Greetings from Sunny California!

Here I am again! I enjoyed myself so much last time that I was afraid that I had raised my expectations for this visit to such a level that I would almost certainly be disappointed. Happily, that has not been the case!

My flight from Buffalo left at 5:50am (yes, that's morning) so I got up and left by 2:15am (btw, not doing that again) to get to the airport on time. After taking the cut-off for the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, I saw a sign telling me there was a 30-60 minute wait. Fortunately the Erie crossing had no wait--unfortunately you don't see the sign until after you exit the highway, so I had to wait until I came to the next exit and turn around to get back on the highway to get to Erie. By the time I got to the airport, parked, took the shuttle, checked in, cleared security and trotted to my gate I ended up being about the 5th last person to board. It all turned out in my favour though, because another man wanted my seat so he could sit next to his son and I ended up having the whole row to myself!

The only bonus to taking such an insanely early flight was that I was scheduled to get into SFO at 9:30 in the morning. However, my flight from Chicago was delayed so I ended up arriving at more like 10:30, but it was still early enough for my Honey and I to have the whole day together. Having said that, the day wasn't particularly productive but it was nice to just relax, hang out and enjoy each other's company. We had breakfast/lunch of burgers and fries at In and Out and took a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to look for acrylic glasses and we ended up buying a set of dishes instead. After that I needed a nap (that's what happens when you only get 3 1-2 hours of sleep) and later we played Wii, ordered pizza for dinner and then played pool in the apartment complex's party room. I hit the wall shortly after 9pm and passed out until 7-something the next day.

Sunday we drove into San Francisco right downtown to the Mission district and had lunch at a great crepe place called Ti Couz which is an authentic creperie Bretonne. They use buckwheat flour and the crepes are giant squares on your plate instead of little rolled up tubes. They were fabulous! We shared two "savoury" crepes--one with tomato, sausage and cheese and one with mushroom, carmelized onions and cheese--and one "sweet" crepe for dessert--apples, caramel, whipped cream and a scoop of delicious homemade vanilla icecream. They were all divine and I was so full I pretty much waddled back to the car.

The rest of the day was spent in Sausalito, a small touristy town on the other side of the famous Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. Sausalito is right on the water, has tonnes of shops, restaurants and art galleries but very little parking. We found a spot up in a residential area off Princess Street which we could only park in for 2 hours. After that we had to move to another spot. We had fun browsing in stores and galleries and at the end of the day we had dinner at a great seafood place called Scoma's. We shared a massive appetizer of calamari dusted with flour and sauted with tomato and mushrooms which was fantastic and then I had scallops served with very rich and delicious buttery sauce, green beans and buttermilk mashed potatoes that my Honey loved! He had fish and chips that were also very well prepared with a very light batter that didn't overwhelm the fish and crispy shoe-string fries. The meal was so massive we sadly didn't have room for dessert, but I couldn't have eaten another bite.

I enjoyed Sausalito very much--it's a pretty town with lots of fun shops and beautiful views. There is a lot of money in that town, too! I nearly gave myself whiplash looking at all the hot cars. I looked like a major country bumpkin, but I don't care. Where else have I been where you see two Rolls Royce's inside of 30 seconds?