I Left My Heart In San Francisco

You are correct in your observation that the above picture looks as if we are facing a wind machine. It is not an optical illusion. We simply wanted definitive proof that we actually visited San Francisco and we felt that this picture would provide it…..where else would you find a gigantic heart with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it? So there you go! We really were in San Fran.

Mom always wanted to visit San Francisco and so did we. What a pleasant surprise then, when the stars aligned for us, as it was a short plane ride away, it fit our timing perfectly and the price was right. We worked hard at planning the logistics of our trip but we also felt the need to incorporate a few challenges and guidelines, because…..the Sisterhood is always on the lookout for challenges and guidelines.

After much discussion, we decided on a challenge that we all felt comfortable with. We called it the “San Fran Speaking With Strangers Challenge.” That might sound a bit dangerous but we were very clear that it only meant speaking with strangers when we were all present. After all, you couldn’t claim a conversation if no one else witnessed it.

Just for clarification, you could only claim a conversation once. Repeat conversations were only good for personal fulfillment and ego enhancement, ie. someone would actually want to speak to you again. In addition, to maintain the integrity of our challenge, we would have a meeting at the end of each day to verify and validate each sister’s conversation count.

Finally, the clock would only start ticking once we arrived at our hotel and end once we were in the airplane on our return flight. Hopefully, the parameters were now all in place.

Try as we might, we couldn’t arrive at an agreed prize for the winner of our challenge, so we settled for personal satisfaction and bragging rights in any future mentions of our San Francisco vacation.

Upon arrival at our hotel, we all rushed to be the first to have a “stranger conversation” with the Bellboy who wanted to take our luggage. It was then we realized that we needed to clarify the definition of a conversation…. it needed to be more that one word…. that is, yes or no and thank you didn’t qualify. We decided that it had to be at least two sentences. It was when we started arguing as to what constituted a sentence that the enormity of this challenge really hit home. We were now at a critical point. Do we forge ahead or abandon this altogether?

Because the Sisterhood does not back down from challenges, the answer was obvious. We simply vowed to continue and deal with problems as they arose in a democratic, calm and fair manner.

*Authors Note: We won’t bore you with a daily conversation count but will rather, give hints along the way as to the status of each sister’s tally. The big “reveal” will come at the end of our adventure…..

Day One

After settling into our hotel, we decided to take a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour. After a quick review and affirmation of The Sisterhood Guidelines, we were on our way. We had barely stepped out the hotel main door, however, when we were bombarded by people selling tickets for the two rival bus lines, and bombarded is an understatement….. They were relentless. So much so, that we had to literally turn our backs and walk away to make a decision. (Even then, they followed us)….and then we hopped on 🙂

Is This Guy Nuts??

We don’t have tangible proof, but we speculated that our tour bus guide was on drugs…..either that or he was a very frustrated comedian. His commentary was non stop….literally, and it was laced with odd observations, dumb jokes and questionable comments aimed at specific passengers. In addition, he brazenly recommended certain attractions that left us wondering if he got a “commission”for his endorsements.

His demeanour did however, foster a certain camaraderie amongst the passengers. In fact, the couple sitting directly behind us felt comfortable sharing the fact that they had no idea where they were staying that night. They had checked out of their hotel that morning because it was too expensive and decided that taking a bus tour was more important than securing lodging for the evening. We wished them luck at the end of the tour, as they went happily on their way without a care in the world.

This interaction definitely qualified as a conversation, but it wasn’t initiated by a Sister. This was becoming very complicated, however, it forced a further consensus that conversations initiated by a stranger didn’t count, thus eliminating any unfair advantage that a Sister might gain by smiling or staring at a stranger. Hopefully we had finally covered all of our bases and the challenge was on.

We decided to end our first day with a drink in our hotel lounge, chatting with our new friend, bartender Chris. Since he was a bartender, we felt certain that he would be an expert on both starting and ending conversations with strangers. To our delight, his many years of experience yielded a multitude of suggestions. Unfortunately, our conversation was rather abruptly terminated when his manager signalled that there were other customers at the bar.

*Authors Note: A recurring theme began to emerge as we scrambled to be the first to get the bartenders attention and it got a bit loud.

We spent the rest of our evening brainstorming and documenting possible conversation starters.

Day Two

Our Day Two destination was the world famous Fisherman’s Wharf and we planned on taking one of the world famous cable cars.

Upon arrival at the cable car terminal we were confronted with a huge line up. For some, this might be an obstacle or minor annoyance, however, the Sisterhood saw it as a conversation opportunity.

Mag got things off to a roaring start by asking the couple directly in front of us if this was the ticket line. Of course it was obviously the ticket line and her “targets” politely responded with “Yes.” Well this was a situation. She had to get at least two sentences out of them. She rose to the challenge, forgetting everything we had discussed the night before, by asking if they came here often….Wait…What?….Are you kidding me? Who uses that line?

Oddly enough, it worked. They took pity and started talking but they didn’t seem to want to stop. By the time we reached the front of the cable car line, Shauna and Kerri’s eyes were rolling into the back of their head, while Mag was dutifully nodding and pretending to listen. At least she could add a conversation to her credit.

It was here, that we realized for the first time that we had been so focused on creating our SFSWS challenge that we completely forgot about one of our major Sisterhood Guidelines: Minor falsehoods are permitted as long as they cause no harm.

This was a massive oversight on our part, because one of our favorite pastimes was making up ridiculous stories just to see if people would believe them, and to see if we could do it without laughing. In any case, at this point it was irrelevant. Our chatty line up couple showed no interest whatsoever in learning anything about us.

Fisherman’s Wharf was a delight. We wandered through souvenir and gift shops to our hearts content, then satisfied our sweet tooth with ice cream that cost about 10USD per scoop! We foolishly converted that to Canadian dollars and were horrified. We vowed not to bother converting US$ to CA$ again….it was much too stressful.

As we approached the cable terminal for our return trip, we were again confronted with a massive, snake-like line of would be passengers. It was now very hot, we were tired and Mag was impatient…..Uh oh, this did not bode well.

Kerri and Shauna dutifully stopped at the end of the line but Mag just kept on walking. When we caught sight of her, she was in an animated conversation with a cable car attendant. Uh oh…. was she venting her anger as she occasionally does when she perceives an injustice? Why, not at all. She had secured a place for us on the waiting cable car because there was room for three more passengers and we were now those three. Well done Mag!

We spend the evening making up ridiculous stories to see if people would believe them. We test one out on our bartender. He doesn’t believe it. When Kerri starts to once again try to convince Mag and Shauna to write a travel blog, its time to call it a night.

*Authors Note: Mag is now leading the conversation count and Kerri and Shauna need to step up their game.

We plan to publish a new post every Monday, so stay tuned as the San Francisco adventure continues in our next post entitled “I Can See Clearly Now”.