the public when the stadium isn't in use.

The Giants were playing in Colorado so I thought it'd be all clear.

But Billy Joel had to go and have a concert there that night,

which meant there would be no Coke sliding for Sal.

So we got Subway.

And I wondered why I drove all the way to SF for Subway.

And we maneuvered our way through the local street dwellers to use the closest restaurant at McD's.

Where Sally requested a picture with the "M" made out of flowers.

Then we proceeded to my number one pick for the day: The San Francisco Public Library.

It is best library I've ever seen.

And it can probably hold 15 Pacific Grove libraries inside.

It has 6 stories. As in levels (Sally wanted to climb all the stairs to the top).

And it has infinity stories, as in the ones you find in books.

Just for fun I looked up the book, "The Day the Crayons Came Home."

There were 116 copies.

And they were all checked out.

The main reason I wanted to go the library was to see Clare Cassidy's photography exhibit.

Love her pictures.

Next stop was paddle boating Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.

 This was our favorite part of the day.

We went one time around the lake, but Sally wasn't ready to go back.

So we reversed and went all the way around again.

She would've kept going if our pre-paid time wasn't up.

Our last destination was China Town.

Another Sally request because she wanted to find a fan.

On the elevator up from the parking lot she got pinned in the corner opposite me.

It felt like 15 people were between us, but according to this picture there was only 1.

Either way, it was funny.

And then we entered another world.

The park in China Town feels like going back in time.

Clusters of (mostly) elderly Chinese people playing cards and no electronics in sight.

We proceeded to search through tourist shop after tourist shop for the perfect fan.

After way too long, Sally finally found what she was looking for:

a white, lacy, pigeon-painted fan.

We ended our day at Hunan Home's for Chinese Food.

The decor was tacky and the service was s l o w (the long wait had exhausted Sally in tears).

But the food was delicious.