Travelogue: San Francisco

We got back from San Francisco yesterday, and then I had barely enough time to unpack, repack, and drive back to Flagstaff (whew!). We managed to divide our vacation time fairly equally between my friends (I was there for a conference) and his friends (we were staying with someone he knows from his Master’s degree who lives in the city). We didn’t have time to do everything, but we did manage to do each other! Addendum to my travel advice from before: leave at least one entire afternoon free for a pub crawl. We try to do this in every city we visit–the pure freedom of having to take a cab anyway means no d-driver! Other addenda:

Wow Him With Your Skillz

I had been to SF before, and also had the advantage of a day and a half alone in the city before he got there to refamiliarize myself. I scouted out a couple of restaurants that I thought he’d enjoy and also got a free streetmap and figured out where they were. This was awesome because by the time we got there, I fearlessly and successfully navigated us throughout the city, including public transportation–he was astonished that I knew exactly how to get everywhere and that all the places we went to eat were delicious. The best were:

• The Herbivore, which has won numerous awards for being the best vegan food. It’s also pretty inexpensive and the portions are great. As you might expect, it’s near Haight.
• The Stinking Rose, which has a garlic theme and in addition to the food sells lots of delicious garlic sauces, oils, and other seasonings. The strangest thing we had was garlic-flavored ice cream with caramel sauce. Only eat here with someone you really love. Despite much brushing of teeth, we were garlicky for a day and a half. North Beach.
• Kan Zeman, a Middle Eastern restaurant also in Haight. In addition to delicious food, there are belly dancers and hookahs–we had strawberry (hookah, not belly dancers).

Sexual Tension

Since we weren’t staying at a hotel, the increased sex drive that is a side effect of travel was a little tricky. However, one night I went to bed a little early while he and his friend went bar-hopping without me. They came back drunk as fuck at 3 a.m., and then he and I got it on in the air-mattress in the living room after his buddy went to bed. This was hot because we didn’t want to wake his friend and had to be very quiet, plus the additional challenge of an air mattress, which we had not done before. These two factors were foreplay enough, although apparently air mattresses weren’t manufactured to withstand those types of activities. The mattress was flat by morning, and our attempted repairs with duct tape didn’t really help. We had to re-inflate every three hours the next night.

I also laid the groundwork for sexual tension on future trips by buying a wig for our next trip to Vegas. This has been on the list to purchase for me for quite some time, and we found a great little wig shop in North Beach–I got a sleek blue bob that is the perfect excuse to get VIP passes and a bar tab the next time we go.

(buy me a drink, stranger?)