A Trip That Should Have Had Pictures

So, today Ralph and I went on a trip to Great America. I had bought some extra tickets that Mary had and was going to sell them to Adam, however, after great difficulty contacting him, and realizing that Great America would soon be closing for the season rendering the tickets worthless, I finally decided just to go, and knowing that Ralph liked rollercoasters, I invited him along. Well, we got there, parked and found out that the tickets were no good anyway. They were intended for use only on a certain day. I don't know how Mary got us in before. But then again, Mary seems to me to be highly skilled in areas about which I know nothing.

Not to be dissuaded, Ralph and I decided to go to San Francisco instead. Ralph had never been to my 2 favorite places in San Francisco: China Town and Japan Town. So first we decided to go to China town. I was actually fairly disappointed in China Town. Something seemed different this time. It seemed like some of the smaller shops had been driven out of business and had been converted into jewelry shops. I don't know if that was it, but something seemed missing. Anyway, cant say I had a bad time in China Town, because I bought one of the most amazing paintings that I have ever seen. Here it is, the Monkey King.

Such an amazing picture, in my opinion. And it is HUGE. Streches from the floor to the ceiling in my room! And since I showed such an interest in it, the shop keeper gave me a discount off the artificially high price! Actually though, I paid the exact right amount for it. So now I have a huge picture of the #1 Chinese hero in my room. I know it will never happen because I'm white, but the greatest dream of all in my desire to act in east Asia would be to play the Monkey King.

Here is me as the Monkey King on Halloween, 2003. My best costume ever.
Alright, enough of the really impossible dreams. Back to my day. We then went to Japan Town. Japan Town is always nice. Had some ramen and donburi. Went to the Kinokunya Bookstore. Bought up to volume 7 of Slam Dunk, which I plan to read when my schedule calms down a little. Then we drove to the Palace of Fine Arts, walked around, decided the Exploritorium was a little too expensive, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and went to Costco. It was a fun day, since Ralph is such a great guy to hang out with. He always has something interesting to say...even when you are not listening because you are trying to drive in San Francisco.