Laughing All The Way

Monday, March 26, 2007

Big City, Bright Lights

As Bruce was busy working his little fingers to the bone across the Pacific in an unidentified Asian country of your choosing, I was in charge of the homestead. The homestead really takes care of itself because we live in a managed apartment complex, so I decided to better use my time to plan some time away for Bruce and myself.

Friday morning I picked him up at the airport and made tracks for north of the city. I found a b&b that had a good view, free wireless Internet and sizable room in Sausalito and began making dinner reservations willy-nilly. So far, this weekend has to be one of the best times we’ve had ever. We hung out in Sausalito for the morning and then took a ferry (I love me a good ferry ride) to the city. We arrived at Pier 39 and did all the things we’ve done before but this time it was better. We watched those 4-D movies where you sit in a big chair and have a “roller coast type experience” with wind machines and smokes machines. In between swears and unfettered and raucous laughter we were able to experience life as a log at a logging mill, space flight and capturing the last T-Rex on a dinosaur island. We wandered into an arcade and made quick work of $10 of tokens. I introduced Bruce to the wonder that is Ski Ball and in the end we walked away with some plastic trinkets and some gangsta’ tattoos that in a pinch, can be applied with saliva. We hoofed it down the street to catch the ferry back to Sausalito (as an aside, if there are people behind you in a line waiting to buy tickets for a ferry that leaves in four minutes, maybe you could not buy tickets for a trip you want to take tomorrow, and maybe you could avoid talking to the guy in the booth in your slow mid-western manner and move your ass out of the way of the two people behind you trying to get on the ferry leaving in FOUR MINUTES).

Bruce and I had reservations at a place that made us appreciate sushi in all its fishy glory. Ewww, that sounds wrong. Sushi Ran was a great lucky choice because Bruce is of the persuasion that can only eat fish on Fridays so our options were limited. I managed one of the last reservations of the night and when we told the desk staff at the b&b where our dinner plans were they were suitably impressed. Bruce and I are something of sushi whores. A staple to our diet and the type of food we are most likely to get when we are tired (Bruce) and lazy (me), Bruce and I have ordering sushi down to a science. Easily over ordered sushi is a hard food to judge, but we know a tuna roll, a salmon roll and two “pretty rolls” and we are good. The thing about sushi is that 99.99% is really all the same. Sure some are better than others but mostly a roll is a roll is a roll. Sushi Ran changed all that. The sushi is certainly not what I would call typical and it wasn’t cheap (I think the California roll was $16.50) but the fish was so perfect and the combinations of flavors was impeccable. I have never had a better sushi experience in my life and am currently sitting here trying to weasel my way back to Sausalito this upcoming weekend.

Except, well, I seem to be cursed by Northern California. I get hurt. You may recall that the last time I was in Northern California I took a spill down a mountain and tore up my knee (blood is a weird fashion statement). This time I had the worst toe thing. I know, I am so excellent with the descriptors. I was a cripple and there was a certain amount of doubt my one member of our party (I’m looking at you Bruce) as to my ability to rally for day two of my excellent weekend plan: Stinson Beach and Muir Woods. I was sure that my toe would be better and I would be up to the challenge.

Well of course I was right (as it should be) and the next day was fun and active and all those things. The beach stood out as the time Bruce and I were stalked by Sea Gulls. From afar they watched us eat. We laughed about the stalking and went about our lunch. We packed everything up and covered all our food so we could walk down the beach, no sooner were we four feet away when our pile o’ stuff was covered by nosey Sea Gulls. Bruce ran them off and we decided to move everything to the car.

Muir Woods was nice, but really, it’s trees.

Bruce and I headed back to our little patch of land (the aforementioned managed apartment complex) and the whole way home Bruce waxed poetic about the arcade on the Pier. Reading the writing on the wall I figured it was dinner at Dave and Busters for us. Unfortunately Bruce and I are not about “the scene” and Dave and Busters is all about “the scene.” Ever the inventive couple, we came up with a back up plan: Chuck E. Cheese’s. Yes, that’s right, my boyfriend and I went to the bastion of children’s birthdays so that we could play the games.

And we’re not ashamed. Mostly because when playing a game I hit the jackpot and with about 6 tokens I managed to get 200 tickets spit out at me. It was a spectacle and I was all about shouting: “Oh my god! I won!” It was better than Vegas. Sure in the end I will walk away with some annoying plastic toy that makes noise, but for a few minutes I was ten years old and I was having the best day of my life. We were thrown out at closing time with about 30 tokens left. We made the executive decision to save the tokens and our accrued tickets for the next time we want to go to Chuck’s. Oh, like you didn’t see that coming.

Chuck’s closed the kitchen before we were able to eat, and as we both had a hankering for a slice of pie (what else would you eat at Chuck’s?) Bruce and I made our way to a pizza joint that is next door to a dive bar, JJ’s, that plays loud blues music and after a slice and a lemon ade (they’ll leave space for you to take it next door for a shot to be added) we made our way into JJ’s for a few songs.

All in all, Bruce and I had a kick ass weekend.

(Pictures will be flickr’ed at a later date)