1st night. Decided to take the local bus to get downtown. Was a long
ride. Interestingly enough, driver wasn't accepting bus fare from
anyone that day! Stopped for some snaps of city hall on route to
accomodation, which was as ghetto as it gets, on the corner of Larkin
and Ellis in Saigon town. After settling in, decided to walk down
larkin and grabbed some tamarind fish, burmese style rice, and a thai
beer @ burmese kitchen, after buying a homeless dude a cheese danish.
Then headed towards an event called sanfranola (mardi gras in SF) at
Public Works in the Mission area. Wandered all the way to the famous
Alamo square late that night for some wonderful views of SF. We'll see
what adventures I have tomorrow...
Day 2...Took the BART to Embarcadero. Amazed how many people were
lined up for $10 Porchetta sandwiches, and other street fare. Jumped
on the F streetcar; headed to the Alcatraz ferry. Spent an hour on
this little island originally used to protect the bay during civil war
era, should enemies break through the barriers / defenses at the
Golden Gate. Upon heading back to shore, decided to climb the coit
tower where I met a chap (named Joe Canada, interestingly enough). The
climb to the base of the tower was exhausting, so we went up, even
though we knew visibility would be limited with the cloudiness. Made
the trek home by foot after checking out crooked street. Took a quick
breather than headed to Nitelife, at the California Academy of
Sciences. After, walked a mile or two, grabbed the Munibus, and
stopped by the Castro district to take in the night scene, after
having wonderful pizza @ Nizario's. Then headed to Dolores/Mission
park for another stunning skyline view, before heading home.
Day 3...Joe stopped by with his bike so we could do the bike ride
across the Golden Gate, into Saucalito. Within 10 minutes, his locked
up bike was gone! Within 30 minutes, we hustled another bike for him
from some homeless guys. What an interesting morning. The ride to
Saucalito (a beautiful quaint touristy town, much like when leaving
the ferry terminals in Vancouver / Vcr Island) took about 1.5hrs, and
was 13miles. After some ice cream we took the ferry back. Biked to
Chinatown, Yerba Buena Gdns, and to Union Square. Headed to the
King/4st Caltrain terminal and caught the train to Mountainview. Biked
4miles on the Stevens Valley Trail; checking out the last bit of
nature surrounding the bay, with thousands of ducks in the marshes
protecting by the Federal government. Reached Google by 5:30, got a
quick walk through and grabbed some eats from the unlimited
cafeteria's. Left the sprawling google campus and grabbed some thai
food with some Goog techies, then grabbed the last Caltrain @ 10:49
alone, and headed for SF, reaching by 12:01am. Being a Saturday nite,
the streets were packed with partiers.
Day 4...awoke at 6am to pack, and get on the 7:15 airport BART for my
9:15am flight to LA. Bummed around for 2 hours, caught the noon
connection to Calgary, getting in @ 5:15pm. What a long day.
pics to follow!
DIDN'T do:
cable car (overrated?)
eat in chinatown
have tea at Samovar, or coffee at blue bottle
visit SF Moma
De Young museum or its tower
twin peaks
redwoods - eureka
