I had better do a LOT of resting today......Jeanne and I walked waaaay too much for our bodies Tues. in S.F. & b4 returning home Wed. My lower back is aching and Jeanne's one hip (that she had had an injection in a mo. ago) was aching as well. To Jeanne, the weather there wd. have to be described as cold. To ME, it was PERRRRFECT !! Jeanne borrowed my thick sweater and wore her scarf around her neck the whole time, basically. I brought a red, green & white scarf (for color of the season), but really just slung in over my shoulder most of the time, except I "think" I wore it taking one picture w/Jeanne in a place there called THE PALACE, which we just walked in to SEE the gorgeousness of the place and stood in front of their Xmas tree display to take a pic of us. Our room in the "boutique" hotel the HOTEL UNION SQUARE (which is 6 floors tall), was tiny like the one Vicki, Barbara and I had when we stayed to see BEACH BLANKET BABYLON. Jeanne told me that ALL S.F. "boutique" hotels are like that...OLD HOTELS remodeled. We'd reserved thru TRAVELZOO 2 beds, but @ 1st they gave us a room on the 6th floor which only had ONE "double" bed...., which Jeanne went back down and explained we'd reserved 2 single beds.....they said all their 2 bed rooms were in use, but they gave us a room w/at least a queen bed (which, by the way, was maybe just 2 inches wider than a double - sheesh)...but the "my bad" was on Travelzoo, as it didn't specify ahead of time to the hotel that we reserved a "two-bed" room; apparently they said "double" which means a room w/1 double bed. We accepted the Queen on 3rd floor, but I definitely definitely definitely needed the air conditioner on COLD + the fan blowing directly on me in order to have survived the night - - body heat while trying to sleep is deadly to me (well, practically). Other than that mess-up, the hotel itself was nice - coffee IN the room as well as downstairs in the lobby, Fridge, lg. TV, very clean, tiny bathroom, but definitely use-able....and the lobby from 5 pm - 7 pm hosts a wine-bar and life music (one really talented man singing Eric Clapton songs w/his guitar) - he did an excellent job. Jeanne and I enjoyed that, even tho I ended up spilling my RED wine on their carpet (does that even surprise you ???) We ate lunch the 1st day at a place where the waiter, we decided in our minds, must've been a comedian in his earlier life (at this point he looked maybe in his mid to late 60's)....he LOOKED like Elmer Fudd (except this guy was tall and lanky) - kind of rubbery face - and while an excellent waiter, practically everything he said he added some little laughable words. mormon bridesmaid dresses
Altho our hotel was right there in middle of Powell and Market St. area (Union Sq. area and Westfield Mall area w/Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, - and the bldgs. of Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Gumps)....we had a devil of a time FINDING it w/all the streets being one-way just at the point where we wanted to turn. Jeanne dropped her i-phone in the toilet a wk. ago, so she's been totally w/out one for a week, so we had to get there on our own (I'd printed out MAPQUEST directions, but not sure it was correct once we got to all those one-way streets). However she's just like you and I (and Vicki and Barbara) - we can LAUGH OUR HEADS OFF at eachother's inabilities in directions and such. We KNEW eventually we'd find the place.
Happy to report I didn't end up spending a dime while there (except for food, parking,) and right b4 we left we popped into ROSS, & I found "such a deal lI couldn't pass up" - a pr. of CLARK'S slip on walking shoes that actually accommodated my rt. heel which always gets blistered because of the bump, & by the toes, they are wide enuf to not be scrunching my toes so I won't get an ingrown toe-nail....so I bought them at a real ROSS bargain price (Clarks & Born are 2 of my favorite expensive brands, which the only way I can ever buy them is via ROSS)....& I desperately needed a pr. of walking shoes after the 2 days there wearing slides which made it very difficult to walk and I think contributed to my lower back ache.
To "ME" Clarks & Born brands shoes ARE very expensive; however......then there are the brands in BLOOMINGDALES, NORDSTROMS, NEIMAN MARCUS which I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE ACTUALLY "PAY" THAT MUCH FOR....$3,000 one pr., another pr. $5,000; down to maybe an "inexpensive" pr. for $1,500 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Got some good pics of some shoes, and dresses in those shops - one dress which Jeanne held up to see and it dropped to the floor & I told her, "OK now you have to buy it".....$14,000 !!
We ended up when we 1st got there, parking in a parking garage around the block from where we stayed, because tho we found out the Hotel had its own parking lot, far as we could see there was no way anyone could DRIVE INTO IT....since the street it was on was blocked from just ANY vehicle driving down it - only City vehicles were allowed !!! We gave up and used the parking garage $36 for overnight (which we split), then $2 for ea. further hr. past 24 hrs. Since we stayed in S.F. Wed. also for a few hrs. past the 24, the total came to $46, of which I paid $23.
LEAVING S.F. was trying as well w/out GPS/I-ph directions, but we managed - SOMEHOW, altho not, most likely, the way MOST people do. We got PLENTY of honks (told Jeanne we MUST get HER one of my signs for her car "I APOLOGIZE, I'M A TOURIST", but she said that won't work in S.F.) I'm sure she is right.