Two Final Days in San Martin
Dec. 1st, 2024 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWe had our two final days in San Martin.
Yesterday, our big event was a trip up to the Dickens Fair in South San Francisco. Kimberly and I had actually wanted to go to the Dickens Fair in 2019, just before we moved to Kauai, but she ended up in need of surgery that year, and I was packing for the move, and it was a mess of a year, so we never made it. That made it terrific when my mom asked if we were interested in going (as one of her pickleball players could offer her discount tickets).
The Dickens Fair was a lot of fun. I hadn't really known what to expect, as it was five years ago that I really looked at the description of the Fair, but I hadn't expected it to be a little miniature London, more or less, with little shops along roads, all inside some of the smaller buildings behind the Cow Palace.
Most of the buildings (really, 15x15 or so stalls, but most of them were built out to look like buildings) were for craftsmen showing off the wares. We saw a lot of gorgeous things there. Some pottery stalls caught our eye almost immediately, and we had fun looking at owl pots and turtle pots and such. We also gawked at jewelry, musical instruments, Christmas ornaments, and other classical materials. There were also some stalls that were doing more interactive work. One of them (where my mom's friend who got us the tickets worked) was painting Christmas ornament. I would have done that to have a memento for our Christmas tree, except it was really jammed when we went by. There was also a fairy house making stand which looked pretty cool. (Both were of course full of kids, but I wouldn't have had any objection to taking part in a "kid" activity.)
There were also performances. We saw some sea chanties as we came in, and also watched a performance of the Ghost of Christmas Future scene from A Christmas Carol. They were both impacted negatively by the huge loudness of the crowds. In particular, we could only hear a few actors in the Dickens piece, and even they went in and out. Which is terrible, because they'd clearly put so much work into it! However, we also saw a neat band doing a great classic song (though they were just finishing up as they got there) and also another band doing dance numbers, with lots of classic dancing going on. That was actually the height of the performances for us. We watched the dancing for several songs before heading on.
Oh and finally there was food. We circled around a while and settled on Fish & Chips. My mom and Kimberly ordered fish & chips and I ordered shrimp & chips. Which perhaps was a mistake. The fish & chips were just handed off immediately but for the shrimp order (or for oyster or calamari), they handed you a ticket of a specific color (white, red, or yellow) and then every once in a while they'd bring out an order and shout "RED TICKET" (or whatever) and then as far as I could tell you had to fistfight the other customers to get the order. We all milled for a while, and watched the results of the first few fistfights, as the victors carried their seafood away in triumph and the bloodied losers crawled back to the scrum. Eventually one of the staff explained that we were supposed to be in another line waiting for our food and then the front people would take their food first. Almost sensible. So we started doing that, though at this point I wasn't going to let anyone lurk when they were supposed to be queueing, so I almost got into a fistfight forcing someone back into the line. That's why it was only _almost_ sensible: because of the total lack of documentation or UI. But I eventually got my shrimp and it was good.
We had some chocolate chip cookies too, and those were excellent.
As I've alluded throughout this, the Fair was *very* crowded. It's the biggest crowds I've been in since COVID struck. I did wear a mask throughout, as did Kimberly. Except while eating. Hopefully we managed to stay clear of sickness, but it was just a little unnerving.
(Total number of masks seen in the crush of thousands over the course of four hours or so: somewhere between a dozen and twenty, including our two.)
Other things done these last two days:
1) A bit of practice on the uke. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and When the Saints Come Marching in. I'll probably practice on Kimberly's when I get home, and then a little birdie told me there might be a uke coming for Christmas.
2) Some more games. (Calico.)
3) We watched both parts of Dune (though we actually started that earlier in the trip than these last two days: it took us two sessions to watch each looooong movie). Bob is always happy to watch something with us in the evenings, and this time he suggested Dune, which was an excellent choice. I think I've read the book twice, and consider it a masterpiece. But the movie was a masterpiece too, really a high point for special effects and directing that felt totally in tune with the source material. Kimberly and I have added Dune to our read-aloud queue, but we first need to finish up _On Color_, _Norse Mythology_, and the _Magicians_ trilogy.
4) Finally, I helped Bob move around a bunch of furniture today, because starting tomorrow they are knocking out a wall in their house to combine their family room and living room into a great hall.
