I am a big fat tourist.
I am in San Francisco visiting brother Luke. Today I flew into Oakland at 9:00 AM PST, meaning I was up at 4:00 AM EST, or 1:00 AM PST. So needless to say, I had to take a small nap. I was powered by a bunch of coffee all day, and it wore off with a thud. So like an a typical American, being someplace new means that I had to eat a lot of different food. Yes, they are even fat in San Francisco.
From the beginning of the flight I got a swift dealing of Californitude. A fat family was arguing at full volume at 5:30 in the morning. Shut the fuck up, please. (This is going to be a recurring theme, so buckle up.)
We went first to Four Seas, a “safe” Chinese restaurant in China town. I ate far too much. All the food was pretty much unidentifiable, and we would ask the server and she would say what it was and we would still look at each other looking for some clue from the other; and receiving shrugs would plough into the strange food. For desert I bought a tapioca drink which rocked and Luke had a taste of Durian ice cream. I just had a whiff and the smell, which is a mixture of decomposing meat and the water in the bottom of a dumpster behind a Popeye’s Fried Chicken was enough to make my stomach churn.
Then we went to look at the sea lions. They are big, noisy and very fuzzy.
After that we went to the Aquarium, where one of Luke’s friends works diving into the tanks and feeding sharks. Just about the coolest job on Earth. We went behind the scenes, which was super-cool, and petted some stingrays.
Finally, I had some seaweed salad and we went out for pizza at night. It was a good day, entirely fueled by coffee. Now I sleep.