It seems that every good restaurant in San Francisco has a line coming out it’s door at all hours. On our way back to Albany (where Emmy’s mother lives) we passed Gordo’s, a storefront burrito place. The line wasn’t too bad and Emmy raved about the food, so we stopped and just stuffed ourselves on a couple of really terrific chicken and beef burritos and as we were leaving customers appeared from thin air and the line formed out the door, across the sidewalk and to the curb.

After unbuckling our belts to give our full bellies some room and driving back to the house, Laurel laid down for a nap and Emmy and I surfed the Web for Alcatraz ferry and tour tickets. “The Rock” has been on my “To Do” list since I was a little boy. I remember a rainy Saturday afternoon long ago watching Escape From Alcatraz and imagining myself as Clint Eastwood breaking out of ‘the joint’ and kicking my way across the bay to freedom. While the former prison holds an attraction for me, who would have thought it was a ‘Must See’ for every tourist swooping through the Bay Area. Tickets for the next day (Sunday) were impossible to find. Emmy and I decided that it would be less crowded on Monday anyway, so we booked tickets for 11:00 on my birthday. After paying for the tickets, Emmy drove to a buddy’s house to pick him up for our night out on the town. Laurel woke up shortly after Emmy left and we got ready and snacked. About an hour and a half after we expected her, Emmy stumbled through the door, already tipsy. Emmy is tall, but she is still tiny and she doesn’t hold her liquor very well. Her friend had given her three or four glasses of wine and she was feeling it.

After pouring Emmy back into her car, all four (Emmy’s buddy Michael came along) of us drove to The Mallard, a bar in Albany, for a night of laughter, pool, jukebox tunes and drinking. Emmy and Laurel both got pretty drunk and I drove us home around 12:30. Poor Emmy had to be helped out of the car and was laughing and giggling so much that she fell/sat in her front yard. Her sister, Rebecca, drove up about that time to pick up Bella, her VERY spoiled, slightly pudgy black Chihuahua, and helped me get Emmy into the house. The girls sat up and ate Taco Bell (What else would you eat at 1:00AM when you are drunk?) and giggled a little before going to bed. We all had a really good time and the girls were so much fun to hang out with that night: Laurel was all smiles, Emmy laughed and was bright and happy and Rebecca was hysterical about Emmy’s drunkenness. A note about Rebecca: She is insane about Bella. She baby talks to her non-stop, buys her clothes and puts the dogs needs in front of her own. One should never tease Bella about her size or weight in front of Rebecca. One might get cut for such an offense, seriously… It is just part of who Rebecca is. Her love for that plump little dog is endearing!

The deer that Emmy spied on the trail to the beach.

The trail at the end of the Valley as it opens to the beach.

The rock cliff that borders the right side of the beach.

We left the beach and drove to Emmy’s dad’s place where he fed us steak and grilled chicken, grilled veggies and a desert of flaming sautéed bananas (YUM!!). Emmy’s dad was a terrific host and we stumbled away bloated and happy just before 8:00 for a bar trivia game at The Albatross. It is a game that is played there every Sunday night(it has been for the last six years) and draws a huge crowd. After squeezing into a table and getting a few drinks, it was decided that Laurel, Emmy, me and two of Emmy’s buds were a team. Then came the questions. I destroyed the general knowledge section (Alex Trebek is my bitch!) and we scored 11 out of 12 in the first of the five sections of the game. Two of our teammates defected to another team before the second round and Laurel missed round three and four because she had to leave and run back to Emmy’s mothers for something. Emmy and I got killed in the music and picture ID rounds (Could you pick the actor Peter Coyote out of a line up or could you hum the first 5 bars of a particular jazz tune?). Even with all that stacked against us, we came in seventh out of 18 teams. A couple of more games to get a real team together and we would have dominated the competition! After trivia, we played a few rounds of darts and I had a cider or two and were back at Emmy’s mothers place and asleep by 1:00.

4:17AM came very early for little Miss Laurel Burton! I was brought into this world at that time on September 20th, 1973 and for as long as I can remember; I have set an alarm and started celebrating my birthday on the anniversary of my birth to the minute. I warned Laurel about his, but apparently she didn’t think I was serous. I think the alarms and me jumping up and down on the bed singing “Happy Birthday to Me” made her aware of the depths of my birthday depravity. After waking Laurel “gently”, I called my mother to tell her “thank you” and I talked to my kids. I went back to sleep for a few hours and after I opened gifts (good ones!) and took a shower, we were off to eat lunch. Rebecca works at a nearby restaurant and hooked us up with free food for lunch. Because she is so sweet, had been having a shitty time at work and because she is Emmy’s sister, we gave her a huge $30 tip.

After lunch we drove down to Fisherman’s Wharf and I picked up our tickets for the Alcatraz Island Ferry. During the drive the topic of my kids came up which led to a discussion, from funny things that they have done to how I was planning and to black mail them both with pictures of their bare asses when they start dating. I joked about my son and his doctor once saying that he had nothing to worry about anatomy wise with the ladies and Laurel decided it was time to change the topic. I closed the discussion with, “Well, it makes a father proud.” and Laurel said, “Well it makes a father’s girlfriend uncomfortable.” Emmy then chimed in with, “Especially when the son and girlfriend are so close in age.” She got me, I admit it. We all had a good laugh about the “burn,” especially Laurel.

With proclamation in hand, seventy-eight Native Americans landed on Alcatraz in the early morning of November 20, 1969. During the first few months of the occupation, Alcatraz was a rallying point for Native Americans from both cities and reservations. Island residents performed ceremonial dances and taught their children traditional art. Constant food and water shortages hampered the occupiers' ability to sustain themselves and dissension within the group grew. Alcatraz remained Indian land until twenty armed federal marshals forcibly removed the fifteen remaining inhabitants on June 11, 1971.