We were going to visit my sister on the way up to Berkeley, but thanksgiving-crud has descended on the household, so it was straight up to Berkeley instead (other than a drive-by stop to drop a present on the doorstep and just wave at my sister from the car).
But that meant we got a quick drive up to Berkeley (thanks mom!).
Last year I avoided Air B&Bs because of mediocre experiences in Germany (and in Berkeley the previous year), and we also wanted to make sure Kimberly had some place accessible because her knee was very bad. This year the prices had shifted around again and I decided an Air B&B made more sense. I always find us somewhere pretty close to BART, and this year that was Rockridge BART. The place had been deeply discounted, I think because they were a relatively new listing looking for ratings. It's gorgeous. Beautiful furniture. Thoughtful amenities like charging platforms (discs) for mobile phones. Really nicely remodeled. Bright lighting in all the rooms. We paid about $200 a night and I'd bet it's $300 a night next year. But if not it's definitely on my would-stay-again list, at least based on what it looks like when we arrived. It's probably the nicest Air B&B I've ever stayed at, though I just barely remember a pretty nice Air B&B we were at in Waikiki for just a night after Kimberly's foot surgery a few years ago.
When we got up to Berkeley, we had dinner scheduled with N., the officiant for our wedding. We had great Chinese food of a sort we really don't get in Hawaii (including mu shu, which is definitely missing from most or all Kauaian Chinese restaurants). And a few hours of great conversation with an old friends. (She'd led a writing group that both Kimberly and I had participated in, which was why we asked her to officiate.) So, a good start to the visit up North.
We'll be in Berkeley for 4 more nights and I have things scheduled every night, but the days are mostly free. I want to see Wicked when I'm out here, because it's not even showing on Kauai! The one theater on the island, which just shows one show at a time, had some movie I'd never heard of scheduled last week, then Gladiator 2 this week, then Moana 2 after that. But here I can just walk a mile and see Wicked. I'd like to hike in the hills. And I'd like to wander around Golden Gate Park. If I manage all of that, that'll probably be my three free days, Tuesday to Thursday. But we'll see!
Yesterday, our big event was a trip up to the Dickens Fair in South San Francisco. Kimberly and I had actually wanted to go to the Dickens Fair in 2019, just before we moved to Kauai, but she ended up in need of surgery that year, and I was packing for the move, and it was a mess of a year, so we never made it. That made it terrific when my mom asked if we were interested in going (as one of her pickleball players could offer her discount tickets).
The Dickens Fair was a lot of fun. I hadn't really known what to expect, as it was five years ago that I really looked at the description of the Fair, but I hadn't expected it to be a little miniature London, more or less, with little shops along roads, all inside some of the smaller buildings behind the Cow Palace.
Most of the buildings (really, 15x15 or so stalls, but most of them were built out to look like buildings) were for craftsmen showing off the wares. We saw a lot of gorgeous things there. Some pottery stalls caught our eye almost immediately, and we had fun looking at owl pots and turtle pots and such. We also gawked at jewelry, musical instruments, Christmas ornaments, and other classical materials. There were also some stalls that were doing more interactive work. One of them (where my mom's friend who got us the tickets worked) was painting Christmas ornament. I would have done that to have a memento for our Christmas tree, except it was really jammed when we went by. There was also a fairy house making stand which looked pretty cool. (Both were of course full of kids, but I wouldn't have had any objection to taking part in a "kid" activity.)
There were also performances. We saw some sea chanties as we came in, and also watched a performance of the Ghost of Christmas Future scene from A Christmas Carol. They were both impacted negatively by the huge loudness of the crowds. In particular, we could only hear a few actors in the Dickens piece, and even they went in and out. Which is terrible, because they'd clearly put so much work into it! However, we also saw a neat band doing a great classic song (though they were just finishing up as they got there) and also another band doing dance numbers, with lots of classic dancing going on. That was actually the height of the performances for us. We watched the dancing for several songs before heading on.
