The final chapter in San Francisco

After we got back to the hotel from our outing on the wharf we met up with Passionfruit and hurried to the BART station. We were going to Daly City for our dinner at the best Chinese restaurant in the San Francisco area. My cousin took us to her Mom's house and then we hurried off to the restaurant. This was going to be a late dinner.

We walked into this restaurant and the first thing you see are all the seafood swimming around in large tanks. Some of the fish don't look to lively. Perhaps they knew their days were numbered. There were other sea creatures that are not symetrical and don't have faces.

When we got seated I could see the kitchen from where I was sitting. They had three meat hooks hanging from the ceiling. Two had cooked chickens hanging off them and the other had the back end of a piglet. I tried very hard not to look at those carcasses. At one point I turned around to look behind me and the folks at the table behind me had a squid staring at me as it waited it's turned to be cooked in the pot on the table.

My mother's cousin and I were sitting next to each other trying to choose things that the kids might eat. I knew that Storyteller wasn't going to eat and since MI was not feeling good I figured she wasn't going to eat much, either. So I ordered a couple of noodle dishes to make DQ happy.

As I mentioned before this was a late dinner. The restaurant closes at 9:30 or 10:00PM. My mother's cousin got so tickled because it became obivious that they wanted us to leave. Waiters started moving tables. Walls that were moveable were moved. I got a cold blast of air on my back. All the while Passionfruit kept eating. The rest of us were finished but he kept on eating, and my mother's cousin kept giggling. She thought it was so funny that Passionfruit seemed totally oblivious to the closing activities around him.

We were all totally exhausted by the time we got back to the BART station. But despite that fact the girls were up again in the morning. This time I knew how the buses worked. I had my passes ready. We were off to see the Exploritorium. We took the cable car. Then a small walk to the bus stop and then to another small walk to the Exploritorium. The girls had a blast. I was worried that it might be too old for them to appreciate but we found lots of stuff that kept their interest. We spent about 3 hours there.

Then it was lunch time. The girls wanted to go back to RainForest Cafe. So we took a couple of bus rides back to the Wharf. We had a fun late lunch just me and the girls. We even had dessert. I had the Margilla again.

We were running late again and had to wait forever for the cable car. MI melted down and even though the line for the cable car was still long very few people got on with us because of the temper tantrum. Which in the end was all well and good because the cable car in front of us was involved in an accident. So we ended up walking in the rain for miles into the Downtown area. I got them worn out real well.

By the time we got back to the hotel Passionfruit was there as was my cousin. She had come into town to give us a date night in San Francisco. Once I got the kids all medicated Passionfruit and I rushed out to the cable car line in hopes that the accident was all cleared by then and that they were running again. They were and we head to the restaurant I saw that said it served South Indian food.

As we walked back to the restaurant from the cable car stop we noticed the mural painted on the side of the building. It said Kennedy's Irish pub and Indian restaurant! It had an elephant painted on the side, too. Passionfruit asked me if I really wanted to go. I said sure. I wasn't real hungery since I had just eaten at the Rainforest Cafe. Well we walked into the joint and it was definitely a bar. No doubt about it. It had video games, pool tables, air hockey tables, loud music played. It was dark and hadn't yet gotten smoky but the potential was there. There was a section where the tables were covered with white table clothes covered with glass. The chairs were painted white cafe chairs. This part of the room was decorated with Indian paintings and other Indian type decorations. The wait staff was interesting, too. They were all South East Asians, maybe from Thailand. Our waitress spoke not a lick of English. We ordered by pointing at the numbers on the menu. When I pointed to the wine list she pointed to the bar and said "You go there." So after a few minutes of soaking in the atmosphere of this eclectic place I sent Passionfruit over to buy me a glass of wine. He came back empty handed. Passionfruit said the bartender told him that our waitress would take our order. So I pretty much expected that I won't have a drink that night. But wait here comes this guy from the kitchen. He's an Indian. Passionfruit asks him where he's from in India. Passionfruit asked him if he knew Tamil and he said that he did. Passionfruit started talking to him in Tamil but the guy didn't understand a word he said. Well that was an uncomfortable moment for us. How does one save face? Well we ignore it and move on with the order for a glass of wine in English.

Soon we leave because the place is beginning to smoke up. I no longer can tolerate being around smoke. My asthma gets started when I inhale smoke. We went back to the hotel and arranged for transportation to the airport for the next day.

In the morning I got everyone up and dressed and packed. We went down stairs to wait on the car. Our driver's name was Freddy and I had seen him during the week. He had a Fumanchu beard and mustache. When he arrived we walked outside and to our surprise a white, stretch limo awaited us. That was a big surprise for us. The girls were all excited. Passionfruit and I couldn't believe it.

Our flights home were in the normal economy seats. We landed in Dallas with just 10 minutes or so to get to our connecting flight. I raced the three girls down the terminal. I kept my eye on the screens. Once the flight number disappeared from the screen I started to slow down. To my surprise they still had the door open and I hussled the girls up to the door. I turned around and there was no Passionfruit. So I handed the gate person his boarding pass and told him he was coming. She asked how soon and I said I didn't know. I figured he could get the next flight out but I was ready to go home. As I started down the chute to the airplane I hear the girls shout "Daddy" and there was Passionfruit. He had made it after all.

So ends our San Francisco saga.