[lashbear]

After that, it was time to sample our first American Hotdog. We went to the cart that stood in the centre of the wharf, and each ordered a "red-hot" (the original name for them when they were introduced at Coney Island by a young pie vendor named Charles Feldtman, who experimentally put a vienna sausage into a kaiser roll). Once the actual hotdog was in our hands, we were then faced with 1000 toppings to put on it like onions, mustard, catsup, pickles, cheese, olives, relish, and chutney.

We had laden our goodies onto the bun, and we were then faced with the problem of how to eat something 10 times the size of our mouths. We made a good go of it, and went to the double-decker carousel in the very centre of the pier.

The carousel is one of the main attractions at Pier 39. It is two stories tall, and was made in Vienna at the turn of the century. It was beautiful to watch, and we soon made short work of the hotdogs.

We then went to try on a pair of 501's. Neither could find a pair to fit, as one of us was too tall, and the other too short. (Can you guess which was which?). One of the most unusual shops we went into was called "SanFrancisco Country", and it specialised in all things that are cow-themed. There was a phone ("Reach out and milk someone") and aprons, pottery and everything you could imagine, all in the shape of cows, or patterned in the familiar black and white cow pattern.

We Went into a really "swinging" shop next....the Hammock shop. It had an array of hand made and commercial hammocks in all the colours of the rainbow. The name was again one of the less original ones, though. One shop that was original was "Design In motion". This was a shop full of kinetic artworks. I could have stayed there for hours watching the various pieces moving all over the place. After a bit more window-shopping we decided it was time for coffee.

We had been walking around for a while, and I was in need of something, so we went to the coffee shop on the top level of the two-story wharf. I ordered a "SanFrancisco blend" from the hundreds of different coffee blends available, and while waiting, I saw a range of flavouring drops to put in coffee. I chose Tia Maria flavour (Non-alcoholic, of course). Then the coffee arrived, and we went outside for me to have a smoke while I drank it.

It was lovely standing out on the top deck of the pier, drinking coffee and looking out across the moonlit harbour while the.......WAIT A MINUTE, did I say moonlit? Yes, our little "look around for an hour or so" had turned into an all-day window shopping spree! We didn't worry, but went onward, to the NFL shop.

I had promised to get a pigskin football for a friend, and so we went in to shop. The cheapest one was $100 (US!) and so I decided not to get one, as they wanted a few other things as well. We headed downstairs, where I had some fries from the burger cafe, then we hopped on a cable-car home again. On the way, we stopped in at Jack-in-the-box ("Hungry Jacks" to ozzies) where I got a chicken and mushroom sandwich (more like a burger than a sandwich), a seasoned curly fries and a small Dr Pepper for $5.82 (inc. tax) and Maree got a cheese burger and large fries for $2.00 (inc. tax).
Once we had bought that, we stopped in at walgreens, which is kind of like an all-night grocery store. (imagine 7-11 with a huge range of items. I wish we had these back home. we bought milk, 2 large bottles of Dr Pepper (guess who for?), a cherry-flavoured chapstick and a packet of cigarettes (which were only $2.10.) I went back and got an aerosol can of cheese. Yes, cheese in a can! it came out like sticky yellow spaghetti and you squirted it onto crackers. I bought some ritz (like our Jatz) crackers to go with it.

Gathering our goods and chattels, we headed back to the hotel room. There we were in for a surprise!

While we had been out on the town, the magic maids had been in our room and made the beds. That was no surprise, but they had also arranged all our stuff neatly, including all the loose change which had been thrown on the bedside table, which was now neatly stacked, all the bits and pieces that had been thrown on the floor were now folded, hung, placed just so, etc. What a shock.

We ate our dinner (mine garnished with squirty cheese) and then I freshened up and went to the bar in the lobby. Once I had gone, Maree had a bath and went to bed, but while she was asleep........

I met suzy, the barmaid, and her boyfriend downstairs. We chatted a bit, and I tried quite a few american beers. They all are mostly pretty tame. Suzy then introduced me to "hot shots". I had been bragging about the australian capacity for alcohol, and so far, it seemed the truth as suzy's boyfrfiend was keeping up with me drink for drink, and he was a lot worse off than I was. That was when suzy poured a couple of spirits in a glass, squished some lemon into it, then gave ma a salt shaker. This was a "Hot shot". it had Tequila, some sort of spicy Vodka and lemon juice in it, and you had to lick the salt and then swallow the drink. If you liked, you could suck a lemon wedge after, but the lemon in the drink was enough. WELL.......

after two of those (on the house) I was beginning to see more than one of everything! Anyhow.... the night was growing old, when suzy informed me that she was leaving soon to go to a party which was for the boss of the other nightclub where she also worked. Would I like to come along?

We hopped into her open top jeep, and took off to the border of chinatown. This was a japanese (I think) nightclub. The drinks and entertainment were free, so we were having a good time, but Suzy's boyfriend was getting tired, (at about 12.45am) and so they dropped me back to the hotel at 1.00am. I went upstairs, and chatted to maree until about 2.30, when we both fell asleep.