Sunday
Mia woke up at dawn and sang along with the fire engine passing somewhere outside.

As I ate my toast a couple hours later, we could already hear the choppers hovering outside. Rena and Derek live a block from the Bay to Breakers route, right at the top of the murderous hill that ascends Fell, where it then straightens out and heads into the park. I went to the nearby grocery with Derek to get some breakfast stuff and my airplane snacks. Exiting, we glanced over at Fell and knew the race was still just getting started since the passing crowd was actually *running*, and more or less uncostumed. It was already sweltering hot, felt like at least 75 degrees in the shade.

We had French-pressed iced coffee, mmmm, then Rena and I took the dog out to the panhandle to watch the spectacle. By this point the “racers” were mostly walking, many in costumes, and lots of naked men of course. And of course, 90% of these naked guys are people you really just do not want to see naked. Though I must say I don’t feel particularly interested in penises not attached to a man that I am currently in love (or lust) with, so in all other cases they just look ridiculous. Sorry, guys.

The large beautiful building across from where we were watching is evidently a fancy retirement home, so it was funny/cute to see a few elderly folks sitting on the steps watching the race while the loud club music pumped from the nearby PA. We all walked over to the McKinley statue to get some shade. A cute blond toddler was up on the top step, hoping to climb the structure somehow. He kept looking at us with a look of consternation on his face.

Sadly, it was time to get back to the apartment and finish up packing for real so we could get to the airport. Of course had I known my flight would be delayed by an hour, then we could have taken our time and had more for lunch than orzo salad, but alas. The drive to SFO was very swift, avoiding almost all race traffic and road closures. I said farewell to my friends and went into the terminal, still holding my 3/4 full water bottle. I decided to down it before going through security, instead of pouring it out.

(This of course led to me using the airport bathrooms FOUR times before even boarding the plane.)

It was a swift and perfectly uneventful flight home. I ordered food off my little TV (needed protein pronto) and was presented with a GoPicnic box — my friend Dave in Chicago works for this company and helps design their packaging. When we were last there he gave us like four of them for our drive to Michigan. It’s like a happy meal for adults: cheese, crackers, salami, dried apricots, apple crisps, yum. I recommend them on short flights, they are so worth it if you’re hungry and do NOT want junk food.

The only disappointment was the satellite channels not working, but I talked to my seatmates a bunch anyway. There were no clouds for the entire trip, so I got amazing views of Crater Lake and Mt St Helens. We even got a soft landing. And when I finally exited the plane, I only had to walk a short distance before I saw my darling husband waiting for me just outside the security perimeter. Plus he brought Kona with him, so when we got to the car, I jumped into the backseat with her and laughed as she jumped and licked my face and otherwise went bonkers.

Thanks to good timing, traffic karma, etc, we even made the next ferry back to Bainbridge. The Giants game was being broadcast on ESPN radio, my one last glimpse into San Francisco for the weekend. I watched the rest of the game on TV at home (they were victorious), and promptly fell asleep after that.