Catch up. Remy-3

As Saturday rolled around, we began to realize that our time with our French Exchange student was more than half-gone. This was sort of the last chance to really show him around.

So we got up really early in the morning, and headed out to the coast.

Kelly wanted to show him what SHE likes about California.

And that would be horseback riding on the beach.

Look! Even Nate got in on the action!

But we didn't stay long, because it was time to go up to explore San Francisco!

First, we went to Ghirardelli Square, for sundaes as big as our heads. (and is it me, or are these things shrinking? When we first used to take friends here, those sundaes were MASSIVE, and now they're just looking sort of ordinary...)

It was a windy and blustery day, but it was National Park Week (or something like that), and all the ships at Hyde St. Pier were free to tour.

I've always wanted to peek onto the Balclutha, but I'm too much of a cheap-skate to buy a ticket.

Um, yeah, just a bit windy...

Alcatraz was shrouded with fog. Ooh. Mysterious!

Golden Gate Bridge was looking like it was going to be vanishing pretty soon, too.

We went on a bit of a city hike. Up into the hills, and along Filbert Street (super steep!) and Lombard Street (super bendy). We watched the cars take on the challenges, but we stayed on our feet.

After looking around a bit, we hopped back into the van, and headed for Chinatown for some early supper.

Hello Fortune Cookie Factory. Why yes, I will pay 50 cents to take a photo. Here's a dollar. I want two.

We ran into a little Chinese man who wanted to correct my tourist-guiding (such as it was - I know about 3 facts, and I wasn't even going to go into the details on those because Remy couldn't hardly understand), and so now I know that Waverly Street isn't called Waverly Street by the REAL Chinese, but is something like Temple of Queen of Heaven. And then he told us not to go to the restaurant we were going to go to for supper, because only "ABC" go there. What? ABC? "You know... American Born Chinese" (and he spits on the ground). Um. Yeah. And then he gave us a business card, saying "Here's my card, and a recommendation for supper. You can have it for free", and it said "Call me: Jackie Chan" with a phone number on it. Nowhere on the card did it say anything about where to eat. We just said "Thank you" to our new friend, Jackie Chan, and ran away quickly, taking a different route back to the restaurant.

Yum!

This was in the cabinet behind Remy's head. He found it quite amusing.

We gave him a little taste of Chinatown (and I may have bought a large amount of sparklers and fizzy fireworks, too)

But he seemed more captivated by the TransAmerica building. I guess it's quite the Symbol of San Francisco in Europe, or is prominent in some movie that he's fond of.

On the way out of town, we drove to the coast, hoping that we'd be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge from China Beach.

No luck. It was stolen. Or maybe it's just a figment of our imagination. Heh.

And then I stole some aphid-infested rose buds from the garden at China Beach because the praying mantis egg case hatched, and I needed to feed all the little newly-hatched critters before they ate each other.

Nah, this isn't creepy at all...