I love to eat. Â I am not a foody, but Mary is.
I love nice clothes. Â I am not a shopper, but Mary is.
I love to travel.  I don’t know places well.
But Mary knows all these things.
It’s relaxing to travel with friends like Mary because they hold in their hands all the knowledge they need as they negotiate the world – their cell phone accessed by yelp. They know facts about everything.  They check me in to all the places we go.  Life is never boring when I am with my friends.
 Within 7 minutes of arriving at the Double Tree in Berkeley, we were back in the hotel parking lot to catch the shuttle that took us to the North Berkeley BART station. Within one minute of descending the elevator, the train arrived, and we were whisked under the Bay to San Francisco.  Manny wasn’t wearing his concrete shoes, so we made it safely to the other side.
The perfect weather beckoned me to dwaddle, so I left my camera in my purse. Everything I saw I wanted to photograph, but I resisted temptation, and left my camera asleep in my purse along with Manny. I know – I’d make a terrible Teddy Bear Rights Advocate!
It was 3:00 p.m., and we hadn’t eaten lunch. We hustled to the Ferry Station where food choices surrounded us. It was impossible not to find a good place to eat.
Unfortunately I had eaten a spinach artichoke quiche at Panera’s AND a bagel for breakfast at about 9:30 a.m.l! Yikes – don’t do that. NO MATTER HOW GREAT IT IS! It will make your stomach feel like exploding ALL DAY! Resist temptation. Then, for heaven’s sake, don’t stop at the best bakery in the Central Valley of California. And if you do stop there, don’t eat a frosted sugar cookie! Not even one bite! Even if it’s hours later, whatever you do, don’t eat a warm egg salad sandwich and brussel sprout, sweet potato chicken soup on top of that! You know there’s more. Don’t try to sample EVERY piece of chocolate in the Ferry Terminal! And for heaven’s sake, don’t try to eat a huge Chinese dinner on top of all that! But if you do, be sure to have the flowering tea. It’s very calming.
After we got through making ourselves sick at the Ferry we walked two blocks to catch the N Judah bus which the young lady at the butter pastery shop told us would take us to Union Square. What she didn’t tell us was that the N Juda buss ran only late at night. So after letting one or two busses pass us by, we got on the next bus that came along, and it took us where we wanted to go. The goal was to reach a store called Uniqulo. This is sort of the Japanese IKEA for clothes. You will enjoy how colorful it is.
Mary found plenty to buy. I bought another coat, so I could layer all three as we walked all night in San Francisco. I was almost warm enough as we toured the park including the ice rink, and walked across the street to Macy’s .
We had to go to Mary’s favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner. I had one potsticker, a few spoonfuls of wonton soup with sizzling rice in a coconut broth, and one tiny orange chicken nugget, and lovely flowering tea. It was probably really delicious.
After dinner we walked towards the bay to the BART station. We stopped at the Embarcadero Cinema, but decided that the only show we were in time to see, Hitchcock, was not worth possibly missing the BART, and our shuttle back to the hotel which ended at 10:30. So we shuffled back down the street to the station, and one and a half minutes after we arrived, the train pulled into the station, we boarded and sloshed back across the bay to Berkeley.
So much fun.  So much food.  So much shopping, So much cold.  So much walking.  So many pictures.  You know I like to so….  🙂
So what did you do this week-end?
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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