10th Apr 2012 - 13th Apr 2012 - After a Wonderful Aussie Break
Great Week with Jen in San Francisco
Jen and I have been having a great holiday week in San Francisco - the weather has been pretty darned cold, but we have had breaks of lovely sun to keep it bright. Having said that, I am curled up in my bed at the moment, Friday morning, looking out on some yukky rain - not a good omen for the weekend. Shopping has been the order of all of the days - and some pretty consolidated effort too! Other things have had to fit around the shopping expeditions as Jen worked her way around her favourite stores, and then circled back again. Plus, she had a list from friends. Not sure how she is going to get it all home, as Chris and other family have also had the obligatory deliveries to the house, knowing that Jen could bring it all back (maybe!) We took in the Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition at the de Young Museum yesterday, which was fun and we drove around the Golden Gate Park a few times while we were there - what a fabulous collection of different environments and parks - I had no idea it was in the middle of the city - originally, we were looking for parking, but then we saw a guy driving in the Park with his shoes on top of the car so we thought we would try to let him know. He did not see us calling out, so we thought we would go to the next Stop sign to catch his attention - then the next, then the next, then...... Finally we caught him about 3 miles (and about 15 Stop signs) later and he already knew!?! However, this little diversion took us through the Park when we would not otherwise have done the trip so we were able to realise how lovely it was - came across a field of American Bison (in the middle of SF?), unsuccessfully tried to find the Dutch Windmill and Tulip Garden, saw some amazing lakes - definitely a place to come back to and bring a picnic. Oh, and did I mention that Jen was driving - her first time on the wrong side of the road. Back to the de Young, where we had lunch and then took a stroll around the exhibition - some of the outfits are quite freaky. Over the past few days we have made unsuccessful attempts to go on the Tcho chocolate factory tour - each day, missing out on tickets, so we may have to save that for next trip. Each night has been a different lovely restaurant with friends sometimes too - we have been to Incanto with Suha Patel (great Italian - the handkerchief pasta with pork ragou was lovely), Prospect with Deb Faust, Burger bar for lunch, Betelnut for dinner (amazing papaya salad), Straits for lunch (fabulous satay). Last night was Farallon, one of my favourites for great seafood and interesting decor. Tonight we are heading for North Beach and big bowls of warm pasta on Jen's last night in the city. I think she might be all shopped out (impossible) so today will be spent working out how to fit it all in to her bags (again, we have had to go to CostCo and buy more bags - how many times have we done this!!) plus we have the first of our Airbnb adventures happening - another crazy scheme of mine, for sure. Many months ago, when I was exploring the concept of possibly offering our Lindfield home as a B & B, someone suggested I put the SF place on line and see what happened. Well, friends, what has happened is that I have had a steady stream of requests for both places through the web-site Airbnb. I have declined most of them, but, before I knew that Jen was coming back to the US this time, I did accept a booking from a single woman from NYC traveling with her 72 year old aunt from Buenos Aires. I figured they would not be axe murderers or international thieves, and a good way to see if the B & B thing was actually OK. However, they do arrive today - and we have an unfortunate overlap with Jen also being here until Saturday afternoon. I guess today we will be moving Jen into my room to allow our B & B guests to use the 2nd bedroom, with her major shopping purchases, and getting ready to play SF Hosts!! Not sure if it is cost effective yet, as I had a locksmith yesterday to put a lock on one of the cupboards in the 2nd bedroom so that I could store my things there safely and also had a new lock put on my bedroom, so that would be 'off limits' if I was not in the apartment at the same time as the visitors. Together with a couple of other purchases, like a rug and some kitchen serving dishes (for the 2nd B of B & B), I have spent more money than I will receive for this 3 day stay!! However, I have other bookings in May, June and July, so I guess we will become profitable then. Amazingly, many of my enquiries have come from Australians traveling to San Francisco. I guess they saw that I was an Aussie and have felt safer in the knowledge that a fellow countryman won't rip them off as Airbnb is pretty much sight unseen, even though there are some mechanisms in the processes for checking people and places out. (plus there is always a google and Linked In search) I feel the same confidence about receiving fellow Aussies, so it could be quite a good match for us all. As I am using the apartment myself at the moment, and it is not generating any income, this is a good way to defray the costs of running 2 households at once. (and even makes many things tax deductible) Later when I come back to Australia, I will rent it out more permanently (at much higher rents than B & B rate, that is for sure) In between all this frantic activity, have had to fit in some real work and teleconferences and we also had a Home Owners' Association meeting with me as the new President - now that is another story - and I have been taking care of elevator inspections, repairs and other 'complaints' around the block. Definitely feel a resignation from the HOA coming on soon. So, dear friends, once Miss Jennifer wakes this morning, I guess we will be tidying, making beds, then she wants to head for Mamma's in North Beach for breakfast (after standing in line watching the North Beach passing parade for at least an hour) - oh, and shop, shop, shopping again, no doubt!
Post Script - Mamma's was great - Eggs Benedict and Mamma's Omelette have carried us both through the whole day - off to North Beach Restaurant for dinner soon.....
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