Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

We made it to San Francisco!!! We spent the morning doing some "housecleaning" as we like to call it. Basically that means, taking showers, writing postcards, updating the blog, and doing laundry if need be. All of the pleasantries that we don't get to indulge in while living out of a van. We bummed around all day waiting to fulfill our one task for the day; pick Scott and Megan up from the airport. Friday was the start of Hardly Strictly, but aside from MC Hammer, there was really no acts that we cared all that much about seeing that day. All of you who are doing a double take right now on the words MC Hammer, that is not a typo. MC Hammer has apparently been opening for this show a few years now, not performing his signature rap songs but rather boasting line up of gospel music. I am truly sad to say that we missed it. After Scott and Megan's flight was delayed a couple times, we finally left to go to the airport and pick them up. We found it easily and drove around in circles about 4 times before they had collected their baggage and were actually ready to be picked up. They hopped in Alice (we took Angella's car to pick them up since CJ doesn't have any seats) and we headed straight to Golden Gate Park to catch the rest of the shows. Scott had his heart set on seeing one band in particular, 7 Walkers, but due to the flight delays and us not finding a

parking spot for a half hour, we missed all but the last song. Still, we stayed around the festival for another act and enjoyed the small crowd that we heard would not be standard in the days to come. Afterwards we headed back to the Horton Hippie Hotel and proceeded to all hang out together, playing cards and

watching TV. In the morning we woke up, as always, later than intended. We all showered and enjoyed a spectacular breakfast courtesy of the HHH staff. Then the chauffeur service, aka Kyle, drove us to the park. We spent the beginning part of the day all together and after establishing a blanket spot at one of the stages, we moved to another and set up camp there as well. Saturday the concerts that we wanted to see were scattered everywhere, so it was hard to have a central location. During the David Grisman set I split off from the group to get closer to the stage and afterwards Katie and I went to see Jackie Greene while everyone else stayed at Robert Earl Keen. Katie and I met up with everyone for the end of REK's set, then we hit the town. The last show ended at 7p.m. and though the day was long, the night was young. We decided to walk back to the HHH which was about 2 miles straight uphill. To lighten this burden we made a sort of bar crawl out of it, stopping at bars along the way for a drink and then moving on. We only made 3 stops, one of which was for pizza, and made it

back around 10p.m. Katie and Scott were anxious to defend their left handed euchre title, so Angella and I took on the challenge but ultimately failed again. This scenario would be played out numerous times over the weekend with the same result, a left handed victory, save one time where Angella and I stomped them. This of course was explained away by those crafty lefty's as ploy to keep us interested in playing future games. Whatever! Sunday started out much the same as Saturday had, waking up late, eating an excellent breakfast, then heading to the show. This time we set

up a permanent camp at the Arrow Stage where every show we wanted to see for the day was playing at. Theresa, another Sears coworker of mine, met up with us early in the day too. It was really fun to be around both Theresa and Angella, and for the first time since I left I found myself missing work. Fortunately they were both transfered to San Francisco and we got to spend some time together at the show. The crowds Sunday were insane and we were very fortunate get the spot we did. One time Katie and I tried to leave to get to another show we wanted to see but didn't even make it past the stage we were at before having to turn around because the crowd was so thick. As the day went on and the show neared its end, the crowd had cleared out considerably. Even Katie and I were the only ones left out of our group by the last show. Everyone else had taken off to catch the Bears game. After the Avett Brothers closed out the festival, we headed to the bar to meet up with Scott and Megan, Angella and Kyle had already gone home for the night. We made a pit stop at Taco Bell and by they time we met up with them, they were ready

to leave the bar and get back to the HHH. So again we walked the 2 miles back up the hill and got home about the same time as the night before. Tonight it was only Scott, Katie, and I, who were able to stay up late and we entertained ourselves playing 6 card until we were all ready for bed. Monday came and only Kyle had to run off to work.

Angella had taken the day off and though Scott was supposed to go to a job, the person called in and asked him to come back another time. So, we had an extra day to ourselves. Angella had to take Sugar to the vet, but after that we all piled in Alice and headed to the beach! We passed by the Sea Cliff neighborhood, home to Robin Williams amongst others, and

reached the picturesque beach setting. The beach faced out into the ocean and if you looked to the right you could clearly see the Golden Gate Bridge, turn to the left and the beautiful homes of Sea Cliff were visible. We stayed there most of the day, playing catch with the foxtail and fetch with Sugar, enjoying the scenery

as well as the company, eating and relaxing all day after our concert filled weekend. Before too long we noticed that we may have overdone our stay. Megan and Scott had a flight to catch and though they weren't in danger of missing it yet, we still had one more stop to make, In-N-Out Burger! We got back the HHH and they quickly packed the rest of their bags and we headed out the door. After struggling with some traffic, we made it to In-N-Out Burger with 60 minutes to

spare before their flight. We got our order to go and then they asked if we planned on eating it in the car. At first we were confused by the question but we soon found out that after answering yes to this question, instead of putting all the food in a bag, they put it in a box, everything accessible! It was brilliant. We demolished our food within minutes and headed full blast to the airport. We haven't heard anything from Scott or Megan since, so we can only assume they made it safely on board and home to Alaska. We didn't do much the rest of the evening, again resorting to our housecleaning activities as well as getting sucked in by TV. This morning was more of the same. Aside from getting the blog updated, Katie and I had other errands to run such as picking up some photos for Katie's scrapbook, a knee brace for her to help with our longer hikes, my new camera that I bought from Best Buy, and some more postcard stamps so we can keep em coming. At the HHH we began to hang some of their wall decorations up. They just moved in to the house and are still in the process of getting everything unpacked and in order. Tonight we are planning on walking down to the Haight for some tapas and we will probably do some more decorating afterwards. In the morning, we are hitting the road again, heading north, back to explore what Oregon has to offer.