I almost went to -t's performance, but at about 3:30 CA time my body just crashed from the stress of flying and driving. Sorta felt better, but then cracked a filling eating tapas (yummy raw salmon and cream cheese on hard toast).

Stupid hard toast. But I think my mouth can survive until I get back to Chicago.

I can do Thursday! Traffic from Marin to East Bay is beyond horrible, Bumper to Bumper crawl from Corte Madera across the bridge from 3 p.m. on... So I might take the ferry to San Francisco and Bart somewhere, or drive over early to the East Bay and do something else and then Bart.

Which leads me to ask, what about meeting at the ferry building?

Side note, there is a farmers market at the ferry building 10 to 2 on Thursday. It is such a fun place to be during a farmers market. The Saturday market is kind of a mob scene but still fun. [link] For kids, the Exploratorium is almost Nextdoor.

I'm retired, and except for my Daily Yoga, I'm pretty free. Let me know if you'd like me to be a tour guide Tommy or Kate. Marin has Cavallo Point, Rodeo Beach, Marin, Mount Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, the Marin Civic Center, which is the only public/ gov't building that Frank Lloyd Wright actually built, Mission San Rafael, Wildcare, the cute little towns of San Anselmo and Fairfax, Mill Valley, the north part of Marin has Oolompali Park... Cavallo Point has restaurants and bars but also a lot of places where you can just sit and bring your own food and drink and admire the spectacular view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay. Though I always make a point of buying an iced tea in their little gift shop, deli. Rodeo Beach is the closest most easily accessed Pacific Ocean Beach in Marin, and Fort cronkhite and the marine mammal Institute, with a rescue and Rehab Center that has Public tours, is right there. If you want to get to Muir Woods you have to do it first thing, because the parking lot fills up fast, although I think that there's a shuttle that runs from the Manzanita Park and Ride lot.http://marintransit.org/routes/66.html Um. I worked in the East Bay for 25 years and I lived there in the late 70s and early 80s. The Oakland Museum is the lovely bit of architecture once you're inside the walls imho. North Berkeley is where I lived, you have UC campus grounds to walk around, The Gourmet ghetto, which is epicentered at Shattuck and Vine by the anchors Chez Panisse, the cheese board Collective, the juice board Collective, and then Shattuck has a kajillion little shops and restaurants all the way into downtown. Sparky and her Hub lived over there, you could check with them. Oh there's Fat Apples restaurant on Martin Luther King and Rose Street, and if you walk a block and a half or two blocks down Rose Street, right before you get to King Middle School, you can turn and walk into the Urban Garden that was created by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. If you keep going through it, you come out on Hopkins Street where there's a community swimming pool in case anybody wanted to swim.

East Bay-- The agency that I worked for was located in the west wing of The Claremont Hotel for 4 years, The Claremont Hotel is fun to go visit and there are spectacular views, and there's a Peet's and a bakery and a cute little restaurant called Rick & Ann's across the street. And my dentist.

Consuela runs up in the Redwoods in the Oakland Hills pretty regularly, I think you'd have to Ping her in natter, maybe, for recommendations. Oh I'll send her an e and see if she's aware of this discussion.

Oakland downtown and up Telegraph Avenue has developed into lots of different cool little areas and neighborhoods. There's a kid thing right on Lake Merritt called Children's Fairyland, and then if you walk East from there you will come to the Rotary Center, which is a wildlife center.

I've never done it, but you can swim at Lake temascal in Oakland. If you want to drive way up into the Berkeley Hills... There are two sets of hills, the Berkeley Hills and then another side of Hills Beyond that... You can go up to Inspiration Point for views of the bay to the west and Parklands to the east.

Tilden Park has things for kids, it's a pretty Park all over the place with hiking trails and picnic areas (and poison oak, beware, so much worse than poison ivy), I think there's a Carousel and I'm pretty sure there's a petting zoo or working farm, something like that. It's been awhile since I've been up there... When I was living in the Hills when I first moved here, I'd go to Lake Anza with my Sunday newspaper and a thermos of coffee. It is swimmable, with a cordoned-off swimming area, and a very gradual sand access into the water that's doable for kids. The Berkeley Rose Garden and its views are on the way there if you're coming from The Gourmet ghetto area.

Thanks for all the suggestions, Java cat! We don't have the kids with us and will probably stick to SF proper, but a trip across the bay to Berkeley or Oakland isn't out of the question.

Does Thursday night for dinner work for most people?

I just remembered that I probably can't do dinner Thursday because I'm going to an MST3K Live event with friends at 8pm.

Gosh darn it!

Thursday is as good a day as any for me. I can't commit to anything at this point, doing anything after work is a little challenging right now.

I just remembered that I probably can't do dinner Thursday because I'm going to an MST3K Live event with friends at 8pm.

If it makes any difference, we tend to eat early -- I would aim to meet around 6, unless that's really unrealistic for everyone else.

Hope we get to see you, -t, but will understand if it doesn't work out.