RAMBLING AROUND IN MY MIND IN SAN FRANSISCO

Today I am going to let my mind wander and recall random thoughts of San Fransisco and the fun times we had there. Each one of these musings could easily become a full on story or at least qualify as a memory. I am breaking them down this way in order to cover a little more ground thru our first journey into the US. We were having a blast in the Bay Area of San Fransisco and seeing a lot of the local sights. We are also starting to get visitors at this point, all of whom we were delighted to see.

Before my rambling starts I will prime you with a couple of sayings about San Fran. The quotes are not exact (more like paraphrases) and I forget the authors but I think their meaning gets thru. First it was said “east is east and west is San Fransisco” another said “I would rather have a “wet” San Fransisco than a “dry” Manhattan”. You get the point, people here thought they were special and Deysi agreed. Ok now to ramble.

One of the first days we were sight seeing in San Fransisco we had approached the Trans America Pyramid building; as we stood and gazed up at it, our daughter said “Mommy please hold me quick, I feel like I’m going to fall over on my back!” She was just 5 and had her first case of vertigo! Mommy grabbed her in a heart beat.

One of our greatest visits was with my two oldest boys. They were finally deemed old enough to visit on their own. We were so excited to see them. The oldest was about 14 and the younger one about 11 (their sister my oldest daughter was not yet considered old enough to travel). They knew a little of San Fransisco and wanted to eat seafood and visit Alcatraz. So the first Saturday after their arrival, off we went. Deysi had promised them that they could eat anything they wanted. Off to Pier 39 we head, visions of lobster in their heads. We arrived, and on the way in had a look into the fresh lobster tank. There didn’t seem to be as much hype around the lobster as there had been previously.

We were seated and provided menus. I don’t think they really knew just how ugly a lobster is. It looks like some kind of bug, spider, space monster and creature from the lagoon all piled into one. Well the younger opted for Spaghetti as his choice of the day. After all isn’t San Fransisco noted for Spaghetti! Not. The older one ordered the scallops. I don’t know where that idea came from, but I expect he was thinking scallop potatoes like his mommy made him. Anyway he ate the scallops. Now off to Alcatraz where, after the tour, I offered to leave them, but a guard said they weren’t accepting any new guests at that time. We had a great day and they had their first taste of International travel.

Deysi’s dad, Papi, also came to visit us very early on. It was also his first trip outside of Peru so we were awaiting his arrival anxiously. He was a character and we knew he had the potential to get into all sorts of crap. Deysi took all the precautions and got him a flight direct from Lima to San Fransisco with Areo Mexico, that way his lack of English would not be a hinderance. Well true to form off he comes from the airplane and is pissed.

Deysi asked him what was wrong, to which he replied ” I hate those Mexican people”, “oh yeah, what did they ever do to you”, “well they tried to kill me with a little pepper”. Come to find out, after 65 years of crunching down on the rocoto pepper in Peru, they fed him a habanero with his lunch. Now in my mind there was nothing as blinding hot as the rocoto. It could strip the inside of your guts out and make you leak from every hole in your body. I am proof of that.

My first invite to Deysi’s to meet the family, I am served a bowl of soup. I had noticed everyone taking a small sliver of a red looking pepper and sticking it into their soup. What I didn’t notice was that they gave it a couple of stirs and took out the piece of pepper. I just left it in and my soup just got hotter and hotter. My eyes are leaking, my nose is running and my ears are pouring. I thought I was going to die.

Now, Papi had been crunching these badboys every meal for every day of his life. He now gets on a Mexican Airplane and they feed him a habernero, that his system was not used to. A different kind of hot, a different kick and in its own right, hot. Well he sees this on his tray, scoops it up and chomps off a good bite of it. He said he thought he was having the “big one”. He was 100 percent convinced that they did it on purpose because he was a Peruvian. This one incident defined his opinion of the Mexican people for the rest of his life. Murderers!

Then along came the second oldest brother of the clan from Peru. He would have been in his very early 20’s at this point. Full of energy, could eat a tyrannosaurus in one sitting and was eager to see the sights. This was his first visit outside Peru at this time, also. We did have some fun. He was quite the avid soccer fan and had his favourite team at home. As part of his overall opening of the world of sport to him, I took him to a professional basketball game in Oakland. Armed with his camera, we jumped on the BART and headed for Oakland.

The stadium was jammed, it was loud, full of hype, and the cheerleaders were bouncing. It was quite a spectacle for him. He snapped pictures, looked around, got focused on something down near the floor and generally seems to be having fun. At one point he asked me why does “one of the players have eye glasses on”. I told him “so that he can see”! I guess he did not need me to point out the obvious! He shot me a look that said, you have been around my sister to long (her sarcasm is creeping in). Anyway a few days after the game he got his pictures developed and was going to show them. He had not one picture of the game! Everyone of his picture was of the cheerleaders! Well at least he had his focus right.

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That is the end of my brief ramblings about San Fransisco. I have just wandered around in the wasteland of my mind, and purged a few cobwebs. Until we meet again, Adios!