My host decided to stop hosting as soon as I arrived in San Fran, so I was not able to do daily blogs as planned and thus, here comes one big monster post.

So as mentioned, on a whim last week, I decided I needed to get away to somewhere warm and San Fran had the cheapest flight, so I booked it.

Next came the dilemma of where to stay. With thriftyness being key, I ventured to craig’s list and found a chick looking for someone to watch her cats the weekend I planned to fly out,  so in keeping with the “sure, why not” spirit of the trip, I told her I’d be available. Yeah, so I spent 2 nights in some stranger’s apartment for about half the cost of a hotel. Little did I know before I arrived, the apartment was on the cusp of the ghetto, but I survived, so it’s all good.

See photos

Day 1 - Feb. 24

I arrived pretty late Friday night, so my exploring began Saturday morning. I headed down to the shopping district, roamed in awe at the huge stores (this coming from an anti-shopper), got really excited about the virgin mega-store and then very disappointed at the sad selection (i did get roxette’s greatest hits for $10), and then I bought an umbrella because I noticed I was about to need one :)

I met up with Paige later in the afternoon. Despite being perfect strangers, aside from a few online exchanges, we had a pretty cool afternoon. She took me to the Ferry Building where we had some authentic italian sandwiches outside with a view of Bay Bridge. That’s where I started to fall in love with san fran.

From there, we walked along past Coit Tower to Pier 39 and checked out the sea lions. They sounded like a room full of gassed up old men & zombies, but were fascinating nevertheless.

We ended up at the end of a cable car line and decided to wait in the humongous line to ride it back downtown, a decision later regretted as the wind started blowing & we were freezing. I guess it’s cool to say I’ve done it but it was eh. It was pretty fun to have everyone fall on each other as we went down hills.

Paige directed me to this recordstore, Rasputin, when we returned. It was definitely more my style. It had a section labeled indie rock, which made me very happy. They had great glenn miller & MMJ posters but I knew they’d never survive the rain, let alone the trip home.

We hung out in the mall to warm up and so she could show me the curved escalators, which I will admit were fascinating. We met up with her b/f, Hal, and went out for some drinks at Lefty O’Doul’s where we had a freakishly in your face russian or maybe german waitress. She put her face 2” from mine and said “how old are you?” It scared me so much that I said 21 and then tried to pass it off as a joke and said “well, actually i’m 25” *sigh*

We had dinner at Lois’s Diner which was this delish 50s-esque diner that claimed to have the best biscuits & gravy in town. They were pretty enjoyable.

We were all exhausted so headed home early. I decided to watch a movie when I got home which is when I came across the apartment owner’s private collection of “little girls gone wild”. Thankfully, I never met this chick in person because it would have been difficult to pretend I hadn’t seen that.

Day 2 - Feb. 25

Well, this was supposed to be my last day in san fran, but since I’m a moron, I booked my return red-eye flight on the wrong night. All worked out though.

I woke up pretty depressed and homesick. I’d planned the trip to be a photo adventure but it was so gray outside, I’d barely taken a handful of photos, but after a call to Amy, I was feeling in much better spirits which set me out & about for my favorite time of the trip. The sun was starting to peak out just a bit so I decided I wanted to get to golden gate, since it was so foggy I could hardly see it the day before.

I’ll be honest. I’ve never used public transportation on my own, aside from a few trips to & from campus in college, which hardly counts when it was only a mile. But I totally conquered it. It was a lovely trip up Hwy 101 towards Golden Gate. It got me really excited about my PCH driving trip.

When I stepped off the bus, the slope was just right that I couldn’t see the bridge hardly at all, so it was such an amazing moment to actually take 3 steps and have this huge bridge that I’d seen on pictures & TV so many times before just suddenly appear in front of me.

I had beautiful blue skies for pretty much the only part of the trip, so I was able to take some nice photos, which definitely brought my spirits up. And this is where my first zen moment of the trip began. I just kept following paths down and around, assuming they had to lead somewhere. It took me through this park/running trail area all along the beach. It was so peaceful…just walking along, taking photos. As I was walking, I heard this singing/humming moving closer & closer behind me and suddenly this old man (60s?) runs around me but he wasn’t just running…he was…well, the only way i can describe it is lord of the dance running with alternating arms flipping out from side to side. A huge smile spread across my face, which immediately turned in to a massive lip biting to keep from absolutely laughing out loud. Despite my efforts, I lost it as soon as I saw a couple passing the opposite way both stop and turn to stare at the man as he passed them. I took a photo of the guy, but it just didn’t capture the full essence of how incredibly humorous it was.

Well, I kept walking & walking and ended up at the Exploratorium, which is this museum with beautiful gardens/water scene around it. The homes facing it were just as lovely and I tried to imagine how nice it must be to wake up to a huge pond full of swans set against greek/roman architecture.

And I kept walking, until I ran in to Lombard St which is home to the crookedest street. I decided I needed to see that, so I walked all the way up this street. Let me tell you, it’s just as steep going up as it is going down. I really thought I might die or just fall backwards and roll down to the bottom (I mainly worried about my camera getting hurt :). I came across a park almost to the top so I climbed up it and had this amazing view of golden gate bridge and all the area in between from this park bench. After I got over the impact of the view, it sunk in that I had just walked that entire way from the bridge.

I weaved back through town after going down the crookedest street and watching tons of tourists drive down it. I know there was a movie with a scene there because I recognized it. Google says it’s vertigo.

I took the most crowded bus ever through Chinatown and then hung out a bit at Union Square before heading home to pack.

I spent the evening at Paige & Hal’s place watching the Oscars and trying to outwit their cat.

Day 3 - Feb. 26

So this extra day worked out only because it made it possible for me to get a short visit with Johnny and see his awesome place of work. I spent the morning walking around Alamo Square, checking out the “painted ladies” and the other lovely victorians around the area.

From there, I went down to the Haight-Ashbury area to experience Amoeba Music, which I’d been told by several people was some music uptopia. It was. I roamed every aisle, exploring the music selection and literally getting tickled-pink about finding out of print albums I’d been seeking out for years. My backpack had just enough room for all the CDs I bought.

The weather was not cooperating at all this fine day, but I hopped on a bus anyway to head up to Japantown & Pacific Heights and check out some mansions and a view of the water. I didn’t explore much because it kept raining but I walked through some mall at Japantown and it was so lovely to have flowers and nature-type stuff all around. There were some very cool shops along Fillmore and I saw The Fillmore theater where bands I love always play and it always makes me wish I lived there. Stopped in for some pain au chocolat and chai, which I timed horribly since it started pouring as soon as I left. I was drenched but staggered to the top of the hill, realized how beautiful a view it would have been if it weren’t completely fogged over and then sought out a bus.

So it was no zen adventure like the day before, but I did finally make it over to AKQA and get to fall in love with where Johnny gets to work everyday. First off, he had a bed for his dog under his desk. Bailey is such a spoiled dog. His g/f had her dog there too so she had a friend to play with, which created a death trap leash trip wire between their two desks haha.

I didn’t feel right taking photos but the space was really cool and all the people seemed awesome and I just felt this “I want to start helping or doing something” vibe just in the short time I was there. Johnny had deadline stuff creep up so we had to cut my visit short, which was disappointing but I come from the same world, so I know how that goes.

whoa…told you it’d be long. so yeah, i really liked san fran, and i probably would have never left if the weather had been nicer. i still can’t decide if i could live there. i’m such a “love to drive on the open road” person that I don’t know if i could adjust to public transport. but then again, i love walking & warm weather too so… :)