A Blossom by any name would smell as sweet

Click here for our photos from our trip

One of Maggie's oldest and best friends Mindy Blossom is pregnant and due to have a little Blossom in about a month. Some of her left coast friends were throwing a baby shower and Maggie wouldn't have missed it for the world. So we caught a jetplane to the west to spend the weekend with Mindy, Tom, and their 9 month old bulldog Stella.

We stayed at the Carlton Hotel, it was very nice and different from major chain hotels, small, friendly, and fun. We ate at a local restaurant a few blocks from the hotel the first night and got some sleep. The next morning Tom, Mindy, and Stella picked us up at the hotel and we all piled into their car and went to a beach near the Golden Gate Bridge where there's a regular bulldog meetup. A whole bunch of bulldog owners and their dogs get together to romp around and have a good time in a very beautiful spot. We all had a good time watching Stella tear around the beach with her own doggy kind. After she got a bit tired out we all went for a walk along the beach towards the bridge, it was clear blue skies, sunny, and warm.

Lots of talking, walking, and laughing it was a great way to start our visit. Later that night we had dinner at a place called Zuppa that was nice, i think we all agreed the best feature was the fresh thinly sliced salami, prosciutto, etc... We wound up talking about lots of things but the topic kept coming back to babies since Mindy is due soon and Maggie is about 2 months along now. So Mindy and Tom were nice enough to give us an insight into what's ahead, since its still fresh in their memories it was very timely. We called it a night and looked forward to seeing them at Mindy's baby shower the next day.

On Sunday Maggie and I got up a bit earlier so we'd have a decent chance of eating at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. We'd waited in line on Saturday morning but we were late, the line was long, and Maggie's belly was rumbling. We still wound up waiting about 25 minutes to get in on Sunday but it was worth it, great food, great service, and a wonderful feeling about the place. I'd go there again anytime, just be warned it borders a hinky part of town.

After a great breakfast we drove over to the Blossom's pad in a nice section of the city, palm trees, old architecture, I even hear tell there's a Whole Foods coming nearby [across the street!] soon. Tom let us in and led us upstairs to their lovely apartment all tricked out with a brand new baby room, food, drink, presents and all the other accoutrements that screamed: women only - men go someplace else while we have fun! So Tom, Mark [another guest's male], and I made ourselves scarce for an afternoon of debauchery and libation while the women folk invoked ancient and mysterious fertility rituals or somesuch. Later that afternoon the xy chromosoned were allowed back to view the wreckage of a fun time for all. Maggie had a great time and made some new friends.

Later that day Mindy & Tom still had enough energy to go see Clint Eastwood growl his way through a great performance in the movie Gran Torino with us. A great way to end the last day of a too brief weekend. After lots of hugs we called it a night and flew home the next morning.

I'll miss San Francisco, a beautiful place showed off to its best advantage by our wonderful hosts.