San Francisco
7/13-7/17
I have been dying to go to San Francisco forever. It is home to my two favorite shows, Full House and Charmed, I’ve always wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge (mostly because of the opening scenes from both shows), and because I’ve heard it is just a really awesome city. Oh and my dad is a huge Grateful Dead fan and San Fran is where Jerry and the boys lived for some time. We drove from Napa to San Francisco arriving around 7pm, checked in with our air bnb host and went to a notable fast food Mexican place right in the Mission district where we were staying for dinner. We crashed pretty early ready for a full day ahead.
Last year when Greg and I went to Hawaii we always had too much to do and not enough time to do it. We started a routine of going for runs around different parks, landmarks or cities that we wanted to check out but didn’t necessarily want to take time out of our day for. This way, we got in a workout and got to see a lot of cool stuff. Most of the cities we’ve been in we’ve done the same thing getting to check out different parks or, like in Chicago, Wrigley Field.
We started every morning in San Francisco by going on a run to a different destination. Friday morning we “ran” to a nearby “park”. It was more of a small mountain/very large hill. Tons of people around walking their dogs and running also. We stopped about a million times because a) everything in San Francisco is straight up hill and b) the view from the top was was too cool to pass by.
Saturday, we drove to Golden Gate Park and ran through it to the coast. It was a beautiful 6 mile run and we got to see the Pacific Ocean where the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and a huge fog sat over it compared to the weather just a few miles in the other direction. 
Sunday, our anniversary, we drove to Golden Gate bridge and ran across it, about 3 miles total out and back. This, by far, ranks as one of the coolest runs we’ve done. The Golden Gate Bridge is really a marvel even from a distance but standing on it and under it’s gigantic pillars is hard to describe. From the Bridge you can see out to Alcatraz Island, Angel island and a good part of the piers and shoreline across the bay. It was amazing and a great way to start the day.
We did so many fun things in San Francisco. The first day we went into the “downtown/city” part. We got dropped off at City Hall, ate lunch from some awesome food trucks and then headed towards the financial district where we ended walking through a very sketchy street before getting to where we needed to go. There are, unfortunately, homeless in every city we’ve been to which is depressing and terrible and it’s hard to not feel a little guilty as you walk by them. The homeless in San Francisco however were of a different style. In most cities, they are laying or sitting on the street lethargically. In San Francisco, they were wild. Our assumption being that most of them are totally drugged out. They would be screaming at each other, mumbling to themselves, dancing, blatantly selling drugs and passing needles. At one point, we passed a lady walking the opposite direction on the street and she shouted, to no one in particular, “Is there shit on my feet!?”. It did smell pretty terrible, and we’re still not sure if she was talking about human feces or dog feces. Greg and I made a quick diversion off of our route to get to a place we felt a little less out place as I squeezed his hand tightly and sped walked away. I don’t point this out to make fun of these people I just think it’s an important part of our society that we often ignore. If I had to guess, most of these people probably don’t want to be tweaked out druggies living on the street unsure if the smell around them is because they walked through human poop. They probably had lives and families and dreams and because of addiction, money troubles, unfortunate upbringings or a mixture of those all, they ended up where they are with no one to help them out. It’s sad but a very big part of every city we’ve seen.
We eventually ended up in the very fancy part of San Francisco surrounded by Neiman Marcus, Tiffany and Co. and Louis Vuitton. We obviously did not belong there but we looked around and then ventured to China Town. China town was it’s own little section of the city with Chinese street lamps, decorations and stores. We then headed to the piers where we got awesome views of Alcatraz Island, the bay bridge and the skyline behind us. We got to see the sea lions sitting on the docks though there weren’t many of them because this is the time of year they travel south to breed. We went to Ghiardelli Park where we finally sat down at a Beer Garden they had in the middle of it before heading see the famous Lombard Street. Cars actually wait in line to drive down it and we got a great show of skateboarders coasted down the incredibly crooked street. That night we went to an incredible Indian restaurant in the Mission District where we got a fluffy bread that was bigger than my head. It was delicious.
The next day after our run in Golden Gate Park we walked to Haight-Ashbury, home of all things hippy and Grateful Dead. We got a picture in front of the former home of Jerry Garcia, perused all of the hippy shops and walked through the local park. Haight-Ashbury is definitely what I think of when I think of San Francisco. It was a really eclectic little part of town and we loved it. And then it was the moment I waited for since we started the trip; We were going to the Full House House! For those of you that know me you know that I am obsessed with the Olsen Twins (I’m still waiting to hear if they have a long lost sister they are looking for) and my college friends share my love of all things Full House and Uncle Jessie. The door is painted a different color now and the Olsen twins weren't there to greet us but it was awesome and there were actually quite a few other people there sharing in my excitement.  |
| Full House House |
 |
| Grateful Dead House |
That night, we met up with Kyle, a college friend of Greg, and his fiance Annie. They just moved to San Francisco area and took us to a great Chinese restaurant for dinner and then showed us around to a few cool spots in the area. It’s always great for Greg and I to have someone else to talk to and we had a blast hanging out with them.
Sunday happened to be our one year anniversary AND the new season premier of Game of Thrones. After our run across Golden Gate, Greg and I hung out in Sausalito where we got bloody mary’s and sat by the water. We had an incredibly relaxing day compared to the rest of this trip which is exactly what we both needed. For dinner we went to the Beach Chalet which was an awesome restaurant that overlooked the Pacific Ocean right in Golden Gate Park. After dinner we grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and headed to our air bnb with fingers crossed that we could stream GOT on the laptop, which we could.
Compared to all of our other adventures I’m sure this seems pretty lame for our anniversary but it was exactly what we needed. By the time we got to San Francisco I was getting really tired. My legs and feet hurt from walking, running and hiking everyday. We get up super early every day and we don’t stop until the sun goes down. It was starting to get to me as we hit the half way point in our trip. San Francisco and particularly that Sunday was perfect.
We LOVED San Francisco. What I noticed most about San Francisco was how diverse, multi-cultural and accepting it was. Most of the best restaurants that were recommended to us were some sort of ethnic restaurant. Every place we went into had gay pride flags. The entire Golden Gate Park exhibit, and I think the overall theme of San Francisco while we were there was “The Summer of Love”, where you saw signs reminiscent of the civil rights movements of the 60's and 70's embracing equality, love, acceptance, peace and choice. Many of the cities we have been to have had similar shows of pride and acceptance in their local neighborhoods or establishments but it seemed like the entire city of San Francisco had taken on this as their motto. It was inspiring.
We love you too San Francisco. And we’ll be back. But for now, we’re getting out of these cities and back to nature! Yosemite, Zion and Bryce Canyon are next on the agenda. We might not have service for a while but we’ll be back on the grid eventually!
No comments:
Post a Comment