Off to the Bay Area again

A few days ago, I booked my trip to the Bay Area, in order to work on my novel.

This trip will happen over Memorial Day Weekend. I will be visiting various nooks and crannies in Berkeley that I missed last time. In addition, I will return to Sarah's high school, Oceana, one more time, to explore parts of the campus that I missed last time. I will also add a trip to Skyline College in San Bruno, since I decided that Sarah will spend a few years there before applying for a flight attendant position.

I may also spend time exploring the Bay Area nightlife. I'm looking for something similar to West Hollywood's The Palms bar, a relaxed trans-friendly lesbian hangout. So far, I've been unsuccessful. My options seem limited to either Diva's, a transgender strip bar located in the seedy Tenderloin district, or Power Exchange, a sex club with a large transgender clientele. Both are worth a visit, if only to get the details of Martha's experiences as a teenage sex worker right. But for my own well-being, these are horrible places, because I simply don't want to be a fetish object for a whole bunch of male losers to jerk off to. There is also the possibility of my car being vandalized, surely at Diva's, and possibly at Power Exchange as well.

For my own good, in addition to novel-related points of interest, I will also visit Sonoma Valley, Santa Rosa (Charles Schulz museum), my former home neighborhoods of Concord and Walnut Creek, and Oakland's Museum of California as well. I will have 2 1/2 days in the Bay Area, and I wonder if it'll be enough.

My base will be the Hilton Garden Inn hotel on the north side of San Francisco's airport, just like before. A business hotel is a good bargain during a long weekend, and this one has free high-speed Internet access in the room, which will allow me to continue my activities on my blog and in my online writing class. I loved my stay there last time, and I look forward to this stay as well.