We stayed at the Hotel Union Square. We've stayed there before, and I've always been a big fan, but lately they've been screwing up reservations. This is the room we reserved, and due to some screwup we had to wait a night to get into it. It all got sorted out in the end, but the lady at the front desk seems really unsmart, and her boss had to fix it. Strange.

Anyway, Dashiell Hammett is a famous author who apparently invented the whole cheesy detective novel genre.

We've stayed in this room before. It's nice and big and has great light.

They've decorated this suite to be full of his old stuff, and sort of have period items in it. This is some old hat that Lorin modeled. She's fun.

It's got "Sam Spade" on the window, like it was in the book/movie "The Maltese Falcon."

There is also an old-timey typewriter in the room, to make you think that he wrote some books here or something. He might have, I have no idea. I took a brazillian photos of the typewriter though, trying to be artistic.

Someone had typed this. There is something aesthetically pleasing about a typewriter.

We went out for a walk to scope out a hotel some friends of ours will be staying at later.

It was swank, it had these cool rooftop sitting areas. Lorin spotted a...

Hummingbird. It was neat.

We walked around a little then went to Cafe de la Presse for a cocktail.

Then we went to the Red Room for a cocktail. I've gone to this bar every time I've been in SF, for the past ten years, and it's closing soon, so this is most likley my last time there.

Everything inside it is red.

These people were chilling.

After that we were walking down the street and heard the Beastie Boys and decided to check out this club. There was not much going on.

But soon the five people there left, and it was just us, the bartender, one other person, and the DJ and his buds. Things got a bit nuts at this point, it was really fun.

Lorin got us all dancing.

Moves were busted! God, I love this photo. Notice that the bar lights are on - it's long past last call. The bartender had locked the door. I went up to the bar and tried to buy a drink. He said, "It's after two, I can't sell you a drink." I said Ok and started to turn away and he yelled, "But I can GIVE you a drink! HAHAHA!" He then began pouring shots. Needless to say, the wheels came off at this point.

On the way back to the hotel around 3:30, we ran into an old acquaintance of sorts. This is the homeless guy that I had a long conversation with back in March when I was here. I had accidentally dialed Dan's cell phone number back then, and the phone was in my pocket. The result was that I left a ten minute voicemail for Dan that was my conversation with this guy. We talked about language mostly, and the meanings and origins of various words. Just as I was thinking, "Why is this guy homeless, he seems normal," he went bonkers on me and start railing against the government and the secret police and all sorts of stuff. Anyway, we talked to him again and this time I got a photo, kind of. The flash didn't go off, so it's blurry.

The next day we got up, had Dim Sum for breakfast, then went to the park to relax and read books. These guys were playing frisbee when all of the sudden we noticed a guy that was REALLY out of place.

This guy in the long coat. He was just standing by the frisbee players for a few minutes, looking lost. Then he went and walked around the park and left. He was dressed like an ancient warrior of some sort. We decided that he was Mongolian, and had traveled through time from the year 1000 or so and was wondering where the heck his horse was. I swear, he looked like he came straight out of a life-size diorama in a museum. Look at that jacket, the boots, and that huge freakin leather belt.

Later we went into a neat candy store. They had these huge barrels of candy, and most of it was salt water taffy. They had all these neat flavors.

Lorin got this neat metal toy for her mom there. It spins and the planes get flung out.

Later that night we went to The House for dinner and had a really good bottle of wine. (Is it weird to drink french wine in California?)

Lorin had the pork chop.

Later while walking home we saw this sign.

The next day we got up and took the cable car over to Fisherman's Wharf to eat some fresh boiled crab.

They boil it and then this guy bangs on it with a wood stick to crack the shell all up. Then you can just eat it with your hands.

Mmmm!

Then we took the cable car back to the hotel. Lorin rode standing in the front, and I took a bunch of pictures of her.

Here she is looking back at the...

Golden Gate Bridge. It looks like the sun is going nova in this photo.

Looking down from our room.

More typewriter photos!

And then we were headed home. There is Utah.

Then it was like this for a while, and we landed and were home.