The Golden City of Opportunity and Red Santa’s.
Captains Log Day 11 – 15/12/14 2:20pm. SFO Airport
The Golden City of Opportunity and Red Santa’s.
This recollection of events breaks the norm, it has been has to be typed prematurely (unlike other things in my life). My God Damn flight has been cancelled. Hopefully the first and last of vessel cancellations along our journey. I wait along the new larger entourage of Wing Commander Nand and Super-intendant Dave. “Oh wait is that Monica from Friends? is that her? OMG yes it is! Excuse me Mrs Courtney, i am Captain Raggie…”
Ok give me a moment… #starstruck… Yup now we’re good.
San Fran Sisqo. After a mega nap, filled with heaps of drooling we arrive in the state of California. The Wing Commander and Captain had been suffering some serious War wounds, the last night in Washington had taken its toll. In my unconscious state the wing commander had made allies with some locals who are visiting San Fran. They had come for the Annual Public Santa Convention. More on which later in this log. We arrive and head straight to the baggage claim to get our checked baggages. Both of us are excited, a comrade from Melbourne who had moved to Vancouver had made an amazing move to defy the odds and join us here in San Fransisco, and continue the voyage with us to Los Angeles. The latest addition the crew, Super Intendant Dave. Anxious to meet him we started googling when flights from Vancouver would arrive. NEKKMINUTE I GET SPREAR HUGGED FROM BEHIND! It’s super intendant DAVE!!! He found us!. After about 10 minutes of hugs and happiness. Seeing him after a year or more it was amazing to be reunited with our close comrade.
The Captain and the Wing Commander were honoured to be staying at the Captains Cousins Barracks. The captains cousin had moved to San Fransisco about a year ago from Melbourne to look after the America Division. Base Captain Rishabh’s Barracks was located in an optimal location in the city of San Fransisco. After a few Uber hiccups we finally were on our way to the base camp.
We arrived to a entourage of guests, it seemed like base captain Rishabh had had a soirée the night before and the a few of the militia remained. After a sweet embrace with la familia and some introductions we were on our way to a Brunch that and been preplanned. Still a bit dazed from the flight and the hangover we joined in the activities and called in Super intendant Dave to join. We were soon sitting in a french restaurant having croque monsieur. Names flying left right and centre, we had met 10 people in a span of 20 minutes. a belly full of brunch, we headed back to the barracks to start the day and plan activities. We recouped, and relaxed for about an hour before the Base Captain and his best mate and housemate General Jeevs were arriving with some Brewskis. Rest time was over.
We started drinking and ordered some indian food, despite some protests for ‘Medium’ Base Captain had already requested ‘Hot’, what ensued was a very painful dinner. Burning our mouths and causing our stomachs to churn, the only way to relieve the burns was with large gulps of beer. Soon another comrade from Melbourne joined us – Spech Ops Smit. Smit was given the task to lead the force to show us around on the town. Feeling intoxicated by both the many beers and the intense chilli from dinner, it was time venture on forth. In a blink of an eye, we had entered the street full of bars, hitting up one after the other, it seemed like time just slept through the cracks. From one bar to another we went, beers, shots and even Jelly shots being consumed. Feeling tipsy and light headed our rendezvous with the Base captain was imminent. The remainder of the night was dedicated to us stumbling around he city to see some magnificent sights such as the Bay Bridge and the Pier.
Day 2 – So before I start the second day in San Fran let me recap on the bit i had failed to mention previously – 13th December was SantaCon in San Francisco. To those wondering what is Santacon – here is an expert from the wikipedia page “SantaCon is an annual costume party, mass gathering and pub crawl of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters parading in several cities around the world, principally in New York City. It has been variously also known as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, the Red Menace, and Santapalooza.”…Basically a gathering of people dressed as Santa drinking on the streets and partying. Nothing is sacred if you are in a santa costume. We had made it to San Fran Just at the right time.
We were lucky enough that Super intendant Dave had bought our costume for us from Canada, we were prepared for the day that lay ahead. The morning started with us developing our alert call. Basically a noise we released if we got lost or if we needed each others attention during the day, This almost like a distress call, this was vital for our survival. The call we came up with was based on Kanye’s – Blood on the Leaves, it was simply a auto-tuned version of the word “Leaves”.
