As some of you may remember, Animated Meat first came to life in 2008 as a way to document some sights that managed to slip through the cracks of most popular travel websites. You may also remember that the original website was built on Apple's now defunct iWeb. From there, it migrated over to WordPress where it met an untimely demise at the hands of Russian hackers. Many of those old, pre-2012 entries have found a new home here in the Before the Now section. I would consider these posts as my starting place as a writer, probably comparable to a musician's first demo tapes. They are very rough, but I took them all seriously and wrote each one with passion. While I would like to believe that I have matured in my abilities as a writer, it is my hope that I carry this same blind passion into all of my new efforts.

Fisherman's Wharf - Originally Published

May 11, 2019

I have some advice for you if you choose to eat at the seafood places down at Fisherman’s Wharf. Don’t go through the breezeway. You see, I have a distinct memory that on the other side of the breezeway, there is a park bench with a lovely view of a yacht club.

But there is no park bench and no view of a yacht club, just squalor and aggressive pigeons. I went there with Mai and Marc on a recent visit and I treated them to a view of a homeless man eating out of a trashcan. This makes wonderful dinner theater when you’re trying to enjoy your bread bowl full of clam chowder.