When I left, I decided that I'd just go--just do the things I really wanted to do and if I felt like lying around doing nothing, well, i'd do that, too, without guilt.

I pretty much accomplished this, I think.

Call it the Lazy Girl's Tour of California.

Day 1: Seattle - San Francisco - San Jose - Sacramento

Before dawn (though just before dawn; the solstice is very near), I got on a shuttle van, which took me to the airport. It was very early, so everything was pretty much a blur--I breezed through security, found a seat at my terminal, and dozed for an hour. The flight passed in a similar blur. I got off the plane, and due to a delay in getting off the plane and the fact that we'd come in at the international terminal but our bags were at the domestic terminal, my bag was already on the carousel when i got there. I picked it up and away I went.

I waited about ten minutes for a bus to the Caltrain station, and within an hour of setting foot in San Francisco I was on a train south to San Jose. When my train pulled into San Jose, an earlier Capitol Corridor train than I'd thought I'd catch was about to board, so I popped onto it and called my folks to let them know I'd be early. I spent a while writing letters and scribbling in my notebook. And staring out the window. On the Bay Area leg of the trip, there was all sorts of fascinating urban life going on by the train tracks--backyards full of prickly pear, a pile of trash three men were picking through.

In the San Joaquin Valley, there were farms to look at, and birds--a family of ducks, egrets, a thousand barn swallows, and a couple of large raptors, including an immature red-tailed hawk and some other kind of hawk I wasn't familiar with. Not a red-tail or an osprey, but something else. I'll have to look it up.

I arrived in Sacramento, and the air hit me like a sledgehammer. It was 102 at the train station when I arrived, and I was feeling every degree of it. Fortunately, I was wearing a sundress because of this very thing, and my dad's car was well air-conditioned. I made to my folks' house at about 4:30.

My mom was out working, so my dad made margaritas and we swam for a while in the pool. I can see why people who live where my parents do consider a pool a necessity. It was really nice to be able to take a cool dip when it got warm. My mom arrived, we made dinner, and then there was strawberry shortcake. Mmmmmmm. With fresh-made shortcake, even.

My dad left early the next morning, so I got to spend the next couple of days with my mom, which was a lot of fun.

Day 2: Sacramento - Nevada City - Grass Valley

My mom and I went up to the gold country for a bit on Wednesday. We started at Nevada City, had lunch, and made our way to Grass Valley after lunch. There were a lot of cute little stores, but absolutely nothing I honestly wanted to buy was in them. Lunch was really good--we stopped at the place called the Country Rose, which was country French food. My mom and I both had a cup of sherry mushroom soup and a warm ham and Havarti sandwich. Divine, absolutely.

Grass Valley was more to my taste than Nevada City; it seemed like a place people could actually live rather than a tourist trap. It was hot and we were tired, so we headed back to my mom's place, swam, and made dinner.

Day 3: Sacramento

Not terribly much to say about this day--we went to Sacramento's Old Town in the morning and swung by the theater that we'd be going to later that night. We hung around the house and read that afternoon. This is why I love my mom--both she and I consider an afternoon of hanging around the house and reading time well spent. My dad would have been nagging us if he were there instead of in Minnesota. I was thankful for small favors.

That evening, we got dressed up (well, I did; I seized the excuse to wear my long black linen dress), went out for tapas, and then went to see a play called Six Women with Brain Death, which is a terribly amusing musical very vaguely based on tabloid headlines.

Evidently, Sacramento has an arts scene. Who woulda thunk it?

Day 4: Sacramento - San Francisco

I got out of bed late, packed up, and my mom dropped me off at the train station, and I got on yet another train back to San Francisco. There are all sorts of amusing things along the train tracks in the Valley--like the multitude of shooting galleries in the middle of nowhere.

I popped off Amtrak in Richmond, transferred to BART, and soon enough arrived at the embarcadero station, in downtown San Francisco.

I had a few moments of disorientation--I've never spent a lot of time at that end of downtown--but found my hotel easily enough. Zipping through the Friday afternoon foot traffic in the Financial District with my bags, I got checked into my hotel, went up to my room, and flopped onto my bed. Ah, sweet silence.

The hotel room was pretty darned nice, too. Granite in the bathroom, down comforters, an actual CD player...it was not too shabby at all, really.