As 10 am struck we emerged to the lounge room dressed in our elaborate Santa costumes to find the Base Captain making Pancakes with Whisky and coffee with cafe patron. After a quick breakfast General Jeeves moved the dinner table to the living room and lined up some red cups for a game of beer pong. Let the beer pong championships begin!!… and finish no long later with a 5/0 loss to the away team as well as a casualty of the Wing Commander chundering after a sculling his beer and Rum mix. 12 pm and we already had some regurgitation in the sink. The foreigners were already on fire!
The Beer olympics had come to an end and in our Santa red attire we boarded our sleigh and headed in to town. What we found was Thousands of Santa’s. looking left, right and centre, everywhere there was Santa’s! Santa con was in full swing. Starting off at Kels Bar what ensued was a heap more drinking and dancing. A few dance off’s and a drinks later we were on the streets and it had seemed like the santa population had grown exponentially. We stumbled around going from one bar to another, losing each other at times, entering restaurants under false pretences and using the bathroom, drinking on the street , having some AMAZING tasting chips that no one had ever tasted including several members of the public. We walked around absorbing Santacon.
At one point both Wing Commander and I just stopped and sat on the sidewalk and appreciated Alcatraz in the distance – loosing the group and talking to the randoms as they swerved around us.
When we met up with Base Captain we headed to the next bar in which we concealed our drinks and entered. When leaving the Bouncer was not impressed with Base Captain Rishabh as he saw the beer in his hand and realised that the bar does not even sell that beer. Confiscated. Most of this night was a blur with a heap of elements just missing
Santacon finally ended when it was about 8PM and we headed home. We took off our Santa costumes off and put on a movie. The first to drop out was Wing Commander at around 10PM with Base captain not long after at around 11, the Captain, Base Captain and Super Intendant passed out around 12. A truly memorable day with a heap missing.
Day 3 – We woke up from our hangovers, wondering what happened the night before and why there is so much red fluff on our cloths. Base Captain Rish suggested on hiring a car and volunteers to show us all the sights that San Fran has to offer. Based on this offer we get up and head to rental place to pick up our car for the day – which happens to be a large Nissan Ultimo. Good Times. Captaining this vessel, Base Captain takes up around and shows us every site, including the Fishermans wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Marin City, Golden Gate park, the Five ladies, Delores Park, Twin Peaks as well as the birthplace of hippies’ – Haight. An adventure i would never forget and thank Base Captain Rish for. After 6 hours of driving, once again my father had come through and pushed no a colleague from university that he has asked me to catch up with. The only issue was that he was 1 hour away, in Sunnyvale – close to San Jose.
After initially refusing to go meet this mysterious family friend, we decided since we had the car, that it would be a good idea go and check it out. Picking up General Jeeves we started our road trip down Silicon valley, we passed, amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and the mighty Google. Despite all my begging we were not allowed to stop 🙁 we arrived at sunnyvale. Due to a strict timeline set by Captain Rish – We calibrated watches and went in to eat. What ensued was an amazingly delicious dinner, we had been pampered and well looked after. Since i had adhered to the timeline of the base captain – i was rewarded. On the way back to San Fransisco he detoured to Google. At this point I can say to you I was in heaven. I think I was leaking fluids from all over! It was like a dream. We drove around the complex, me wailing like a schoolgirl that had just seen Justin Bieber.
After an exciting and jam packed day, San Fran had been ticked off the list. Base Captain Rish and General Jeeves had helped us cover off our first city in California in almost VIP style (Missing Strippers and Coke) but brilliant in every other way. Our last sleep was like a hypnotic sleep. Waking up early and once agin to some delicious breakfast of Pancakes and Sausages it was time to leave. Saying our goodbyes and reminiscing at the fantastic city that San Fransisco is Wing Commander, Super intendant and myself, headed to the airport only to find our flight cancelled, the rest is history..
San Fransisco: The golden city of opportunity and red santa’s.
