Pete's Revised BLOG - Day 24 and 25.

Sunday, April 1, 2012, was my 26,033rd day of life. Took the day off from exercising and went to church (Palm Sunday.) In the PM Ruth Ann and I went to Chameleons in Mt. Vernon. Today is brother Mark's 66th birthday. I gave him a call in Hudson, Wisconsin, but no answer, so left him a Birthday Greeting.

Today is Monday, April 2, 2012 and my 26,034th day. I did my yoga, lifted weights and walked only two mmiles. I had to be at the dentist by 9:50 so I cut my walk short. The dentist replaced a worn our stainless steel crown and replaced it with another steel crown for $281.00 - a gold one would have been $1000.00. My dental bill is now at $1,050.00. Uffda!!

A few more words about San Francisco.

On Sunday, March 25, we took a three hour bus tour of San Francisco. The guide was super and had a good sense of humor. Some highlights were:

-Golden Gate Bridge. There is an old (built in 1860) army fort underneath the south end of the bridge. We got to go in the fort and see the bridge from underneath. Man, there is lots of steel holding that bridge together. We drove north across the bridge, went up a small mountain and got out of the bus for a beautiful view of San Francisco Bay and the city. We could easily see Alcatraz Island in the middle of the Bay. It has been closed since 1962 because it was twice as expensive to operate as any other federal prison - so Attorney General Bobby General ordered it to be closed.

-Haight-Asbury. We drove through the famous district on Asbury Street. This was "Hippie Heaven" in 1967. Young people came from all over the U.S. to hang-out, drop-out, protest the Vietnam War and to get higher than a kite on drugs. It lasted less than a year but it made headlines throughout 1967 on the evening news. It was fun to see.

-Chinatown and Little Italy. We drove through Little Italy and Chinatown. They border each other. Little Italy is shrinking as it is being gobbled up by Chinatown. The Italian population is moving to other places and the Chinese population is increasing so the Chinese are buying Little Italy properties as they expand. Chinatown is just what it says, it is solid Chinese, there are few, if any, Caucasians living there.

-One other piece of historical trivia I learned on the tour is this story:

There was a statue of a woman in Union Square Park. The guide said she lived in the early 1900s and was an absolutely beautiful twenty-year-old woman. There was this rich sugar plantation owner near San Francisco who had his eye on her. The only problem was he was in his fifties. But he was a millionaire and with his sugar money he was not about to give up. He pursued her for five years and she finally said "YES." The gist of the story is this - he was old enough to be her "daddy" and he made his millions in the "sugar" business. Today, when we see younger women marry rich older men we'll probably say - "Boy, she sure found her 'Sugar Daddy.'" Now you know the rest of the story - San Francisco is where this saying originated - and it is true.