Sunday, October 17, 2010

My Aunt and the San Fransciso Bus Station



 

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"]The Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, CA a...[/caption]

 


As most of you know, there was a death in the family. My aunt died. Funeral was yesterday and it still hasn't stopped hurting. Funerals aren't always the closures we hope for. No it didn't make me feel one bit better. My sister wouldn't stop crying and that made me cry. My brother just broke down. People I didn't even know were boo hooing all over the place. But that doesn't surprise me. My aunt was the sunshine in a lot of people's' lives.


During the expression part of the funeral service that took place at the church, I got up and said a few words and told a story about my Aunt Arvis' trip with us to San Francisco.  Everyone got a laugh, though only briefly. Here's the story...


We love to travel and so I decided to try San Francisco. Alcatraz. Golden Gate Bridge. Bubba Gump Seafood. Monterrey. Street cars. Plenty to see in that part of California. But I couldn't get my aunt on a plane this time. She had traveled a few times with me to other parts of the country and those times we always caught a plane and she hated it. So this time she decided she would catch the bus.


So we got the Gray Hound ticket to San Francisco, which was all of 6 ft long with destination stubs. We took her to the station, saw her off and went home. Two days later, my son Chase and I caught our flight and landed in Oakland about 5 hours later. We get the rental car, drive across the Oakland Bay Bridge to go find the bus station in San Francisco. Needless to say, I had no idea where it was and where I was going. So after we crossed the big bridge, we stopped at the first building we saw, parked and asked a cop..."Officer, where is the Gray Hound bus station?" He said he didn't know. A cop!?! So we looked around and found the next best thing. A bum! (Want to know where the local bus station is, who better to ask than a bum?) So we asked, and he drunkenly said, "Lady, just go around to the front!" Yes folks! Our very first stop after we crossed over into San Francisco was the bus station. You just couldn't tell from the side we were parked on. What surprised me the most was that the cop didn't know.


We drive around to the front of the building and lo and behold, it is the bus station. We go in, looking for my precious Aunt Arvis. She still hadn't made it in.  So we left, found our hotel, checked in and picked her up a few hours later. She was just fine. Ultimately, we had a great vacation, doing 3 days in San Francisco and 3 days in Monterrey. But we actually traveled by car all over that part of California. We got to see Los Angeles, San Diego. A tour of the Redwood Forest. Train ride to the San Jose Boardwalk. The steep streets of San Francisco. I could go on and on. We were all over the place.


When it was time to leave, we dropped our aunt off at the bus station and caught our plan back to Houston. Two days later, we go to Gray Hound bus station and pick her up. She was fine.


My Aunt Arvis was a wonderful person who just loved to get out and have fun. She love to traveled. She loved her casinos. She loved life. She was much-loved. She will be missed.


SharonH



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