Trickery

Mid week last week my husband requested a spelunking day in San Francisco for this Saturday. Spelunking is our term for an un-formulated day of adventure, in which you spend the day using public transportation, hopping off at spots that look good to you, which you proceed to explore. We had not done this for a while so I jumped at the chance, and we set the day aside for exploring. On Saturday we slept as late as we wanted (oooohhh 7:45 so very late), sat about drinking coffee, then agreed to walk the one mile up to the train station picking up breakfast along the way.

We stopped in at a greek dinner and had omelets, then boarded the train to the city. We switched to the BART line, and decided to ride to the Embarcadero station and visit the Ferry Building. Climbing up the stairs to street level we remembered that it was farmer's market day at the Ferry Building. Though things were wrapping up at the market, we spent a little time winding around the stalls in the rain, eyeing cheeses, bread, fruit, and meats. We went and stood looking at the Bay for a while then meandered into the Ferry Building to look at the vendors and scout out a light lunch. We ended up with two superb Acme bread company Salami, butter, and cornichon pickle sandwiches on lovely still-warm french bread and found a table overlooking the ferries to eat.

Chris then proclaimed that he knew what he wanted to do next and we walked over to the Cable Car stop and rode up to Grace Cathedral. Chris had sung there in High School for choir and said he wanted to go see it again. When we arrived there were some signs about a concert happening that afternoon, but we figured we had about 30 min to go inside and check out the cathedral. When we stepped inside Chris headed over to the will call table, and I thought he was going to inquire about possibly buying tickets. But instead he asked for the tickets under our name, that stinker! He totally pulled one over on me! I had no idea that he had pre-planned the whole thing. He didn't let on at all! He even tricked me into eating lunch so I wouldn't be hungry for the concert. It was very tricky, and a lovely surprise. The Men and Boy's choir put on a concert, which was amazing. The space was filled with their incredible voices singing a mix of old and new christmas hymns. I actually had to breath in hard a few times to keep myself from crying, it was so beautiful. Though I am not particularly religious, I came away completely understanding how people could be inspired to fully believe. I was filled with awe from the whole event, and have probably said thank-you to Chris about 30 times in the past 24 hours.

After the concert we walked the Labyrinth outside the Cathedral, then made our way over to North Beach for a visit to the City Lights Bookstore. We browsed for a while and came away with couple of books, then went to a nearby cafe for a beer. We then went to the Stinking Rose for dinner, somewhere I have always wanted to go. This place is a serious garlic lover's dream. they claim to serve over 30,000 pounds of garlic per month. We sat at the window there, people watched, and ate probably about a pound of garlic between the two of us. Then it was off to watch A Christmas Carol in I-Max 3-D at the Metreon Theater. We arrived early got our 3-D glasses and were the first in the Theater. The movie was very, very good and was very true to the book. The 3-D was great, and I can see how 3-D might save the modern movie theater. Then it was off to the last train out of San Francisco of the night, a rainy walk home, and bed. All in all one of the best days ever.