We woke up late again (I’m on vacation, right? So sleep I shall, dammit).

We spent the afternoon strolling through opening day of San Francisco’s newest flea market on Treasure island. The eat-a-thon continues – I had a two absolutely delicious cheese mushroom personal-size pizzas with an egg cracked right in the middle. Calum joined us there, and later, Jason.  Calum and Kaki and I bought some 1500 thread count sheets for 40 bucks. They are unearthly soft. I also got Kaki a beautifully printed t-shirt, and found an amazing pair of white leather wingtips, bought from a guy named, coincidentally, Dusty (as some of you know, I use the name “Dusty” when ordering coffee or food).

They don’t call it Treasure Island for nothing.

Everything was great until we got home and noticed that after a while the bedroom smelled like kerosene. We hunted for the source for nearly two days before we discovered that my snappy new shoes were the offender. They can now be found on the street corner outside my house, gently off-gassing into the night.

Treasures in hand, we left the island and decided to go on a hike. Destination: Mt. Diablo.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Mt. Diablo is a nearly 4,000 ft. high solitary peak with some of the most spectacular views in the Bay Area. In fact, it’s been said that with the exception of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mt. Diablo has the most spectacular panoramic view in the world.  It’s visible from most of the Bay Area and much of Northern California. On a clear day you can see from the Golden Gate and the Pacific beyond, to well past the Altamont pass.

This spring in San Francisco has been cold and windy, so we left that climate like a mangy, three-legged dog at the pound and headed to the East Bay hills and Mt. Diablo, which is typically 20 degrees warmer. Unfortunately, the East Bay had adopted a three-legged dog of its own. And this one was neither friendly nor housebroken. If anything, at 3,800 feet, the wind was colder. Kaki, being something of an exercise junkie, said, “Hey guys, let’s hike around the peak a coule of times and get warmed up. It’ll be just like it’s hot out.” So we gamely tramped all around the peak, taking multiple trails and ascending and descending hundreds of feet. I don’t mind mentioning that despite me being the one with cancer and all, it was Cal, Kaki, and Jason who were constantly chorussing complaints about their knees and joints. Pffffft. Knees. Really.

After a bracing hike, we drove back down mountain, where we were flagged down by a man and his two young daughters. They were pointing at something in the road in front of our car. Pulling over, we got out and saw what he had been pointing at – a juvenile (but still quite large) tarantula sitting square in the middle of the road.

After marveling for a bit and helping it to the side of the road, we drove on, only to discover a rabbit corpse being devoured by vultures another mile down the road.

California is such a wild place…

The eat-a-thon continued in spectacular fashion with a visit to the East Bay branch of another favorite place of ours, Burma Superstar. Pleased to say that the Oakland location is just as tasty as the SF one. Jason generously bought us all Burma Superstar T-shirts.

We wrapped up the night watching A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop, a great, oddball remake of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple set in 19th-century China.