The Accidental Tourist

Saturday TinyTima and I drove into The City for a day of adventure. We really didn’t have a plan, though Tiny did want to go shopping down in Chinatown, however little did we know that the day had a plan of its own for us.

We ended up down at Pier 39 amongst all the tourists. It took us forever to make it down the Embarcadero. We found parking with no problem, but at the time that we were headed towards the Pier was the same time that a demonstration was taking place. I’m not sure if it started at Pier 39, while working their way to where ever they ended up, but that is where they were when we got here. It was some kind of abortion protest. From what I saw, there were a lot more Anti-Abortionist’s than Pro Choice people. Personally, I’m Pro Choice. Since this is not a post on that debate, I will leave it at that.

Of course while one is down at the Pier, the viewing of the sea lions is a must. I didn’t even attempt to try and take any pictures from the Pier 39 observation deck they have. It was full of the daily lull of tourists.

After the sea lions we ended up heading towards the Sea Lion Café that overlooks, what else but the sea lions. We were seated quite close to the door and since I was facing the door I was able to watch all the people coming in. About 10 minutes after we got there I noticed this young guy with dark hair blue eyes. He ended up being seated at the table next to us, behind Tiny. Tiny had over heard him ordering, hearing is accent, she turned around asking where he was from. He told her he was from Poland. Tiny though didn’t hear what he said (she has a little bit of a hearing problem!) thought he said Colon. After I was done laughing my ass off I had to tell her, “No you crack head. He said Poland!” After all the laughing was done she turned back around and asked him if he wanted to join us at our table asking if he was here alone, which he accepted.

We introduced ourselves, though when he said his name I asked him to spell it for me, writing it on the table as he did so. (The Sea Lion Café cover their tables with white paper and have a glass of crayons for the children to keep themselves busy. I was drawing a cemetery scene when we asked him over.) His name was Wojtak, 26, from Poland, living in Vienna. Turns out this guy already has his PhD in like micro-biology, or some shit like that. He was down in Ventura, Ca earlier in the week for some convention. He figured since he was here he’d make a vacation out of it and came up to San Francisco.

I can’t even remember all of what we talked about, we talked about so many things about here and back in Europe. He spoke English very well and understood it pretty good too, specially since we Californian’s speak a slang all our own, he understood it all. We were sitting for so long just talkin that we ended up being the last people in the café to leave; it had closed early for a personal party.

The three of us ventured back to the front of the Pier where he was going to head back towards downtown, where he was staying. Tiny and I really had no other plans, I mentioned going to the beach, to the Cliff House and asked if he’d like to join us. Accepting we headed back to the car. It was while he was getting into the car with us that Tiny remarked about didn’t his mother ever teach him not to get into cars with stranger’s, which he laughed at. I had to admit, Tiny had a point. Then again, we were pretty much guilty of the same thing. After voicing that we though it was a safe bet to assume that we were all safe from each other, we headed towards the Cliff House.

Now it has been at least 2-3 years since I’ve last been to the Cliff House, but I didn’t expect to see what I saw. I was completely disappointed. What I was seeing was not the Cliff House that I had described to Wojtak earlier at the café. They had re-modeled the place! And to top it all off… They also got rid of the penny arcade that was down below on the observation deck! Augh, the nerve! I tried to explain to Wojtak what the place used to look like, but I know there was no way he could imagine what I was trying to describe. It was after he went inside to use the restroom that he said he saw what I had meant. He had seem a pictures that they have displayed showing what the Cliff House used to look like it it’s hey day, then again after the fire.



After getting some pretty good sunset shots we headed down to the beach. Tiny ended up breaking free from us and went off on her own. Wojtak and I just ended up walking down the beach talking and looking to see if we could find at least one sand dollar that was still whole, after explaining to him what a sand dollar was and what it looked like.

Eventually we walked back towards Tiny, then back up to the car. Stopping mid way up, looking down below at the Sutro Bath ruins. Showing him the places down below where there were caves, which ones were still accessible and which ones were closed. Briefly told him the story of how my uncle had to be rescued from one of the caves back when he was 13. Then explained to him why most of the other caves where now off limits and not accessible anymore. After that we made our way up to the car and headed back down into downtown to drop him off near the hostel.

In a nutshell, that is how I spent Saturday being a local tourist in The City. You are probably wondering if I got Wojtak’s e-mail address or something, to maybe keep in contact with. Nope. Saturday was just one of those random days that something awesome happens to you, which you can look back on one day and remember with a smile.

Saturday, was definitely one of those days.