San Francisco

The next morning, we awoke and had a date to meet Ray Stanton at around 10 am.  We headed over and spent a very nice morning with him and his new wife Peng.  

His home is an architectural masterpiece.  I simply loved it.  The columns holding up the roof were amazing. But you aren't reading this to hear about a building.  Ray has a few puzzles in his home, but sadly most of them were put in boxes.  He had just moved into this place recently and hadn't unpacked everything yet.  I did manage to take a few photos of what he had on display.  

One of the other things he collects is clocks.  He had some really beautiful wooden ones and a few others that caught my eye.  

We also spent a bit of time looking at his workshop and hearing stories of other puzzlers and why he chose the machines he did. 

We spent a couple of hours there and since it was Super Bowl Sunday, we left so he could go to a party. George and I had a few hours so we went back to spend a bit more time with Harry.  We brought lunch with us and had a nice chat again.  His friend Thomas was there and he and George talked 3D printers and George showed him how to use Burr Tools. Harry showed me yet another stash of puzzles under his desk and I added a few more to the collection.

From here we went to check in to our hotel.  We love staying at this tiny little hotel on Bush Street: Cornell Hotel de France. It has parking across the road and is in walking distance of the Bart station.  After we dumped our bags, we hopped on a train and headed over to see Derrick Schneider.  He and George used to work together a long time ago.

Because they are getting ready for a trip, we met in a local restaurant for dinner and a chat.  It was Mexican food if anyone is interested, too spicy on the salsa, delicious beans and rice.  The food the guys had looked good too.  We spent around 3 hours just chatting, but sadly needed to say our good byes and head back to the city for slumber.

The next morning George spent a good while in bed. Me? at 10am I headed down to the Lego store to check it out. I bought a few of their postcards and forgot to get my passport stamped.  I then wandered around the mall for a while before heading back to George.  

When I returned to the hotel we got moving and went to see his son Joe.  We had a nice walk around to a few puzzle stores and even managed to pick up 2 that we didn't have.  We then took a bus to Joe's new house and had a look at the beautiful neighborhood he lives in.  After a while George and I left to have some lunch in the Castro district.  I had pancakes!  This is the first time in over 5 years!  Man were they good!  The oozing butter, the sweet sweet syrup.  It was ecstasy.  And very heavy in calories and really just not good for me.  But every once in a while you have to break down and give in to temptation.  Just wait until we get to Texas.  I'm soooo looking forward to one of those state-shaped waffles. ;)

After lunch we returned to the hotel where George napped and I put together a few Nanoblocks. At 5 we left to meet Joe for a movie.  We saw The Triangle of Sadness.  Don't waste your time, it is about 3 hours you won't get back again but it was nice to spend time together anyway.  Dinner that night was in a Japanese place just around the corner and it was straight to bed for us.  

The next day George spent in bed catching up on all his lost naps and doing a bit of programming. I on the other hand had other plans.  I put together a few more Nanoblocks in the morning and around 10 I headed out for Japantown to try to find some more Nanoblocks.  I managed to get the deluxe pirate chest (3280 of the 4mm sized pieces). This should be a challenging build.  Maybe I'll save it for the ship across to Italy.

I found Daiso when I was over there and hit paydirt with their brand of Nanoblock.  I managed to find around 25 sets.  All at $1.75 each!  I bought every copy they had :) I then took a bus back to Lego to get that passport stamped and grabbed a pick-a-brick bucket and purchased a bunch of pieces for a project I'm working on. Oh what fun!  

I returned to the hotel with a late lunch and what I thought was a beer for George.  I didn't want to buy 6-pack so I found a place that sold beer by the can. I asked for a local dark beer and the lady behind the counter showed me a rather large can. I purchased it and brought it back to the hotel. It was called Loco.  14.9% alcohol and NOT beer.  I think this is the stuff the drunks on the street drink.  George took a sip and asked for a glass of water instead.  I took a sip and tipped the can down the drain.  So much for that.

In the afternoon we slept and I put together a few more Nanoblocks while George programmed.  At 6 I packed everything up as the next day we were heading south to meet more friends.  That night was our anniversary so we once again headed to the Roxanne Cafe for a simple dinner.  All in all, it was a nice few days in San Francisco.