Today was a great bay area day for me. First off the weather was beautiful. I started off by meeting up with friends at the Thai temple in Berkeley for Thai brunch. We got there a little too late for it to be an ideal experience (I would recommend arriving before 10:30), but sitting on the back porch of one of the temple buildings drinking Thai ice tea, eating mango sticky rice, and chatting with friends is always pleasant. Then one of my friends and I wandered over to the Ashby flea market, which is only a few blocks away. I bought a great new pair of sunglasses for only five dollars. Then another friend came and picked us up and the three of us drove over to the city to go to Ocean Beach. (We were going to take public transportation, but my friend reasoned that it would be cheaper with three of us to drive. Though I try to use public transit as much as possible I do have many issues with the way BART operates that I will address at some later date.)
We took the long way, driving through golden gate park, which was beautiful as always. We ended up over by the Beach Chalet and the windmill. We stopped in at the Beach Chalet to grab some of their jugs-o-beer. I forget what they call them, but the jugs are cheaper then getting a pitcher, and you get to keep the jug. I think the jug and beer is twelve and if you bring the jug back the refill is only eight. My friend brought hers to refill and I got a new one. Mine is in my frig right now with the left over beer.
The great thing was that right before we ordered one of the people behind the bar dropped a champagne glass nearly on top of me and shattered glass every where I was sitting so he gave us a new one and a refill for the price of one.
After my third friend finally got the food to go that she had ordered (I would not recommend eating there on a Sunday. It was way too busy and took way too long.), we walked across to the beach. We lounged in the warm sand, drank our jugs of beer and snacked on my friends potato chips that came with her food. Unfortunately, it was gray along the shore, but it was still nice to be near the water, watching people with their children, dogs or footballs, and the seagulls waiting for said people to give them food. We finally had to move because of the call of nature (btw, the beach chalet is a great place to use the restroom). And then we wandered over to the
Dutch Windmill, which has a fabulous flower garden surrounding it. We sat on one the benches there and drank some more from our jugs-o-beer (I don't know if it is legal, but no one bugged us).
On our way home we found the freeway traffic stopped. So, we got off and ended up at the Atlas Cafe, which has good coffee drinks, decent pastries, and good soups, all of which tided us over until we thought the freeway had cleared. And last, but not least, we happened to pass a "yard" sale just a few blocks from the cafe where my friend found a great little art deco bedside table for hardly any money. Yes, it was a good day. I would highly recommend this trek to anyone.
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