October 24, 2003.  My mother and I take our first family vacation in 20 years.  Mom turned fifty and I organized a trip to San Francisco for the 2 of us.  We left spouses and pets behind, headed for the Berkeley Hills.  We arrived on a balmy Friday afternoon and had lunch with good, longtime friends, Steve, Marian and Jill.  We ate a terrific lunch at "Skates On The Bay" which is mostly seafood on the Berkeley/Emeryville Marina.  It was close to 80 degrees outside, so a couple cocktails were in order.  We spent our nights at the Hyatt on the Embarcadero on SF Bay. 

 

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Napa country.  We enjoyed an incredible mudbath at Dr. Wilkinson's resort. This was unlike anything I'd ever experienced.  I thought mudbaths were kind of soupy, thinner than the mud I made mudpies with when I was younger.  But this stuff was pretty thick, kind of mossy, almost.  If you didn't have to scooch down into it, you could certainly float on top.  Then we got hosed off and relaxed in a hot springs whirlpool bath.  After all that, we both enjoyed a massage.  Mom said that was the most relaxing massage she's ever had.  We tooled around Napa for a bit, browsing in bookstores, and then we hit the wineries.  Beringer was having a cellar sale, so we bought goodies for next to nothing.  We ate a late lunch at the Red Hen Cantina and had delicious margaritas there!  We got back to the city in the early evening.  Then it was time to hit the local nightlife.  We took a bus to the other end of the city where we went to a gay bar I'd heard about called "The Mint."  Of course, it was karaoke night and Mom and I got our fill of show tunes.  You can't smoke indoors in San Francisco so I was outside on a surprisingly quiet street with my camera and along comes a man in a pink bunny suit holding an air rifle.  I asked if I could take his picture and, after asking "with the gun or without?", he happily posed for me.  I thought, I just love this city!

 

Sunday we took the Blue and Gold Fleet cruiser around the bay, around the island which holds Alcatraz and under and around the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.  We went to Pier 29 which is always bustling and had some yummy crab and, of course, mouth-watering sourdough bread.  I bought some to bring home to the bosses (I'm such an awesome employee!) and for my neighbor who was watching my cats.  Atkins be damned, who would resist fresh sourdough from San Francisco?  Sunday night we had dinner with my godparents, Fran and Aaron Paxson, and their two sons and their wives and children.  It was so cool, seeing all these generations come together.  They are simply good people!

 

Monday, our final day, my mom and I drove around the city catching the sights we'd not gotten to yet.  We visited the Legion of Honor, which is apparently closed on Mondays.  There is a heart-wrenching Holocaust Memorial onsite which we photographed.  We drove along the coastline, awestruck by the blue of the ocean and the smell of the salt air.  We had a delicious meal at the SFO airport, crab louie salad and other crabby delights, and a crisp napa wine to accompany it.  Flying home was the denoument to our fantastic vacation in beautiful San Francisco!