Happy Birthday to Me!

December 31, 2006 /

Today is my 41st birthday…that seems wild, since I don’t feel any more mature than I did when I was 21 or 22…maybe that’s the secret to the fountain of youth…stay immature!

For my birthday dinner tonight, I asked Ted if he would get me cracked crab with garlic butter, some wine (or maybe champagne?) and some french bread. He decided to do me one better on the French Bread, and get garlic noodles from Thanh Long. Oh my. They are SO yummy. So, yesterday, we drove into the city in search of garlic noodles…but we thought, why go all of the way to San Francisco, our favorite city, and then turn around and come home? Silly. So instead we went to the Sutro Baths, hoping for a guided walking tour, which supposedly meets every Saturday at 2pm. No luck, so we did a self guided tour instead. If you haven’t been, the Sutro Baths is pretty cool. From Sutrobaths.com:

The Baths
Sutro Baths opened March 14, 1896 with a $1 million pricetag — an extravagant public bathhouse envisioned and developed by the eccentric one-time mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro.

Five hundred dressing rooms … spacious elevators and broad staircases … pavilions, balustrades, promenades, alcoves and corridors adorned with tropical plants, fountains, flowers, pictures, … the collected treasure of foreign travels… a portico with four Ionic columns and pilasters which lead to a noble staircase, wide, gradual of ascent, bordered with broad-leaved palms, the flowering pomegranate, fragrant magnolias … [touching] the very rim of the reveling waves.

After working its way through its many lives (Playland, 1960s ice rink, etc..)— burned down while being demolished on June 26, 1966. In 1980 the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) bought the land for $5,500,000.

Here’s how it looked way back when:

That’s the old Cliff House in the background, the building that looks kind of like a castle. It’s had many different incarnations as well, but has always been a restaurant.

The literature we saw said that the Baths could hold up to 10,000 people at once. Crazy, huh?

They look like they’re having fun in that fresh salt water, don’t they? I’ll bet it was COLD.Want to see a groovy video, taken by Thomas Edison (at least it claims to be by Edison…) of people going down a slide at the Sutro Baths? Look here.

Here are some photos we took yesterday, of our hike first, and then of the ruins. Such a perfect, beautiful day!

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Pretty Cyprus trees…I was wondering if these were originally here, or if they were planted. Maybe if we had gotten the official tour, someone could have told us.

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Me and my mafia don, in front of the GG Bridge. Ted hates this photo, but I kinda like it. 🙂

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Here’s Maya…the t-shirt was a gift from Maya’s BEST friend, Jackie. Nice, huh? I think the background here looks like one of those Sears pics, where you’re in front of the picture of the scenery, rather than the actual thing. Don’t worry, this is the actual thing.

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Here are the ruins…I don’t know who those people are.

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More ruins…

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And more…

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Lastly, here’s a photo that shows the most recent Cliff House remodel. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s my least favorite Cliff House so far.

After we left the Baths, we went to Stonestown Galleria, the mall out by our Alma Mater, San Francisco State University (Ted went on from there to Penn, but I was done getting educated at that point!) Periodically, for my birthday, Ted will take me on a shopping spree. We go to the shops, and I get to pick three items that I want, and he buys them. FUN! He bought me warm leather gloves, lovely makeup that I wanted, and fancy new headphones for my iPod. Yay! It was a wonderful day. Thanks, Py, for being the most fun hubby ever, and for a wonderful birthday eve. 🙂

Today, I am planning on getting a manicure and a pedicure, though perhaps that is wasted money since my nails are down to stumps right now, and it’s winter, so no one sees my feet. I don’t care, I’m doing it anyway. And maybe we’ll go shopping soon for a new stove…

Happy J’s birthday to everyone, and oh yeah, Happy New Year!

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