I've told everyone who asks me about the FishRoom get-together in San Francisco that it was more fun than should be legal in such a short amount of time. If you get a chance to go there, don't pass it up.
Friday:
Well, that's where the fun really began. Karen and I were really taking in the scenery, and I had somehow managed to misplace the brochure for our hotel, so we had only cursory information on how to get there, relying mainly on my very poor memory. Our hotel was the Miyako Inn in Japantown, and we wound up on Mission St. going in the absolute wrong direction. I also learned that driving in San Francisco is not like driving in Dallas. I'm a pretty aggressive driver, but making left turns and navigating around the city required a level of aggressiveness and trust that I just hadn't mastered yet. After we figured out where we were on the map, we turned around and headed for Japantown, stopping once at the Miyako Hotel to ask for directions to the Miyako Inn.
We finally arrived at the Miyako Inn, and I checked us into our rooms there. Karen called her friend Bing Seto and proceeded with him to the Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 area. I called Andrea, who had been in SF for 4 days already, staying with another friend, Jeff. After some catching up, Jeff took us to Pier 39 where we ran into Bing and Karen. Andrea and I saw the underwater tunnel, looked at the sea lions basking on the concrete, bought latte, and we basically had a good time. Afterwards, Jeff called Dev (Devin) and Shannon at their hotel, we went to pick them up, and we made reservations at Cha-Cha-Cha on Haight St. for dinner, walked the streets, and dropped by Jeff's house to see his aquariums and herptiles.
Jeff's collection is quite an accomplishment, and I'm sorry we didn't get any photos of it. He had several chameleons and geckos, along with poison dart frogs and Tanganikan cichlids. Humidifiers blew moist air into some of the enclosures while the cichlids swam under subdued blue lighting. If you get a chance to visit SF, and if Jeff invites you, definitely see his setups.
Cha-Cha-Cha is an alternative-style Caribbean restaurant, serving mainly appetizers. We ate calamari, asparagus, chicken breast fingers, and several other tasty munchies before we left and retired for the night.
The Japanese Tea Garden (Andrea and David)
The Steinhart Aquarium (Andrea, Brenda, David, Devin, Karen, and Shannon)
Bing Seto's Discus World hatchery (Andrea, Brenda, Devin, Karen, and Shannon)
Wilfred Fong's discus and marine hatchery (Wilfred Fong)
Dinner at The Quiet Storm (Andrea, Bing, Brenda, David, Devin, Karen, and Shannon)
Coastal Highway 1 (Andrea and David)
The Monterey Bay Aquarium (Andrea and David)
Dinner at The Carnelian Room (Andrea, David, and Karen)
After eating, Andrea called around and found a night club that was open on Sunday night. So, Andrea, Karen, and I hopped in the car and went dancing. We actually went there twice because one member of our trio forgot their id and was promptly carded at the door. I felt like all eyes in the club were on us as we moshed together to the music. I definitely noticed that I was dancing with the best looking girls on the floor, and was quite pleased about it. :-)
We stayed at the club until 2:00 am, and then made it back to the hotel, despite my sleepy driving. I wish I could say that I'm an alert driver all the time, but it was 4:00 am by my internal clock, and I found myself stopping at green lights, waiting for them to turn red and then green again. Worse than that, I also stopped at stop signs and waited for them to turn green. I think it was bedtime for me.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at dwebb@dallas.net