When we last saw our hero, Josh, he was in a hotel in Carmel, CA. We pick up his story there. . .
We awoke to a nice sunny morning on July 6th. We quickly got ready, crowded into the car and–after plugging our destination into Patty–headed out on the road again. After a short time on the road, we stopped at a gas station in Marina, CA to get gas and check on the tires. The tire pressure light had gone on earlier and our previous attempt to top off the tires didn’t turn it off. While we were there, we asked the cashier for a place to grab brunch, and she directed us to Denny’s. Not gourmet, but it did the trick. After brunch we hit the highway again for a scenic but foggy ride up Highway 1. We arrived in San Francisco in the middle of the afternoon and Patty guided us to our hotel (W San Francisco) without incident.
After getting settled in to the hotel, we decided to walk around and do some shopping (and get a happy hour cocktail at Azul). I purchased a new shirt and some shoes (on sale!) at Banana Republic. I had to escape the little sales associate who really wanted me to get a Banana Republic card that day. I tried to explain that the 15% off sounded swell, but I wanted to wait until I was spending more money to really take advantage of it. He didn’t seem to appreciate my point. Oh well.
Anyway, after shopping we hopped in a cab and headed up to the Castro (the gayest area in a gay city) to meet some friends (binx and huckie) for dinner. After checking out their place (looking good, guys!) we went to dinner at Nirvana. The food was good and I got to order a drink called “Tie Me to the Bedpost” from a cute waiter. Tee hee!
After dinner we hit the bars (hard). We started off at a place I can’t remember the name of, after which Huckie left us 
. Then we went to Moby Dick’s where my butt was grabbed by the Gorton’s fisherman. Finally we joined another local friend, evb, and went to The Cafe (aka Roscoe’s West) where we continued to drink and watch boys dance in their underwear. Some of them were even cute. Justin and Binx left and Chris, evb and I closed the bar and grabbed a slice of pizza before sloshing ourselves into a cab back for the hotel.
The next morning we went to brunch at Chevy’s (not so hot) and then were lazy for awhile. Chris and I saw “Live Free or Die Hard” while Justin shopped for Japanese soft porn (and did who knows what else). Mini movie review: It was good, if far-fetched and Mac guy was cute. For dinner we headed back up the Castro and wandered around a bit, eventually settling on Blue which I voted for purely based on its name. I had the chicken pot pie, and it was excellent. We then had a quick drink at The Bar on Castro and then met up with Binx and Huckie to go to a party some friends of theirs were having.
The party was full of people, many of whom were easy on the eyes. We stayed and socialized for awhile, and then headed out. . . but not before I got fondled and paddled and did a little paddling of my own (pants on. . . sorry to disappoint). Good times! For the record, I have no piercings anywhere.
The next morning we had a little time to kill, so we brunched at Mel’s Drive In then walked around downtown a bit. Finally, we packed up and got back into the car, bound for SFO. Our flight left on time and was pretty uneventful. There was a cute guy behind me/next to Justin, but he seemed to sleep most of the flight. We got home fairly late and waded through a puddle of water caused by our malfunctioning air conditioner. My cat meowed at me a lot, and then it was bed time for Joshie. I did not want to go to work on Monday, but I did and lived to tell about it.
I’m ready for my next vacation now.
