Wrong turn.
We decide to make the most of it by looking for some late lunch.
There are horror movies that begin this way.
But we’re starving. We ate snacks in the car after deciding not to breakfast in Haight Street – among other things, we read of graffiti and drugs and thought Let’s Totally Breakfast Here With Our Young Child.
Guess people still party one way or the other because most stuff seems either closed or like it’s been open since the previous night (and not cleaned after the party-ers).
Fine, there were some places open, but it didn’t seem like they had crayons and a kid’s menu. Not. That I asked.
But I love the unicorn-pegasus-My Little Pony-looking thing above my head
Sun is shining, blue skies and open highways, Asian family makes wrong turn into unassuming small town, depending who your audience is Asian family or town residents turn out to be cannibals.
Kings makes another turn. “Sh#t! Railroad track!!”
There are horror movies that begin this way too.
Frantically Kings makes a few more turns even as the GPS reminds us we’re miserable navigators impassively and Rockstar does so with a little more heat.
We drive by numerous single-storey houses… A deserted eatery that’s a dead ringer for the kopitiam in Island Glades Penang where I spent a few angsty teenaged years.
Back on the highway we go. Where the hell are we? Maybe we should start reading the road signs.
We pass a pretty, colorful field. It takes Kings to figure out it’s a graveyard. For the holiday season, at least a few graves are sporting candy canes and tinsel. That’s how much these loved ones were missed, this past Christmas.
My frantic attempt at a picture is foiled by a Rockstar intervention – my cellphone is confiscated and soon the tune of Animal Alphabet Balloon Pop competes with KOIT Light Rock Radio Station. Seriously love their music. There seem to be these Cantonese channels in HK that devote a great deal of time to Conversations That Go Nowhere Or Send You Nowhere For Eg “Mother In Law Caused Divorce.” (They can be fascinating. Until you hear “Foolish Heart, Hear Me Ca-allingggg,” for the first time in 6 years and you think Where Have These Songs Been?)
Oh wait. Clean. Is there anything open here? If they are, I hope they’re vegetarian. But do mean egg omelettes.
Mezzaluna Italian Restaurant / Cafe in Pescadero makes up the nicest fruit salad (with pancakes). And it’s the non-greasiest omelette and rosti we encounter the whole trip. They have 2 kinds of packeted mustard. I love rosti with mustard.
The older kids at the next table aren’t subject to sanitiser foam before eating like Rockstar is, but I overhear the two girls remind each other to go to the bathroom and wash their hands before they dig in…
There are two tween girls trying on stuff in the jewelry store:
“My mum wears a big diamond with two little sidestones in a ring that was her —’s before she died”
“So it’ll be yours one day”
“And she wanted to makes some earrings with the sidestones… I was, like, ‘No way! I LIKE it that way!’”
The girl behind the counter (who doesn’t look that much older) volunteers, “Jewelry’s just so fascinating. My grandparents own this store, and I learned a lot about jewelry working here. My brother’s 16, he’s minding their other store nearby… Every teen should get to mind a jewelry store sometime…”
And then on to Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Eventually, anyway.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hKE2iulZk&feature=youtu.be]
But we erm, didn’t find it very much different from any other amusement park though Rockstar goes on the Merry-Go-Round umpteen times…
And messes about on the rather grungey beach… Why are there flies in the seafoam?
Then we ride off into the sunset (after a snack of course)…
