Saturday September 1, 2018 (full photo album here)
The reddest of red eye flights saw me wake up at something like 6:45 am (Pacific), which was a little bit before 3 am according to my body. Not exactly well rested, I stumbled off of the plane, and my body was once again treated to climate shock. I went from 90 degrees and 90% humidity in Hawaii, to something like 55 degrees and 50% humidity in San Francisco. My trusty raincoat put on for a little bit of extra warm for, I got an Uber and went back to Adam and Megan’s house. After hearing that my intention was to take the flight back and then immediately board the train within an hour, they were insistent that I spend an extra day with them and recuperate a little. I am still thankful that they did so, because I didn’t realize just how wrecked I would be from that red eye flight. I let myself back into their place, knowing that Adam had to go out of town and Megan was still asleep, and laid on the couch and just enjoyed not being on a plane, train, or automobile. Eventually, Megan woke up and we figured out that for the day, we hoped to include a brunch of some sort, and then board games.
At the overpriced brunch venue (an alcove filled to the brim), I had what they called The Breakfast Burger, which was basically an overpriced and far more healthy version of a Sausage McMuffin from McDonald’s. Between the ketchup that they made from beets (in the yuppiest yuppie’ing ever, “beetsup”), their homemade mustard with all sorts of unnecessarily complicated ingredients, and a mixed green salad with probably the worst dressing I’ve ever had. It was certainly a very San Francisco breakfast experience! A lazy afternoon later, it was something like 4 in the afternoon, and so we began to talk about where we might like to go to play board games. Over breakfast I had done a good job of convincing Megan that my favorite game, Twilight Struggle, was worth looking for and trying if we could find it. We ventured out to stop by The Game Parlour. Their library boasted nearly 800 games and they offered a series of foods based around waffles (be it waffles with dessert items in/on them; or sandwiches were the bread was waffles). Examining the collection…
… we eventually got a table after a quick dinner. We got the game set up, I walked through the rules, and we dove into playing through the entirety of the Cold War over the next few hours which followed. We tried some of the popcorn on offer (delicious), and I eventually had a waffle sandwich with waffle fries (delicious). Towards the end of the game, my Soviet Union was able to sneak in a victory by taking control of Europe, and we were both delighted to have had such a fun time and discovered a great little business. The final board:
Sleep came quickly and easily, with the dogs Noni and Koffa vying for my attention. What a whirlwind of a trip, thus far.
A Jaunt Around the States 