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Monday, September 10, 2007

California

I had never been to the West Coast. Hell, I had never been further west than Pittsburgh, PA, so to hop on a plane and head to California was quite exciting for me. I got there Monday afternoon, a day after Serena, who was there for a work conference, and made my way from SFO to meet up with her while she was on a lunch break from sessions and presentations. I'm not sure what I pictured in my mind when I thought of San Francisco, but while I was there, I kept feeling like I was in Philadelphia for some reason. Palm trees and the Pacific Ocean helped me acclimate, though.

A good time was had in San Francisco, the Windy City*. I feel like we hit the appropriate amount of everything we set out to do: shop, touristy things, eat, randomness, and Berkeley.

Shopping:
  • Amoeba in Haight/Ashbury (or "The Haight" as I guess I'm supposed to call it) where I found the most amazing imports and out of print CDs. I had to put blinders on to get to the cash register.
  • KidRobot and Giant Robot (did I get those names correct?) I bought the little "No Smoking" guy.
  • Whatever store that I found Cold War Unicorns for Ali!
  • The vintage store where I bought a skirt for $1!
Toursity Things:
  • Fisherman's Wharf- Cool for the boats and seeing Alcatraz**, but a bit overrated and also mfing hot when there!
  • Cable cars- Yes, we rode one. Almost ran over some guy, too. I kept wanting it to go faster, though.
  • Lombard Street, the most crookedest street- Holy hell do legs burn after walking up this! I felt like jelly on the walk back down.
Eat:
  • The BEST Italian food and cocktails at a restaurant in North Beach with an incredibly sexay waiter.
  • Mexican in the Mission area.
  • Iced coffee wherever we could find it.
  • Carl Jr.s in the middle of the night (See "Berkeley")
Randomness:
  • Vesuvio
  • Specks- Don't go there. Definitely don't order a Jack and Coke there!
  • Sneaking into a fancy hotel for the restroom and then asking at the front desk how to get to the Bart.
  • The Bart
  • San Fran Barnes & Noble!
  • Bums. A lot of them. Who like to talk to you. And come right up if they think you're a tourist.
Berkeley:
  • What happens in Berkeley stays in Berkeley, but I will say that it was a kick-ass time.
  • Oh, and we got stuck there.
  • And had to find a way back to the city.
  • And I found out I like feta!
  • Party People!
All in all a fun trip! Take a look at my pictures.

XO,
SVR

*Just kidding. I know that's Chicago, but my mom kept calling it that and it cracked me up.

**Cue Mr. T!

6 comments:

Ant said...

Love the pics! Am very jealous - have always wanted to go to San Fran...

PS When you said "bums" I thought you were talking about actual derrieres. Even when you said "coming up and talking to you" I had a very odd visual going on in my head...

Anonymous said...

Actually, Chicago is only known as the Windy City because our politicians are full of hot air. There are lots of windier places than Chi-town.

Glad you had a good time! And that you made it out of Bizerkeley!

Oh, and the reason for all the homeless? The City pays them. I'm not kidding. They earn money to be homeless.

Courtney Craig, DC said...

Walking Lombard street sounds a lot better than driving down it. When we did that I was scared for my life!

And I'm really glad you love feta ;p

minijonb said...

wow, sounds like you had a great trip. i love Amoeba. amazing store. but i don't like the hood it's in... too many drug dealers walking around trying to sell me crap.

Anonymous said...

Did you visit the GG Bridge? Did you see anyone jump off? Let me know!

Anonymous said...

Excellent - I love San Fran, can't go enough. We're going there in three weeks. Can't eat poorly. It's beautiful. The weather! I rarely go someplace more than once, but San Fran is an exception.

Looks like you had fun.