San Francisco

I feel like San Francisco is one of those places that everyone always talks about but never moves to… I will say that the people that live there absolutely love it. I rolled in blaring Van Morrison and thinking about the “days of old”, where the “movement” was more important than anything else and the city was more of a state of being that an actual place.

View from my hotel room

Driving through Oakland, I was excited to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge into the city… I was so excited that I pulled out my video camera and started recoding this unforgettable moment of crossing the bridge for the first time. About four minuets into the video I realized that the bridge I was on was not the infamous orange like the Golden Gate bridge but actually gray. Long story short, I now have a video of me crossing the Oakland bridge.

As soon as I got into the city I was cut off by a Honda civic Hybrid. Welcome to San Francisco.

After checking into my hotel I decided to take a stroll around town. My GPS told me that the actual Golden Gate was only about 2 miles away, so I started to hike. San Francisco seems like a pretty innocent place but after a nice climb up a very steep hill I considered myself lost. One thing no one told me about San Francisco is that it is comparable to New York in terms of walking places but has hills that are sure to leave you in a sweat.

My leisurely hike ended up turning into a four hour trek through china town and finally to the bay where I stayed for a while. The entire afternoon I had chased a bridge that proved impossible to get to. As it started to get dark I caught a cab so I could go get some dinner and give my feet a break. The driver was very informative (after he realized that it was my first time to the city), he turned the meter off and drove around showing me all the architecture and where all the famous people lived. When we arrived at my destination he told me to just give him 10 bucks and we would be fine. I smiled and handed him some money knowing that the cab should have been much more expensive than that.

I was pretty excited to get to my next destination. I ended up at a little restaurant in Pacific Heights called Burma Superstar. My friend Luster had recommended it, so I went to see what it was all about. I had never had Burmese food so as soon as the waiter arrived I drilled him until he had explained pretty much everything on the menu. Burma is located in-between India and China and their cuisine is a mixture of the two cultures. I started with the Tea Leaf Salad (which was featured on the Food Network) and then finished up with the Lamb Chili. Both were amazing.  After a long day and a big meal I was ready to head back to the room to chill out for a while.

Amazing

I was debating between going out or just calling it a night, but being in San Francisco I decided to head out and see what the night life was like. After talking to my friend Chirico, I headed over towards a part of town called Height & Ashbury. When I got there I was overwhelmed with all the people walking around and whispering, “Got your nug’s, Got your Green” as others walked around on the street smoking joints. The entire neighborhood smelled like weed.

I hung out for a while before making it back towards my hotel but before calling it a night I decided to try out a few places closer to where I was staying. After a few drinks and a little bit of dancing at a piano bar I finally decided it was time to head in. Once again, walking down the street (in Union Square this time) I passed like 4 people smoking right on the street. This city is pretty interesting!

The next morning I woke up, checked out of the Hotel and went to get some lunch. I decided to explore the Fisherman’s Warf. The main reason I wanted to go to the Warf was to find a delicious Dungeness Crab to eat for lunch. Sure enough, I found just what I was looking for! Prepared “San Francisco Style”, they roasted the crab in butter and garlic before delivering it to me.

Lunch

They also made me wear a bib… I always spill stuff all over the front of my shirt so I was happy to welcome the bib as a guest at the table.

After lunch I began to explored the Warf. It was raining pretty hard so I literally went in ever shop on the pier. The Warf has literally everything. There was a sock store, a magnet store, a store for lefty’s, and a magic shop. I did find myself in a memorabilia store where I found a Giants jersey autographed by Matt Cain (one of the pitchers for the Giants) going for about $250 bucks. I thought this was pretty cool since he graduated from my high school. I can remember when he was first drafted, he went and bought this big truck with a TV and a Playstation in it. Its cool to see that he has made it this far.

Obama Socks... Must have for any liberal

I had some time to kill before I picked up my friend Ashley from the airport, so I found myself in one of those stores with the water massagers inside. I talked the girl into letting me get in one (10 min for 5 bucks) but when she forgot about me I ended up getting a 20 min massage instead! Just in-case you were thinking of trying one out… don’t waste your money.

My Massage

From there I found the real Golden Gate Bridge (where I got a video of me crossing… not very exciting), took some pictures and then headed towards the airport to grab Ashley for our Napa Adventure!