I had some time before things started to close, so I took a bus over to Ghirardelli Square in order to get it out of the way. I'd been told that there really wasn't much there these days but restaurants, which turned out to be true, to my disappointment. I took the bus back and then the train down to Union Square, where I managed to locate a bookstore so I could stock up. I was not about to abandon myself to the tender mercies on the San Francisco bus system without something to read, thank you.

I did a bit of wandering around Union Square, looking for but failing to find the Lush store. I should have looked harder, as I thought I'd be back but didn't actually get back to Union Square. Next time!

Went back to my hotel, fell over.

Day 5: San Francisco

Started out today by walking up to Chinatown. It looked walkable on the map, but it was a bit farther than it looked. I wandered Grant for a little bit, thought about walking down Stockton but decided that I was getting a bit overwhelmed. Chinatown is very colorful, very crowded, and everything seems to be screaming for attention. It was fun, and I was right to do it first thing in the morning when I was still fresh, and I will definitely go back the next time I'm in SF.

I popped by my hotel room and on a total whim decided to go to the farmer's market in the Ferry Building. I walked in and felt immediately at home--it looked like every farmer's market I've ever been in. I dodged the crowds, bought some organic strawberries, and thought about but didn't buy a piece of berry crisp. I went up to Flax (in the Haight) and bought paper. Lots of paper. The roll I brought back with me is heavier than it looks.

In the afternoon, I went to the Asian Art Museum, in its new home in the old Main Library. It was...wow. Lots of lovely things to look at, and the architecture of the building its in was monumental. I enjoyed the more modern galleries more than the ancient galleries, but I found something to like pretty much everywhere I looked.

That evening, I had dinner with Tasha and JD and Vy, who came in from the East Bay just for us! It was really good to see everyone again, and I had a good time.

Then, back to my hotel and again with the falling over. This was beginning to be a theme.

Day 6: San Francisco

I decided, pretty much on a whim, to go to Pier 39, the scene of many a shopping adventure when I was younger. This being Sunday, the entirety of the tourist population in San Francisco had the same idea, and I ended up sharing a trolley car with what seemed like all of them.

There have been a number of new places added to the pier since I was there last, and I had a good time wandering around and shopping. I bought myself a pretty necklace, and then went out to the end of the pier to look at the sea lions.

I felt like such a tourist. I mean, yes, the sea lions are overwhelmingly noisy. They also have a stench that makes the occasional whiff of the docks that you get most places downtown seem like Chanel N.9. But it's just fascinating to watch them as they pile their sleek brown bodies on the rafts, flopping on top of each other, dark slick wet fur against fluffy lighter brown dry fur.

And, yes, I took pictures.

Took the trolley back, went to the Squat and Gobble in West Portal for lunch (smoked salmon and caper crepes. YUM.), took the Muni train back to Powell, and then caught a bus to the Union Street Festival, also more or less on a whim. The Union Street festival wasn't huge (maybe three-quarters of the size of the University Streetfair in Seattle) but they did have a good mix of crafy stuff--more jewelry, less ceramics, really. I had a lovely time wandering up and down the street, and it was a glimpse of a neighborhood I'd never been in, Pacific Heights.

I'd intended to wander around North Beach, but my feet were telling me that it was time to sit for a while, so I went back to my hotel and took a nap. After I woke up, I went to see Bend It Like Beckham which was playing at the theater across the street. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit--it was exactly what I wanted to see after two and a half days of being a tourist in a city that I love but that's far too big to see in a weekend.

And, yes, I went and fell over again. Funny, that.

Day 7: San Francisco - Seattle

Got up, packed, checked out, went to BART and took the train to Colma and a bus to the airport. My plane was an hour late, and I ended up getting home about 4:30 or so. Plane travel is fatiguing, but it was the three buses I took at the end that just about did me in.

I got home, opened up the house, petted the cats (who were alternately clingy and standoffish, standard "you were GONE!" behavior, caught up on my email and Livejournal, and basically unwound for the rest of the evening. I evidently missed a scorcher of a weekend here, which I am more than happy about.

I unpacked (mostly), and then fell into bed and slept for nine hours. Today, I'm working from home.

Life's good. Mmmmmyeah.

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