Pineapple Express



Help! Pineapple alert!

The evening news was all a-twitter about the pending storm, a Pineapple Express carrying loads of moisture across the Pacific from Hawaii. San Francisco and Oakland public schools shut down in anticipation of flooding and power outages. Several friends called or emailed us to remind us to stay safe.

In the middle of the night it started to rain, and the wind picked up. It rained hard; it blew. But seriously, it just wasn't that big a deal. Gauss's planned meeting with an old client was canceled because she was afraid to drive. We decided to go to SF and play tourist, so we went to the San Bruno BART station and bought tickets.

Parking was a little confusing so before we entered the turnstiles we hailed the station agent, whose back was turned to us. When he turned around, we were all shocked: Eddie from the running club!! He was no longer running due to an injury so we hadn't seen him on recent trips. He had no idea we would be in the Bay Area and we had no idea he worked there. After big hugs all around, we caught up with each other for about 15 minutes and then we boarded the train for downtown.


Eddie!!

Eddie had cautioned us that the power was out at the Montgomery station, so we got off at Powell. Once away from Market Street, the power was out, but we gamely walked up Grant through Chinatown. Stores in the first three blocks were dark and shuttered, but when we got to where the power was still on, a few were open. It wasn't exactly shopping nirvana.

We rounded the corner at Washington to pay respects at the old Sam Wo site. Placards covered the windows and a single pigeon sat forlornly in the doorway to escape the rain. Gauss and I were sad.

Lonely pigeon stands guard at Sam Wo's doorway

We're sad that Sam Wo is closed. 
We walked a little more through Chinatown--there were a few food stores open. And of course the Golden Gate Bakery was shuttered with a sign saying they were on vacation. They're ALWAYS on vacation.

We'd already eaten a fair amount of Chinese food on this trip so we decided to look for something Italian in North Beach. We got soaked to the skin walking there. 

When we lived here in 2008-09, it was almost impossible to find real Neapolitan-style pizza, but now several restaurants serving it have opened. We poked our heads into one on Columbus but the guys working there said they weren't open because of the rain. The directed us to Tony's Pizza Napoletana a few blocks away.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tonys-pizza-napoletana-san-francisco

Tony's was crowded—we had to wait half an hour, but the pizza was worth it. Gauss said it tasted like what he used to get in Italy when he was a kid. The staff were all really friendly and we were seated near the wood-fired oven where it was nice and warm. It was also fun hipster-people watching. Lots of beardy guys in skinny jeans and tennies.

The pizza warmed us up enough for the walk back to BART but once back in Frances' house, we changed into dry clothes and then napped before heading down the peninsula to our next event, a visit with our old friends Orchid and Jason.

The drive down 280 was kind of hair-raising. I guess that since it rarely rains very hard in the area roads aren't designed for runoff. It was surprising to find pooled water on an interstate on the side of a hill. After hydroplaning a couple of times we slowed down and got there without incident.

Little Ilana watched Orchid cooking from the comfort of her stroller.
Orchid and Jason have a new daughter, Ilana, ten months old. She is a very personable little girl, easy with a smile. She sat in her stroller in the kitchen while Orchid cooked Sichuan yummies for us, something she rarely does now that they have two kids. We were honored. Jason arrived home with Reuben in tow and the six of us enjoyed spicy hot pot and stir-fried chicken with zucchini—a homey treat and a lovely, warm end to a chilly, drippy day.





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