Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

Monday dawned a little gloomier with some overcast skies and expected drizzle. After our requisite visit with Kitty, we also got a visit from one of my sister’s other friends, Rocco!

Rocco is a little tornado of mayhem, but he does know how to pose for a picture.

After pulling Rocco out of the garbage and giving him a tummy rub, we set out to begin our day with a visit to Benefit on Fillmore (for a little shopping on my sister’s part and a little brow waxing on my part).  After our girl time, we made our way over to Union Street, otherwise known as Cow Hollow.

Our official purpose was to shop for a Mother’s Day present and also for me to find gifts for my coworkers. It’s always nice to have a good excuse to go shopping. We stopped in several places like an antique store that had old printing blocks of several sizes. I was going to try to get a set for everyone at work, but couldn’t find the right complete set of initials in either size, but I did find my own initials:

There’s also a tea cup in that store I had to leave behind because I was sure it would get broken trying to get it home. But it was pretty. We also went shopping all over. There are lots of bridal stores and spas on that little street. I have an idea that when one gets married in San Francisco, the bridal party spends the day there when they get the dresses and have their girl day. We eventually found mom’s present in a little store called The Enchanted Crystal. Oh, I fell in love. It was a wondrous place. I almost got a wizard ring (if it had been a sorceress instead of a wizard, it woulda been gone!). Instead I got a dragon ring (at this point, I should probably include a picture, but the dragon is currently taking a nap in the jewelry box and I don’t want to wake him). My sister also found a fabulous pair of sunglasses which you may see later…

After all this shopping it was time for a little lunch, especially since breakfast had been lattes, but nothing more. We wandered up and down the street to figure out where to go and finally settled on Perry’s as it was just noon and we wanted to be assured we could have some fortifying beer with our lunch. As the waiter brought our soup (tortilla for my sister, Morgan, and clam chowder for me) and beer (Blue Chimay for Morgan and Franziskaner Hefeweisen for me) and wished us a “Happy Quatro de Mayo” we were inspired to begin the second part of our day and go try out the Haight.

Upon stepping off the bus on the Lower Haight we found ourselves almost right in front of — wait for it — that’s right — MAD DOG IN THE FOG!

The bar was empty except for the chatty bartender.  We weren’t sure what we wanted or why we were there, we just felt compelled to go in (you know how it is) and it was then that the bartender advised us that a strengthening pint of 250th anniversary Guinness would be just right to help us decide.

It was then that we realized we were going to spend the rest of the day on a pub crawl. Indeed, we were merely continuing what we had already begun at Perry’s.  The bartender (in San Francisco by way of England, Australia, and Los Angeles) had some good stories about walking home drunk in the countryside of England and talked me out of the tshirts (“they look like shit”).

Then people started filtering in, we were finished with our beers and decided to go on up the street. There was another bar, an Irish bar, I remembered that the bartender didn’t know about, An Bodhran. And the reason he didn’t know about it is that it closed and reopened as Danny Coyles!

At this point, my sister realized she’s seen the beginning of the camera monster that will soon inhabit our every move. But at this point, she was only mildly amused and slightly annoyed. Here I had a Smithwick’s ale (can’t remember what she had) and we split a shot of Blanton’s whisky. Nice stuff. You should try it sometime. Did not get an action shot of the drink, but the bartender there told us about a whiskey she likes to drink at New Years, Midleton’s. She said it’s way overpriced here, but she calls home to Ireland on New Years and it’s what they’re all drinkin’ there and they laugh at how much she has to pay for it here. (You know, the bartenders in Los Angeles would never have chatted with us like these people did. It was so nice!)

After Danny Coyle’s we walked a little until a bus was coming and then hopped on it go the rest of the way up the Haight. But before that, we passed by a restaurant that always made me laugh whenever I went by it on the bus. Never ate there. It still makes me laugh. I’m such a juvenile.

