Mr. Ps mother had seen a glossy ad for dim sum in a brochure that the hotel had provided and mixed with the previous rousing endorsement from Mr. Ps notoriously unadventurous and curmudgeonly brother she decided she wanted to give it a culinary whirl herself. This left Mr. P and I in a dilemma because we knew that the last thing any us needed was a crowded, elbow throwing pissed of Chinese grandma, chicken feet and pickled jellyfish salad style breakfast to start off the day for people who had not mastered chopsticks and considered mescaline salad new and exotic. So we set our sights on the safest dim sum in town at a clean, well-lighted, albeit overpriced, place complete with English speaking waitstaff located in a swank office complex down in the Embarcadero, where soya duck tongue and swallows nest egg custard would most certainly not appear on the carts at any time.

Brunch went as expected, after a few pork bun and shrimp shumai rounds they were satisfied that theyd done the dim sum thing. Although I think unimpressed with the concept of appetizers as brunch and not charmed by the exclusive use of chopsticks we had succeeded in getting through the morning without any major damage or Chinese grandmas reading us the act. So far the day was on an even keel.

We then proceeded to drive down to Half Moon Bay as it put is in the prime strike zone for the following days Winchester house tour in San Jose. Now is as good of time as any to mention Mr. Ps moms love of ghost stories and spirit talk. Way back in the summer when theyd first discussed the visit shed expressed interest in haunted places and ghost stories, and the Bay area is not shy on either of those things so I thought Id include a healthy dose when they came out to see us, the Winchester house being among these choices but more on that later.

By the time we arrived and checked into the hotel it was afternoon, the tide was low and the sky had cleared up so I suggested that we visit the tide pools about two miles away from the hotel. This, I thought, was going to be an easy and exciting introduction to all the sea creatures that live along the coast and kill a few hours till dinner. Mr. P and Id been there many times and knew that the beach was accessible and the shoals flat and easy to poke around in. However, the earlier torrential rains had caused a waterfall style run off which cut off our main easy route to the beach. But once wed driven to the beach we were determined to give it a go so after a few failed attempts at crossing through the flooded shoals we coerced his fairly anxious middle-aged parents to traverse the wet slippery rocks of eminent death in order get to the beach end of things. Mostly we attempted to make sure we didnt injure his parents too heinously while looking for shore crabs and purple sea urchins among the seaweed and rocks. While I think they enjoyed themselves to a certain extent I severely underestimated the danger factor on their adventure scale without even realizing it.

As we left we notice a precarious hut overlooking the cliff which most definitely did not appear to be sturdy enough to stand up to the California coast weather then we saw the production trucks. It was part of a set for Memories of a Geisha replicating a Japanese fishing village.

For dinner wed went with a haunted restaurant a few miles down the road. While decidedly not haunted on our visit it did provide a brief moment of entertainment when Mr. Ps mom and I went downstairs in search of the ghost and accidentally triggered the automatic doors that opened onto a balcony and a stray cat ran inside, which I then had to corral back outside before we left. And also a moment of excitement when Mr. Ps mom became panicked at the sight of an odd shaped topiary in the parking lot that she had mistaken for a spirit.

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