SAN FRANSICSO - THE ARRIVAL

What a busy first day we had!  Pam's friend, Kathryn picked us up from the airport and drove us right to our hotel where we dropped our suitcases and then went for lunch.  Kathryn had the great idea to go to Souvla's Mediterranean take out restaurant.  It was crazy busy as it is a very popular spot with the locals.  When our order was ready,  we took our wraps over to a nearby park and ate in the sunshine.  They were delicious.  We still had room for ice cream..so we lined up at Salt and Straw and had dessert.  I had a lavender and honey cone...yumm.

We made our way up Vermont Street for the BYOBW.  What is that you ask?  Well oddly enough, Lombard is not the crookedest street in San Francisco, Vermont Street is - although not nearly as scenic as Lombard Street.  So the BYOBW event Bring Your Own Big Wheel.  So as you can imagine this event involves kids of all ages...adults of all ages and genders and costumes and anything with wheels.  At 3:00 the fun begins with the children hurtling down the hill on their chosen ride with parents running along side or in some cases riding in back.  There are hay bales lining the sides of the crooked and very steep hill and many crashes and equipment failures.  Laughter, shouts, encouragement and congratulations are abundant and boisterous as each child makes it down in one piece.

After the first hour, the kids - having had several runs down the street ...or the hill of certain death as I call have had their turn for the day.  There is a brief break and then suddenly...adults in great numbers  come careening down and around corners at breakneck speed and the crowd goes wild.  (I alcohol is involved)  There are pileups, spinouts, traffic jams, hoots, hollers and mayhem.  Wheels, casters, costume pieces and body parts (of the vehicles - not the people) flying off in all directions.  The crowd cheers and gasps as the riders fly by.  It was a great spectacle and fun for all.

Unfortunately we had to miss the Hunky Jesus contest - but we couldn't be everywhere at once.  So after this event - we visited the Harmonic Brewery in an area called Dogpatch, with Kathryn and her husband Rob for some tasty neighbourhood brews and some  gansta rap.  Done and done in.  We needed our jackets to stay out a bit longer and made our way down to the wharf for clam chowder in a bread bowl and then time to walk back to our hotel and rest up for Day two...coming soon!