February 9, 2004 - San Francisco, CA - Day Off!!!

The sun was up when we arrived in San Francisco. My first thought when I stepped out of the bus was, "Man, the weather is incredible here!" Our hotel looked great from the outside. It was the tallest building in the area. We were staying at the Woodfin Suites in Emoryville, CA. We were on the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge right at the bottom of the bridge. From the looks of it, it seemed like we were in a very cool side of town. I took my luggage up to my room. It was one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever been in. I had a stove, oven and a dishwasher. There were also candles in the room and wine glasses. The only thing missing was my wife.

I decided that I would get a little rest since it was early and then try to see some of the city. Tony Bullocks from the Bass/Nature Camp had made himself available to show me the city. He had made arrangements with his job to get off early. Even thought we were off, Victor had a private engagement. I was going to have to get some basses together for him. Victor was playing at the Riekes Center. Our Friends Jon Young and Donega Murdock are heavily involved with the Riekes Center. I'm not totally sure, but I think he was going to be performing with Kai Eckhart. Donega was going to come and get the basses, but later I found out that Kai was going to be coming. Kai wasn't able to come until after 3:00. I didn't want to have to wait around in my room for him to come, so I decided to leave a key to my room for him in the lobby and left the bass in my room. One of the staff from camp, Peter Bergen came to the hotel. If we had thought it through a little more thoroughly, we could have just given the basses to Peter because he was heading to the Riekes Center later. Peter wanted me to see a couple of things in the city. He had been reading the tour diary and knew that I was into Ducati dealers and book stores. When he arrived I was at the Eatery across the street. If you're ever in Emoryville, CA there's an Eatery connected to the Border's Book across the street from the Woodfin hotel. You can find food from all parts of the world.

We jumped in Peter's car to head to the book store. I told him that I was a tourist at heart and I wanted to see as much of San Francisco as I could. We headed across the Bay Bridge and he pointed out Alcatraz and Angel Island. Then I told him that I would love to go across the Golden Gate Bridge. He drove me by the Fisherman's Wharf. Peter was the perfect tour guide - he pointed out hundreds of landmarks all along the way. He even suggested roads that me and my wife could ride our motorcycle on. He pointed out the Presidio. At the end of the Golden Gate Bridge, we stopped at one of the tourist spots to check out all the sights. From that vantage point. I can see that San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever seen in my life and the weather was perfect. I even remember the weather man on the morning news describing the weather as being gorgeous. I don't think I've ever heard a weather man use the word gorgeous to describe the weather before.

By the way, Peter's car runs totally on vegetable oil. It's amazing! I knew when I first met him that he drove a car run on vegetable oil, but this was the first time I got to ride in it. I was expecting the car to be slow, sluggish, and smell like french fries, but it wasn't. His car is a white late model Mercedes and it runs like a regular car. The average person wouldn't even know that it ran on vegetable oil except that it has the words 'Veggie Fuel' written on the back of the car. Peter took me to a great metaphysical/new age bookstore. It was definitely one of the better book stores I had ever been to. I ended up buying a book that I may already own, but I believe in supporting the small book stores so I wanted to give them business. Next door to the bookstore was a place that specializes in back comfort. I figured they would have inversion tables in there. I've been wanting an inversion table for the last 3 years. Even though I've never tried one out before the process makes so much sense to me. The sales woman inside let me try one out. She had to adjust the table for my height. When she asked me how tall I was, I told her I was 6' 5". We all got a good laugh out of that considering I'm only 6' 2".

(....you are? Then who's that REALLY short, cute, bald guy that I'm married to?...)

After inverting for about 3 minutes, my back felt really good. Now I know I have to get one. After we left that area Peter drove me to the Ducati dealer in downtown San Francisco. By the way, to all you Bass/Nature campers - Peter looks totally different now. He was wearing a baseball cap and had long curly hair under the cap. He completely shaved off his beard and his mustache. He looked almost 20 years younger. After we hung out he dropped me off at the hotel room. He was heading to the Riekes Center to hear Victor's performance. Peter, his step son, Russ and Victor invited me to perform at the show, but I had already made plans for the evening.

I went back to my room and talked to my wife a couple of times. We got caught up on email and did a couple of tour diary entries. We had already planned to get caught up on the tour journal on my day off. I opened the balcony curtain in the bedroom that overlooked the bay. I had a massage therapist scheduled to come through around 9:00. She was a bass player that we knew from Scott Taporco from Bass Camp. Her specialty was deep tissue massage. We talked bass for a while, then we talked motorcycles because her and Scott also ride. Then she gave me an incredible massage. I could tell she was a bass player from how strong her hands were. After she left I realized that I needed to do laundry. Even though the hotel didn't want the guests to use the laundry room after 11:00, I started mine around 11:30. The dryer didn't dry my clothes completely so I ended up having to spread my clothes out all over the suite. I figured I would let them dry out overnight. After I was done with the laundry I walked over to the Denny's across the street to get a sandwich. It was well after 1:00AM after I got back from Denny's. Unfortunately I knew that from eating so late that I would have bad dreams.

I'd like to that Peter Bergen for showing me around. I love California - it's beautiful and the weather is great. The only bad thing is that every now and then the ground shakes uncontrollably.

Even though this looks like a postcard, this is the actual view from the balcony in my hotel room.

peace & blessings

anthony