Andrew & Rafa visit from Spain

My friend, Andrew, and his partner, Rafa, came for a quick visit from the Andalucia region of Spain. Andrew and I have been friends for several years now. He's originally from the U.K., but decided to start a new adventure and moved to Spain about 3 years ago.

Rafa had never been to the U.S. before, and was very open and excited to try out some traditional "American" foods. We met in the Castro first - I told them that we'd meet by the big rainbow flat on the corner of Castro and Market. You know, THE Flag. The one that's always flying. Except for yesterday.... I assume it was down for the filming of the movie, "Milk". But still, that struck me as very funny.

So, lucky Rafa. I tried to explain that we don't usually have Hollywood movies being filmed in our neighborhood, but that they had very good timing! We walked around the Castro, stopped at Spikes for a coffee, then down to Dolores Park and back. It was such a nice, sunny day yesterday. For lunch, I drove them down to the Cliff House, where we had a wonderful view of the Pacific Ocean. Rafa decided that he really wanted to try a Hamburger and fries. Most of you probably know that I don't eat Hamburgers very often - I usually opt for a garden/veggie burger, or a turkey burger. But I realized that the Cliff House would probably make a really nice burger, so I figured, "Why not?" and ordered one as well.

As we were eating, we discussed other foods that were typically American. Andrew had suggested to Rafa that he try adding Bacon to his Hamburger, and explained how different Bacon in the U.S. was, compared to bacon in Spain or England. Once we were on the topic of Bacon, we quickly started to discuss typical American breakfasts, and how Rafa had never had pancakes. That's when we decided that I would take them out to breakfast at It's Tops this morning, before they left to drive to Monterey.

What a nice visit we had. I hope that they enjoy the rest of their trip just as much as I enjoyed spending time with them.