I’m over halfway through my trip and tomorrow morning I leave Howard’s house. I have a lot to look forward to, but I’m a little bummed everything is moving this quickly. This post will be quick. I want to hang out with Howard for a bit then turn in early. The goal is to be on the road to Nevada by 7:00am.

For brunch we went to Lolo where we loaded up on so much food. Croissant French toast, shishito peppers in olive oil, guacamole with chips, grilled beef tacos with habanero sauce, chili verde pork butt, salsa, and a fancy sangria. For the record, three of us shared all that. I wasn’t that much of a pig.

We had a lot of adventures today. The most serious was searching for fresh figs. We failed. I’m probably never going to find them again in my whole life and I should probably just die because a figless life is not worth living. All of our other adventures were successful though, so I guess I’ll keep pushing on. Howard didn’t tell me where we were going, so each destination was a surprise. One of the first was to see the houses in the opening sequence to Full House! I didn’t spot a single Tanner or Gibbler while there.

While at the park, I found my California geocache. Howard spotted it making it his first cache ever! Good job, Howard.

The weather was perfect all weekend and it was fun to see how everyone responded to the temperature. I was fine in my shirt and Howard in his light hoodie. We saw people in shorts and tank tops while others were in full winter coats and hats.

After Full House we went to the Beat Museum. It was a book and record store with a two story museum in the back. There was a ridiculous film being played in a small theater talking about how the Beat movement grew into pop culture. It featured a clip of Alfred Hitchcock sporting a goatee and beret.

During the tour, Howard and I took surprise pictures of each other trying to get the other person to make a stupid expression. I win for making him look stupid and having the cool poster in the background. He wins for getting Jack Kerouac’s coat in the frame. It’s on loan to the museum and not at all fashionable.

Howard also took me to the pier to score pennies! The machines in this city are fantastic. All of the pennies came out great and were only $.51 each.

I got most of them at the Musee Mecanique which is shown on the top left penny. It’s a huge museum of late 1800/early 1900 coin operated machines. There were pinball and shooting games but also musical and puppet machines like at House on the Rock. There was even this crazy guy who laughs at you for a quarter.

I have so much to look forward to but tomorrow is going to suck a little. It’s been so great catching up with Howard. We haven’t hung out this much since the late 90s but it was easy to pick up where we left off. And his girlfriend Katie is so cool! I had high expectations for this weekend and it still exceeded them. I’m excited to come back and visit with them again soon, San Francisco is too big for just a weekend. Thanks for the hospitality!