On Saturday, my mom and my sister and I flew down to Oakland, California to stay with my aunt, uncle, and baby cousin, Ilse. She is almost two, and SO CUTE.
We took a 3-mile walk every morning, and my sister and I ran with her in the stoller on the way back. She LOVED it.
Unfornutately, the whole time we were in California, it was raining. One day when we took the subway inti Berkeley, there was a thunderstorm.
On the second to last day, we took the subway into San Francisco where we had an interesting walk to our hotel.
We only had to walk four blocks. We were in the middle of sketchy hoboville. I'm not disgusted by homeless people (FYI). We passed a very rowdy food line and a very drunk woman on the sidewalk. People were shouting and fighting all up and down the street.
After two blocks, we ran into two police officers who were very suprised to see a (white) family walking around. They made sure we didn't go one way, for an unexplained reason, and made sure we crossed the street because.of drug deals. Our hotel was on the verge of sketchy.
Then we rode the elevator with a full-on drag queen. He was an African American man. He had a wig maybe two feet tall and two feet wide - blonde - and plastic bejewelled rings. He was decked out in a sparkly black long coat/dress and fabulous black boots.
Did I mention we were in the area of sketchy clubs?
We wandered around San Francisco in the pouring rain and went to a yoga exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. My mom is a yogi, wellness coach, and is going to school for nutrition.
On the last day, we got up early and walked to Chinatown. Unfortunately, because it was so early, no shops were open. We finally found one, and I got little souveniers for my friends. At another very small shop, the woman told us that a backpack was handmade. When my mom asked where it was handmade, the woman said, "China. Handmade in China."
Yeah, by little slave children in a sweltering factory.
On that positive note, we returned to our home in good spirits - it was warmer here than in California.
