It's been about six years since I was last in San Francisco and a lot has transpired in that time. As a result I was glad to have a chance to revisit and spend a bit more time than I was able on the motorcycle (for a review of the great motorcycle adventure Tom, Taggart, Lisa, and I took in '98, check out The Road Trip)
Jessica, Nicholas, and I packed up the car Thursday morning with clothes, CDs, snacks, Nick's Leapster (with a new kindergarten game we had gotten him for christmas but decided might be a good idea to break out early), and a bunch of my gear. The trip was centered around a show I had in Monterey California backing a Neil Diamond and Elton John tribute show and while I was able to find transportation for my keyboards and amp I still had a considerable load of gear including a guitar, mandolin, percussion, one bag of cables and accessories, another bag of music and random needs, and a rack (read: big box of synth-geek gear). We opted for the Hyundai over Jessica's mom's mini-van for the sake of gas mileage (and to simplify the tax write-off), so it was a tight squeeze, but we made it work with a bit of creative packing.
We hit the road around 8am and made a straight shot down I-5 for the Bay Area. Our destination was Concord, a suburb of San Francisco, where Jessica's friend, Katy, lives. The plan was to make the trip a San Fran vacation with an over-night to Monterey where I would exercise my musical genius and pay for the trip. It took about eleven hours to get to Katy's apartment -- a bit long, but when considered against the facts that A) we were traveling with a four year old and, B) it took the rest of the band seventeen hours to get two hours farther down the road, I think we did just fine. We got to Katy's place an hour and a half after she had ordered pizza for us all. The pizza never showed up, so we went and got burgers from the greasy spoon around the corner. After dinner and getting settled in, we crashed in Katy's spare room.
Friday we got up late (and by we, of course, I mean myself as Jessica and Nicholas were up at the crack of dawn) and headed into San Francisco. Our first mission was to hit the beach and Golden Gate Park. We made the mistake of telling Nick about the beach the day before and he was not happy when we got to Katy's and there was no beach, so that was first priority. We drove through downtown and along Lincoln Way, turning in around 41st and through the park until we were close enough to park and walk to the beach. We parked right next to the Dutch windmill and walked to the beach. It was nice to see people surfing in November while Nicholas played in the sand.
From there we drove through the park and made our way to Haight-Ashbury. We walked along Haight and spent much time in Haight Ashbury T-Shirts where Tom, Taggart, and I had illegally parked our bikes for a quick photo six years earlier and as such did not have time to browse. This time out the family and I blew our souvenir budget on shirts and such (including a sticker which is now proudly displayed on my rack and echoes my sentiments about our current president. I won't quote it exactly, but it is the F-word and G.W.'s last name. Sweeet).
After a bit more wandering on Haight street, we got back in the car and just drove around San Francisco, criss-crossing in a generally southern direction until about 4:20 (no coincidence) when we decided it might be a good idea to head home and try to get ahead of traffic. Yeah. Right. It took us two hours to get a distance Mapquest estimates at forty minutes. San Francisco traffic sucks -- nice city, but the traffic sucks.
On Saturday we got up early and packed up for the big show in Monterey. We only took what we needed for overnight, but including my gear and all my stage clothes and everything else it takes to make me presentable onstage, it was still a lot of crap. We were supposed to be at the Portola Plaza Hotel at 11:30am and we were making good time until we got a call from Joel -- our Elton John -- who was stranded at the San Francisco airport with an invalid voucher for transportation to Monterey. With the rest of the band already there, we turned around while I was still on the phone and headed back to San Fran to pick up Joel. Fortunately, Nicholas was too busy working out math and spelling games on his Leapster to care, otherwise this could've been an ugly turn of events.
We made it to the San Francisco airport in record time and found Joel under the Alaska sign. Now, in case you haven't been keeping track, our task at hand was to cram three adults, a four year old in a car seat, a crapload of gear and overnight stuff for three, and now Joel's Elton John costumes and carry-on into a Hyundai Accent and get it all from the SF Airport to Monterey. The Elton John costumes, by the way, ain't small. If we'd been taking on Britney Spears or Paris Hilton it'd've been a SHLOAD easier. The compromise we finally came up with was that one of us was going to have to carry my rack on his lap -- I took the first half of the trip while Joel took the second half. Damn that thing gets heavy.
As we came into Monterey the view of the ocean and beach was great and we all were talking about it as we drove along. Soon, though, we began to realize that Monterey was behind us and we were in Carmel. Hmmm. Consult the Mapquest directions and... yup, time to turn around. We headed back and took an exit that sounded promising, realized we were headed the wrong way, got back on the freeway, and took another exit. After a bit of wandering we got a phonecall asking for our ETA, said we were in town but lost, got some direction, and got back on track.
After getting back on the freeway we saw the sign for the original exit we missed -- right where we were all looking at the beach the first time around! We got back on track, got lost again due to a very funky intersection, get directions back, got lost AGAIN on the one-way streets, and finally found the hotel. And missed the driveway. Monterey looks nice, but the guy who designed the street layout needs to die.
While I set up for the show, Jessica and Nicholas explored Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
They had fun.
After Neil, we did the Elton set with Joel. Joel is a good friend of mine and I had a great time playing his set. The best part was not being stuck on keys for a piano act. In fact I got to do a lot of guitar, percussion, and even some mandolin. It was a blast. Joel and I have spent much time in the Caribbean in the past couple years and always seem to miss each other and I had a great time catching up with him after the show.
After the show. Oh yeah... After the show the soundguy started collecting un-empty wine bottles from the tables while we were tearing down. It seemed a shame to let all that wine go to waste! Then some folks who had seen the show showed up with a case of beer (again, I think the soundguy was responsible for this). After a couple hours of tearing down, loading out, and the occasional distraction, the whole show had been loaded into the trailer and we all wandered up to Pound's (the bass player) room for Southern Comfort. By divine providence Jessica called me to come back to our room during my first drink and my night came to a close. I am so glad I did not have to ride back with the band the next day.
Our last morning we spent having a late breakfast with Katy and gathering our stuff together. I had sent almost all of my gear back in the trailer save the mandolin and guitar, so there was room for our new treasures. The trip home took less time than the trip down and we caught a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta on the way. Around 11pm as we rolled into Canby I did some quick figuring and realized that I had spent six days of the past two weeks -- actually past two months -- at home.
It's good to be home.
11.22.04