Oh and finally there was food. We circled around a while and settled on Fish & Chips. My mom and Kimberly ordered fish & chips and I ordered shrimp & chips. Which perhaps was a mistake. The fish & chips were just handed off immediately but for the shrimp order (or for oyster or calamari), they handed you a ticket of a specific color (white, red, or yellow) and then every once in a while they'd bring out an order and shout "RED TICKET" (or whatever) and then as far as I could tell you had to fistfight the other customers to get the order. We all milled for a while, and watched the results of the first few fistfights, as the victors carried their seafood away in triumph and the bloodied losers crawled back to the scrum. Eventually one of the staff explained that we were supposed to be in another line waiting for our food and then the front people would take their food first. Almost sensible. So we started doing that, though at this point I wasn't going to let anyone lurk when they were supposed to be queueing, so I almost got into a fistfight forcing someone back into the line. That's why it was only _almost_ sensible: because of the total lack of documentation or UI. But I eventually got my shrimp and it was good.
We had some chocolate chip cookies too, and those were excellent.
As I've alluded throughout this, the Fair was *very* crowded. It's the biggest crowds I've been in since COVID struck. I did wear a mask throughout, as did Kimberly. Except while eating. Hopefully we managed to stay clear of sickness, but it was just a little unnerving.
(Total number of masks seen in the crush of thousands over the course of four hours or so: somewhere between a dozen and twenty, including our two.)
Other things done these last two days:
1) A bit of practice on the uke. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and When the Saints Come Marching in. I'll probably practice on Kimberly's when I get home, and then a little birdie told me there might be a uke coming for Christmas.
2) Some more games. (Calico.)
3) We watched both parts of Dune (though we actually started that earlier in the trip than these last two days: it took us two sessions to watch each looooong movie). Bob is always happy to watch something with us in the evenings, and this time he suggested Dune, which was an excellent choice. I think I've read the book twice, and consider it a masterpiece. But the movie was a masterpiece too, really a high point for special effects and directing that felt totally in tune with the source material. Kimberly and I have added Dune to our read-aloud queue, but we first need to finish up _On Color_, _Norse Mythology_, and the _Magicians_ trilogy.
4) Finally, I helped Bob move around a bunch of furniture today, because starting tomorrow they are knocking out a wall in their house to combine their family room and living room into a great hall.
We were going to visit my sister on the way up to Berkeley, but thanksgiving-crud has descended on the household, so it was straight up to Berkeley instead (other than a drive-by stop to drop a present on the doorstep and just wave at my sister from the car).
But that meant we got a quick drive up to Berkeley (thanks mom!).
Last year I avoided Air B&Bs because of mediocre experiences in Germany (and in Berkeley the previous year), and we also wanted to make sure Kimberly had some place accessible because her knee was very bad. This year the prices had shifted around again and I decided an Air B&B made more sense. I always find us somewhere pretty close to BART, and this year that was Rockridge BART. The place had been deeply discounted, I think because they were a relatively new listing looking for ratings. It's gorgeous. Beautiful furniture. Thoughtful amenities like charging platforms (discs) for mobile phones. Really nicely remodeled. Bright lighting in all the rooms. We paid about $200 a night and I'd bet it's $300 a night next year. But if not it's definitely on my would-stay-again list, at least based on what it looks like when we arrived. It's probably the nicest Air B&B I've ever stayed at, though I just barely remember a pretty nice Air B&B we were at in Waikiki for just a night after Kimberly's foot surgery a few years ago.
When we got up to Berkeley, we had dinner scheduled with N., the officiant for our wedding. We had great Chinese food of a sort we really don't get in Hawaii (including mu shu, which is definitely missing from most or all Kauaian Chinese restaurants). And a few hours of great conversation with an old friends. (She'd led a writing group that both Kimberly and I had participated in, which was why we asked her to officiate.) So, a good start to the visit up North.
We'll be in Berkeley for 4 more nights and I have things scheduled every night, but the days are mostly free. I want to see Wicked when I'm out here, because it's not even showing on Kauai! The one theater on the island, which just shows one show at a time, had some movie I'd never heard of scheduled last week, then Gladiator 2 this week, then Moana 2 after that. But here I can just walk a mile and see Wicked. I'd like to hike in the hills. And I'd like to wander around Golden Gate Park. If I manage all of that, that'll probably be my three free days, Tuesday to Thursday. But we'll see!