Mainstay Suites Hayward

... Me “No” I lied
Dude “Do you want to learn?”
Me “Sorry we have to meet people.” I lied
Dude “Where you from?”
Me “London, England.”
Dude “Well I hope you are enjoying your time here, as much as I’m enjoying seeing you two in your lovely dresses.”
Me “Yes we are.” Rachel remains mute
Dude “I work for a chiropractice which is also an art gallery ...

... im Hotel ging es gegen Abend in die 2. Shoppingrunde am Union Square und ließen, wir v**muten es wird nicht das letzte Mal sein, die Kreditkarte warmlaufen (ein Hoch auf Comdirect!). Diesen Abend ließen wir zu gut** letzt in einem Am**ican Din** und mit ein paar wund**schönen Nachtbild**n San Franciscos vom Coit Tow** aus zu Ende gehen. (Stephan war in we***** als 2 Minuten im Bett weggepennt!)

... size. Allowing for pedestrians and stopping for photos, it took us about 45 minutes to cross from one side to the other. Brooke almost cleaned up one guy who refused to move from her side of the pathway... American tosser. After the bridge it was a quick dash down the hill into Sausalito for a lunch break and a little shopping. Sausalito sits adjacent the water on a little cove in the Bay protected from the Pacific winds by the Marin Headlands, so it ...

... nice stroll along Venice Beach - home to some great street art; street vendors; over oiled muscle men; good looking basketballers; and of course the Q-tip guy. I'm not talking about a man that advertises Q-tips or has an overwhelming obsession with them... Q-Tip is somewhat of a local celebrity. He's a skinny african american man, that saktes around the beach on his roller blades, playing his guitar and singing songs about extra terrestrials.. Kinda unforgettable.Anyhow he tends ...

... for the delay. The planes anti skid feature on the brakes were faulty and needed to be rectified. Fine a maintenance problem is something that is a legitimate reason and I would just wait it out. Here is the thing the flight I had been taken off arrived while I was waiting and was due to depart before me. Do I get a standby for that one or wait it out? Wait it out. The airline representative at Chicago was working like a maniac and keeping everyone updated and also getting people ...

... off the side to Union Square since I didn't have a baby or stroller to hold (kinda sad though). Laid low at my hotel and then headed out to explore the Mission neighborhood before dinner at Foreign Cinema, a super cool indoor/outdoor restaurant that projects foreign films each night on the side of a building visible from the courtyard. Tonight, they showed Je T'aime. Absolutely wonderful ambiance and good food. I think my server ...

... daylight hours on United Airlines and hopes never to fly united again. Clearly the crew were practiced at making apologies and you would swear that they already had a plane load of "appreciation" vouchers filled in prior to departure, given they handed them around the cabin within the first hour of the ten hour flight. With more than 100 passengers still to be served, only one choice of main meal remained. It was reputed to be chicken ...

... salad sandwich which she greatly enjoyed. Admittedly, this was an expensive restaurant (Thanks for picking up the tab, Ricky!!), but I can see myself coming back here on a regular basis. We can always just have chowder and bread (we can probably swing the 5 bucks). It's worth it to sit and enjoy that view. After 'lunner' (late lunch/early dinner), we continued to wander around Sausalito. No longer cranky, we had a lot of fun going into some of the cute little ...

... the problem (lack of affordable housing being the main one) and the shameful exploitation of the homeless for political gain in mayoral campaigns. Each mayor promises to solve the problem with radical solutions or tough measures. A recent scandal involved a sensational newspaper article about the problem of street sleepers in Golden Gate Park, which resulted in a crack-down including 3am raids during which police confiscated people's possessions. Huh ...

... here in Hayward, California trying to catch up on work and see some of Tim's best friends in the area. Mal was nice enough to lend us his condo for the 3 nights we are here and we've already managed to take over the place. In just 48 hours we have him set up with wireless Internet and more importantly, he is now the proud owner of a plunger (we had to find out the hard way that he didn't already have one). We had a great time at "camp" up at Mountain Meadow Ranch ...