So, eventually, we end up at Masonic and Haight and decide it’s time for a little gnosh (or is that nosh? or knosh?). Anyway, we stop at the Magnolia Pub and Brewery where we split a glass of red wine and an order of fish and chips (best fries ever!) and of course drink water.

At Magnolia, our waitress learns we’re on a pub crawl and tells us about The Alembic up the street.

It’s owned by the same people who own Magnolia, but it specializes in signature cocktails.  Of course, we didn’t go straight up there as we were several drinks in, needed to get cash and really enjoyed shopping in vintage stores since we had a good buzz going (and there are some NICE vintage stores on the Haight). And since I lived near there once upon a time I got to get all nostalgic about The Red Vic and the Red Victorian Hotel and Peace Center (if you ever want to stay some place fun and on the Haight, stay there!). Now, The Alembic is the type of place I could spend all night in trying different drinks. It’s more expensive than the average drink in San Francisco, and I’d end up sick as hell by the end of the night, but it would be lots of fun before then. It is also where the drunk dialing began. But first the drinks (which I forgot to take a picture of). One of us had something called The Boutonierre (which isn’t on the menu online but I swear it was there that night) and the other had The Vow of Silence. They tasted similar. We’re gin-girls and we like the citrus/bitters stuff. It was good.

The drunk dialing began because I was telling my sister the legend of a Gal Named Soo, an infamous story in my crowd. I couldn’t remember the exact facts so I called some mutual friends who had also lived nearby back in the day and who knew the story. And then that led us, inevitably, to The Gold Cane (because back in the day, that’s where we ALWAYS ended up).

Ah, The Gold Cane! My sister surprised me with Knob Creek on the rocks. That was nice. We sat and chatted and were on our way out. I was taking the picture above and also had in mind this picture of my sister with her cool new sunglasses:

In my drunken state I was sure all those white dots were ghosts floating around my sister. The next morning I realized it was water on the lens from the mist…. ;-P

Then we had one of those many San Francisco moments where you’re drunk or high and make friends with a stranger on the street. Meet “Mike”:

Above is them acting out the LA-moment “too cool for school” music scene, below is them just being San Francisco fun.

After we said our goodbye’s to Mike we traipsed on down to Trax Bar, THE gay bar on the Haight.

(If you’re paying attention, you can notice this picture was taken on “Cinco de Mayo” in the daytime and not “Quatro de Mayo” at night and that’s because I was a bit soused and forgot to take a picture the night before and had to come back so I could take the picture. My sister was very indulgent of me.)

My sister and I once again made friends with the bartender who told us a couple of dirty jokes as we each sipped on our gin martinis (mine being dirty of course). We then ordered another one to split and were pleasantly surprised when the bartender made us each a shot on the house. Can’t remember what it was called, but it had cranberry juice, pineapple juice and vodka in it. Tasty. Might make you sick if you had too many of them, but it was nice, and it was tasty. Here we also continued our drunk dialing by texting a friend of ours in Canada (who called us back that night), texting another one in Seattle (who called back a couple of days later – “who’s this?”), and then, of course, calling our MOM! (She called back the next morning and was very glad to hear from us and that we were having such a good time!)

From Trax, my sister decided we really needed to go down to Noc Noc. I think, THINK we may have taken a bus down there, but we could very well have walked. It’s all downhill.

Above, Noc Noc from the outside and below, Noc Noc on the inside. (There was also a picture I took of some canister tubing thing on the ceiling that I just KNEW was Cthulu in disguise or Robot Cthulu or SOME-THING and the next morning realized was just a canister with tubing hanging from the ceiling so I deleted it.)

At this point we were back to pints of beer, and here’s the action shot to prove it. I had the Boddington’s and my sister had the Chimay.

I think the bartender knew we were a bit soused (and so were a few other people) because he was shoving pretzels under everyone’s noses like nurses pushing pills in a nursing home and we inhaled them. It was at that point that we realized it was time to pour ourselves into a cab and go home, where we promptly devoured some hearty pasta and tomatoes, drank some water and juice, and fell asleep to another James Bond flick.