I left my heart and some Triscuits...

in San Francisco..... WOW, I had a GREAT time in San Francisco. I loved, loved, loved it. The weather was perfect, it could not have been better. After living in HOTlanta and suffering through the 95-100 degree days it was a lovely feeling to be in the upper 60's for the better part of the week.

I live north of Atlanta, so seeing the homeless daily is not something that I am exposed to. I do go to the city quite often and so I know they are there, but in San Francisco there seemed to be almost as many homeless (or begging) as there were regular people. It was interesting to say the least, and in some cases heartbreaking. I got a good laugh at the lady asking for spare change who was holding a kitten - oh wait, it wasn't a kitten - it was a rat. She also had dyed her hair blue, so I assumed that she probably wasn't too hard up for change if she can use it to buy blue hair dye and feed a nasty pet rat.

We ended up having an extra rolling backpack when it came time to go home. Kevin got a new one while there and so we did not want to carry the old one home. It was a great bag, but he needed something better to carry his laptop in. So we loaded it up with our extra soaps, shampoos and a box of Triscuits that we did not eat. I took it out to the nearest corner and found a guy asking for change - "Do you need a bag?" - and he happily took it from me. We then got all our stuff and waited for our driver. As we sat in the airport shuttle waiting for some other people I saw the guy I gave the bag to. He pulled out the box of Triscuits and I watched him crumble them all up and feed them to the pigeons. Ha - I guess you aren't that hungry after all. It is hard to want to help people when there are so many taking advantage of it, it is obvious that homelessness is a choice for many of these people and it is a shame that those who truly do need help will get overlooked.

I found Chinatown to be the most interesting - I actually almost forgot I was in the US. I stopped in a restaurant for Kung Pao and I was thisclose to asking if they accept US dollars. Thankfully I caught myself before I looked like a total idiot, but if you spend a better part of the day there and realize that no one around you is speaking English, you can get lost in it all.

I had an entire week, but when the end came, I still felt like I had not seen enough. I hope to go back again, I hope to take my kids. It was one of my favorite trips of lately.

I could write a book on all that I saw, but for now it's back to reality, and a ton of work...