Wow, that was quite a week.  Matter of fact it stretched a bit into this week, necessitating the slightly late update.  It was my birthday week, and I’d say I got considerably more mileage out of it than usual, if perhaps only by sheer coincidence.  We kicked things off by meeting up with several friends in San Francisco for a few days.  While I’d like to think they all came to celebrate my birthday, we were actually there to take part in the 103rd annual Bay To Breakers run.  Several in the group had done it before, but it was our maiden voyage.  And oh, what a voyage.  We had intentionally elected to queue up in the back of the crowd, as we had no plans of actually running.  We just wanted to walk the 7.5 miles and enjoy the show.  And, indeed, a show it was.  Even the veterans in our group proclaimed it quite a bit bawdier than they’d seen before.  Despite many visible notices proclaiming a crack-down on alcohol, nudity, backpacks, strollers, and fun in general, nobody seemed deterred in the slightest.  (I kept all my clothes on, for the record.)  We got some idea of what we were in for when we got stuck in the start gate (with the other 40,000 runners) for a good hour, directly behind a rather chubby fella wearing face paint and flip-flops.  Just face paint and flip-flops.  (OK, he did sport a few other fashion accessories, which shall go unnamed,  mostly because I’m not really sure what they’re called.)  Apparently in an attempt to keep warm in the chilly morning air, he felt the need to constantly jump up and down.  I still wake up screaming.  There were lots of entertaining costumes actually consisting of clothes, too.  There was definitely ample scenery to keep us entertained throughout our leisurely stroll.  It was so freaking crowded we really couldn’t have run even if we wanted to though, so we ended up sort of shuffle-stepping the entire 7.5 mile party.

After the “run,” we managed to navigate the daunting commute back to our rental house.  (Ever seen 40,000+ people, mostly badly impaired, trying to find a ride home at once?  It was nearly as entertaining as the run itself.)  Donette had found the house online, in the Haight Ashbury district.  Personally I’d never even heard of this neighborhood, but apparently it’s generally widely recognized.  It was a great house, and the location was a blast.  It had plenty of room for the group, and we were in walking distance to more places than we could hope to visit in our short trip.  Not remarkably, I was most fond of the brewpub Magnolias, which was conveniently located a mere two doors down from us.  I enjoyed the bar-none best blue cheese burger in recent memory, not to mention a few pints of their Prescription Pale Ale.  (Which I see is no longer available, guess I got lucky.)  It appeared that several thousand people had cut their run considerably short and opted to just party all day, so we plunked down on the front porch and just watched the bizarro’s walk around.  Matter of fact, even on the other days we were there, the front porch provided more than enough people-watching value;  We spent quite a few hours out there.  That pretty much wraps up the San Francisco portion of our trip.  Tune in tomorrow (or the next day…  Or the next…) when we continue our riveting journey to Sonoma!