Heading north from San Diego to Long Beach to visit a great friend I find myself on the Amtrak train gazing out at the Southern California coastline. Unintentionally, I find that I am slowly transforming into this young child riding the train for the very first time. Many thoughts are racing in and out of my head as I reminisce over the past two weeks in which I played host to my six year old nephew in San Francisco, Ca. The lifetime of memories and experiences shared should forever serve as an inspirational launch pad.
Our first full day in the city and we were blessed with amazing weather so we decided to take a cruise around town. We went up and down the big huge hills where the cars have to park sideways; we traveled down Fillmore St. to a great view of the bay and that big red bridge, we took a trip to over to Lombard St. and after I shared with him that it was the most twisty street in the whole wide world I watched his eyes grow past enormous. Without thinking I told him about my crazy friend James that drove me up that same street going the wrong direction when I first moved to San Francisco. I say without thinking because of course he wanted us to make that same trip!!!It was painful for me to tell him that it wasn’t such a good idea and that it was very dangerous because I had so much fun doing it. Deep down I knew he would probably experience the same rush that I felt on my trip but I also weighed in the fact that if something went wrong San Diego would be a place that would be off limits to me as long as my mom is alive!
On our journey downtown while trying to explain what that meant we saw the big triangle shaped building that commands the attention of anyone staring at the San Francisco skyline. It wasn’t until the very next day when we went to the IMAX theater to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D did those landmarks really come into play. The film was created by the folks at Pixar in Emeryville just across the Bay and they used San Francisco as the back drop for the film. The experience was priceless, the little guy shouting out “whoa we’re in outer space!”,when the movie started and having monsters and aliens float right up to your face is very fun especially if you enjoy it natures way. And if you're keeping score at home, of course we had to go and see that big red bridge and the triangle shaped skyscraper after the movie.
The Exploratorium inside the Palace of Fine Arts is very cool and informative. Imagine all the lame ass science projects and reports you did in grade school being brought to life and presented in a hands on environment. Just like the movie I think I might have had more fun than the little dude! Our next fun outing was taking the Bart and the Muni trains to the Academy of Science. This place is like a museum and zoo mixed together. The weirdest and most interesting animals are housed there. Try explaining to a six year old why an albino alligator is white. The lack of green pigmentation and melanin mean absolutely nothing. The enormous fish in the aquarium downstairs was also cool. Somehow we missed the penguin enclosure but we spent a lot of time in the tropical water exhibit. It was full of sharks, manta rays, coral and colorful fish. I learned all about clown fish, Nemo and his friends courtesy of the little dude! That was very cool but what was even cooler was our stroll past the magic shop on 9th Ave just off Irving St. Luckily for the residents of San Francisco this store was closed for some odd reason. In the window was a display of poppers that he is all too familiar with. For those of you that attended private school or just had butt hole parents, poppers are these little white things that kids will kill for. They look like little pieces of wadded up paper and pop when you throw them at the ground, lots o’ fun. I actually still enjoy them myself from time to time. Sitting next to the poppers in the window was a display of stink bombs. I remember stink bombs from junior high school and man did those things clear out a classroom in a hurry. When I explained what they were and what they did you would have thought the little guy just saw Santa Claus climbing down the chimney on Christmas day. His devious smile was worth a billion bucks, and all I could think of was Dennis the Menace!!! Strangely part of me wanted those stink bombs as much as he did. GREAT thing the store was closed.
During the little guys visit we would stop by the lounge every other day or so to say hi to Mike. I had to explain why people leave money on the bar when they buy a drink but I still don’t think I made that clear? He earned a few dollars during his stay doing odd jobs and completing simple tasks. The homeless or addiction challenged people out on the streets begging for his hard earned dinero didn’t stand a chance! Try explaining to a six year old why it’s ok to hang out all day and hit people up for their hard earned dough, and when you do please help me understand as well!
Fourteen days is a long time for a single guy to play mom and dad in a single person’s city. Thank God for a few good friends, Uncle Mack, chocolate milk and cinnamon toast crunch. Without the before mentioned who knows what might have happened to me and the little guy? With kids, a simple trip to dinner is no longer an option. To the people sitting next to you, privacy aint happenin’. One night at dinner I could tell the couple sitting next to us was on a first or second date just by their body language. I felt bad because we were loud and his food was everywhere. Then I thought this might be the best gift ever because after the countless cocktails they knocked back maybe my little Tasmanian Devil inspired them to finish their night very carefully!
With every trip on the train I found myself apologizing to the person sitting across from us for being stepped on or being kicked over and over again. Ice Skating lasted all of ten minutes. I wasn’t down with taking a spill on the ice so I couldn’t be mad at the little guy for feeling the same way. “Pizza with salad stuff on it” is probably the worst invention ever. As funny as that sounded the first time I heard him say uuuuhhhh, I couldn’t help but agree. Hummus wasn’t happenin’. My world famous and very delicious eggs with ground up broccoli, onions and garlic wasn’t even worth considering, those went completely untouched. Plain eggs were prepared and they were devoured. The crust of all bread slices was left on his plate every time. Daily I juice and therefore I am, the kid wasn’t havin’ that. If anything other than oranges went into that juice machine and he was turned off and tuned out.
I often talk to my mom about the little guys habits and how “picky” he is. My opinion, he actually has it all figured out at an early age. He already lives by the law my friends and I aspire to live by, “things I’m doin’and things I ain't doin’!” All I can do for now is just admire the little dude for practicing this ideology decades before I learned to.
The film was made by Dreamworks!
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