Sunday, September 2, 2007
Especially on vacations, Sundays are intended to move a little slower. We were meeting up with Paul again, who had to be dragged out for brunch at a very nice place called 2223. I guess naming your restaurant after the address is something people in big cities do, mostly to suck in the tourist trade. Thus, we did brunch at 2223 Market Street, which was just around the corner from the hotel.
Eddie and I were early, so we wandered up and down the street a bit before we were to meet. Paul appeared freshly ironed and, as he put it, “dressed up pretty well for poor white trash.” We made plans for the day over breakfast and then separated to change clothes and make our way to the Hairrison (yes, they spelled it that way) Street Fair for the afternoon.
Hairrison Street Fair is like the better behaved younger brother of the Folsom Street Fair. They block off a section of the street and have various stages and bands, although some of the vendors are not what you’re used to seeing. I found it interesting that there were several vendors promoting STD testing, how to avoid or get off of Crystal Meth, and a housing project for drag queens with HIV / AIDS. Of course, there were all the usual beer sellers, etc. as well.
While there, we met Bruce and Greg again, our friends from St. Louis that we got to know on the first tour around the City. We whiled away the afternoon there people-watching. Ever notice how the first ones to whip off their shirts at something like that are usually the ones that OUGHT to stay fully clothed? Or that some people, older men especially, need the adult version of Gr-Animals to help them match clothing before they leave their house?
We left the fair at 5ish and met Julian, a SF lawyer who has escaped from the litigative life to pursue other endeavors, and went to dinner down on the Embarcadaro with him. Unlike lots of places with tourist food, there are really nice restaurants there and we ate at a great sidewalk café that had the advantage of letting you eat and people watch at the same time.
Julian then gave us his version of the tour around San Francisco, or at least some of the neighborhoods that we’d missed earlier. We stopped by his house for a drink and got to see what the inside of one of those beautiful restored places looks like. His building has four units and – something of a rarity in SF – a parking area underneath that covers goes under the entire building. Julian dropped us back at our B&B after we made plans to go to breakfast the next morning.
