We returned to our normal tradition of going up to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Last year, we took the year off and went to Salt Lake, which we decided was a mistake. Salt Lake is a very family oriented place and that isn’t what Grant and I are about right now. We more “city-folk.”
This was the first time in a long time we flew United Economy, which meant that we would be living out of a backpack for the next few days. For $125 round trip per person on Thanksgiving we were fine to do so. However, this did limit what we could bring back with us from our Black Friday haul. Upon landing, Grant’s aunt, Kate, picked us up and we were off to start our long break in SF.
Our first stop was at a nearby Thai place. This owner was running the restaurant because most of her staff were off. We had a fascinating discussion with her about restaurant staffing. Evidently, it is extremely difficult to staff restaurants in SF due to a limited workforce. We ate some amazing wings and Tom Kha and went back to change for actual Thanksgiving dinner.
Russ, Kate’s significant other, came to pick us up and we hauled it to Marin for Thanksgiving dinner. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a myriad of familiar faces from previous visits and of course some amazing champagne. This year, the host family asked Grant and I to each cut a turkey, which was fun to do. Somehow Grant got out of doing it in favor of Russ, but he felt that he contributed by supervising. We ate…ate some more…and then ate some more ice cream to top us off. Everything was as stellar as it usually is and really cemented that we made the right choice to come back.
After dinner, Grant and I usually head to union square, but the rain put a damper on that so we stayed in. We had done some online shopping throughout the day so we felt like we got enough. The next morning we got up and actually continued to shop online. I am not sure if I was discouraged to shop in the store because of the limit amount of bag space or if it was because the sales were not as great. Either way, Grant was thrilled as he bought more “flannel” scent from Bath & Body Work and didn’t have to worry about getting the liquids on the plane.
Our big event was at 4:30pn on Friday and that was the Cirque Du Soleil Volta show. Tickets were ridiculously expensive for this tent show, but we decided to buy them anyway. Probably three acts in the house lights come on and an announcement is made that due to technical difficulties the show has been temporarily delayed. After a few minutes, the announcer comes on again and asks us to wait in the concession stand area. This was highly unusual as most shows do not stop mid-performance, but this one did. We found out later that the catwalk had malfunctioned and they could not get it to rise after the acrobats left.
Eventually, they asked us to go back in, but the show did not start. The audience was restless at this point and so we did the wave, flashed our phones, and started chanting random phrases. Finally, the show started up again, but it was a shortened version. The good news though was that they refunded the show tickets 100% so we got to see something for nothing!
The next day we got up and ate Spanish Tapas. The food was so-so, but the portions were huge. We ended up getting a meat platter, which had meat hidden throughout it so you never knew what you were going to find. After much negotiation, Boy Erased was chosen as the movie to follow after lunch. Everyone seemed to like it so it was well fought for by me.
The final event of the trip was AsiaSF, which is, of course, a drag show dinner. It would not be a trip to SF without seeing some form of queer art and Grant does love his drag shows. At AsiaSF, the performers are the wait staff so we were excited to tell them that Russ was celebrating his birthday. As the show went on they gave him a “shot” for him to take.
I think the video will speak for itself.
We had another great time in San Francisco for the holidays and plan to keep this tradition up for the foreseeable future!