You can tell they are in some serious debt though... they have minimum payments on everything. literally. Want to buy just a pastry at a bakery? nope. gotta buy 10 of them because of the $10 minimum. Needless to say, the group and I teamed up a lot to buy things. There was about a $20 minimum per person at every restaurant we went to. not really a fan.
California also has some odd regulations regarding chemicals... If there is anything remotely dangerous in a product/ building/ whatever else, they have to put a notice saying so. This is what we were greeted with when we entered out hotel:
moving on to the important things...the crazy homeless people. I'll list my experiences:
1. A woman, who I think had leprosy, tried to sell us sewer rats. Too bad I already have a couple pets. The rats sure did look enticing... if any one is in need of disease ridden rodents collected from a sewer, the woman was on the corner of Market St. and Powell. yeah, you're welcome.
2. Walking outside of the cheesecake factory, we were greeted by a man wearing cheesecake factory bags as shoes and meowing at us. The sound he was making was priceless, and if anyone would like a live rendition, give me a call. I can try to recreate it.
3. We were approaching the homeless people park right off the bay, and from a distance this woman looked as though she was kissing the ground. When we got closer, I noticed she was eating nuts on the ground... not kissing it. To finish it off, we walked right by her as she was slurping from a rain puddle. While this does sound really sad, not ten feet from her was a church that had arrived with coffee and orange juice for the homeless. so... she was just crazy. who knows, maybe rain water off the ground is preferable to orange juice and coffee?
4. This one is my absolute favorite: We were walking back from the Fisherman's Wharf... by the sidewalk was what appeared to be a bush. Unfortunately, as we got closer, this bush jumped at us. The group and I screamed, jumped across the sidewalk, and then laughed once we realized what had happened. This homeless man had taken two tree branches and disguised himself as a bush to jump out and scare innocent bystanders as they walked by. What really made me enjoy this situation was seeing the guy's face after he scared us. He had the funniest grin on his face like he had succeeded once again. What was also great was that he was doing it for pure entertainment. Didn't even ask for money. I came to find out later that this guy is notorious and has been scaring people for close to a decade now. I thoroughly enjoy people that make the best of their situation. I found a video of him doing it to people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cbBdydQlrk
5. I will not elaborate on this one but let's just say this man was doing something terrible inappropriate to himself that should never be done in public. This was my least favorite experience with the san fran homeless.
Okay so now here are some great signs I saw... the california homeless know how to amuse.
"Why lie? I just need beer."
"I need money for weed"
"My wife was kidnapped. I am $0.99 short on the ransom. Help me get my wife back" (this guy was shouting that he takes VISA while holding this sign)
Now this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the craziness that is the San Francisco homeless population. It's truly something to experience and is living proof of what probably a lifetime of some intense hallucinogens can do to a person.
Okay now my second favorite part of san francisco was the Napa Valley Wine Tour. it was incredible. I'll post pictures rather than describe it.
Sorry tons of pictures... and tons more. I'll be putting all of them on facebook if you want to see the rest. Moral of the story: Napa Valley and San Francisco are gorgeous. The wine isn't too bad either... :)
Instead of llama pictures today, I'm going to add more california pictures. I mean, you can see funny looking llamas any day right? in order of appearance: golden gate bridge, blurry picture of alcatraz, and a cat that apparently enjoys the cancer chemicals on china town products.
One final picture: I did actually go to california for a purpose.
so jealous. and I do not believe you did anything productive while there. but you look cute pretending! love you!
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