Emily and I went out to explore downtown San Luis Obispo. We toured the Mission and walked around some of the shops. There were quite a few kitschy souvenir shops and (of course) an Apple store, but the highlight for me was two-story toy store full of LEGO sets, puzzles, games, and anything else you can imagine. It also had the most bizarre window display I’ve ever seen. The setup was an Iron Chef style cooking show but the chefs were sock monkeys and the secret ingredient was Smurfs. There was also a little bit where Kirk, Sulu, and McCoy from Star Trek apparently beamed into various inconvenient situations (Kirk in a boiling “hot tub” with some Smurfs, Sulu half sticking out of an Easy Bake Oven, and McCoy materializing in a monkey’s butt. No lie).
Another intriguing find was an alley completely covered in old chewed gum. The walls (and sadly the ground) were lined with it. People had made shapes and messages with it. It was at the same time really gross and really fun. Pity we didn’t have any gum to add to the collection.
Mike, his girlfriend Cristine, and Greg met up with us as we were finishing lunch and we went through the Mission again then walked along the creek before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal.
The rehearsal went, as they are wont to do, with many repetitions of complicated operations such as “finding your escort”, “standing in line” “walking” and “standing still”. It was surprising how many tries it took us to successfully walk down the aisle with a partner but eventually we nailed it and were dismissed to dinner.
After making the mistake of listening to Ted and ending up at the wrong restaurant we made our way to the right place: F. McLintocks in Pismo Beach. Dinner was another steak and I treated myself to another Firestone DBA (never seen it before but they were all over the place in SLO). Emily and I sat with Ted’s father and stepmother and Mike and Cristine. I found out that Cristine is a Pats fan (I had dared to hope otherwise despite her being from Boston) but with much internal struggle I managed to forgive her.
Once the usual merrymaking was finished we were treated to a delightful parlor trick. The tall waiter who’d been doing tricks with his water pitcher all night strapped on a blindfold, climbed onto a chair, placed a cup on Ted’s head, and filled the cup from the pitcher he held a few feet above. It was a sight to behold, even though Ted claims some water made it down his back.
Headed back to the hotel, Ted in tow as he was to crash in Greg’s room tonight. We gathered in Mike and Cristine’s frankly obscenely large suite (the kind that’s so big they have to give it a name and a plaque. Damn Mike and his Hilton Points!) and shot the shit for a few hours before heading to bed.
Kirk and Smurfs Hot TubGum AlleyMcLintock's Blindfolded High Water Head Pour
