It's funny, Dusty, but I have been meaning to post something similar about how fun that evening was and even thought it this morning when I was glancing at the forums before the daily witness prep meetings began.
Anyway, Dusty and I met up near the Haight where he was standing on a corner while I drove over from my office with a buddy of mine who had just "run" the Bay to Breakers and who was hurting and grumpy at times. We proceeded to Alembic for drinks and dinner, serenaded by some Sabbath-esque CD by some friends of the wait staff. We had some nice cocktails and good eats. The head bartender was profiled in Underhill-Lounge.com, not a cocktail book. Here is the link.
We made our way down to the other end of Haight Street for a brew or two at Toronado. It was not the same without the usual surly but knowledgeable bartenders there, as the woman behind the bar was unknown to me and altogether too friendly and clueless about the Belgians they were featuring for Belgian month. While there, I learned that there had been a major fatality crash on the Golden Gate Bridge, so I gave Dusty a ride to his sister's house in Berkeley/Oakland and then carried on over the Richmond Bridge to get home. The only problem being that Dusty was too scary looking for the gas station mini mart guy to let him in to buy milk for his sister, and the "Texas" down the street came up dry for moo juice.
We had a fine time start to finish, and I learned that vacation Dusty is way more pleasant and happy and entertaining than sick, overcrowded Dusty.