My first five years in California were living in San Francisco. I've been in SoCal for six years now, but I dearly miss the Bay Area and some very lovely people there. It had been five years since I had visited so Jason & I were pretty stoked about getting to fly up. And here is Luke who was kind enough to let us crash at his home for our stay. Check out the poster of those shirtless hippy hikers on the fridge!
Click on this panorama view of the city from Lukes roof. We got downtown on the left and if you scan to the right, Bernal Hill. I used to live at the bottom of that.
The next day brought a trip over to Oakland. We barted to the West Oakland stop & started walking. I had never heard of a Mexi-catessen before.
Meandering around w/ our coffee, we wandered into Jack London square saying hi to a train conductor on the way.
View of the City across the bay beyond the port cranes.
As we barted back, Jason found a ladybug hitching a ride. The little wonder is now living in some bushes on Market St.
Searching the back streets in the City's Chinatown for Geary St, it pleased me greatly to catch this at the end of an alley way. Invisible bike is so cute!
It was a pleasure to see all the galleries at 49 Geary. It was its usual mix of older great pieces (mainly photography), newer compelling work, and total hackery. When I lived in SF I used to feel overwhelmed (though appreciative) by how much art was going on around me. Now living in SD, I feel like I'm starving for any visual culture. Not that it doesn't exist in SD but for being the 2nd largest town in CA, it's pretty pathetic.
The sun graces Jason as we relax in Yerba Buena Park.
This is a building at 6th and Howard a couple blocks from where we used to live in South of Market. (Click on it for a better view.) The lights on the building light up at night.
15 Sumner St; our third place in SF. At first it seemed like an old victorian on a sketch alley but it was my favorite place we lived in SF. And it's looking beautiful now.
Our second place in SF at 1200 Howard. This is one of those apartments that I had hoped would burn to the ground as time passed on. Or at least be demolished for something better. I'm still waiting.
An afternoon beer at Brainwash was perfect. http://www.brainwash.com/ We used to do laundry here when our washer was broken or simply non-existent. It's half laundry half cafe and the menu still has the same yummy gnoshes.
Taking a pee break and seeing the graffiti in the bathroom holds true to the sentiment of the place.
Hiking back up to Luke's place. My butt never looked so good as when I lived in the City. That night all three of us chilled w/ Indian food and watched Spider Baby. This is one of the better cult horrors there is:
http://www.spiderbabyonline.com/
The boss thing about having a Zipcar membership is there are dozens and dozens of cities around the world I can use it in. In SF it was good because we just wanted to walk and take public trans most of the time. But we were able to get a car and head over to the Headlands for some hiking. First we pit stopped at our old work place, the Real Food Co. http://tinyurl.com/2yw2xv
It was lovely to see some friendly familiar faces there: Jason w/ German, Terry, and Chris. What I adore about my old relationships w/ people from SF is even if we don't see each other for years, it's not really awkward meeting up again. We just ease back into a conversation and are chatting and laughing pretty quickly.
I take the 5 minute red light way. I like to turn the car off and view the world around me while I wait. My first summer in SF I interned here at the Headlands Center for the Arts and had so much fun working w/ the artists, eating the yummy dinners, and hiking around the hills.
Sprinkled among the cliffs are these old WWII barracks. The wind is usually whipping around through them, so yep, I'm cold.
That little building on the edge of the cliff has been crumbling for years. I used to be able to go up into it but now it's fenced off.
We went back via the road that snakes down the side of the hill. The requisite photo of Jason w/ the bridge.
And in true SF weather form it's now sunny and fairly clear. My experience w/ weather living there was it was foggy through the morning which burned off into sunny & partially clear through the afternoon when the fog started rolling in again just in time for tea. Almost always lows in the 50's and highs in the 60's, except those two weeks of hot weather in September and those two months of freeze your buns 40's at night in the winter.
After returning the car, we walked down the hill to Dolores Park and stopped at the Cafe there for a moment. Jason's goofy picture of me.
Several blocks down the street is the scrumptious Mitchell's Ice Cream. Yes, there's always a line but I got my Halo Halo! (Buko, Langka, Ube, Pineapple, Mango, & Sweet Beans ice cream- yum yum yum!)
http://www.mitchellsicecream.com/
Back in Bernal Heights brought us to 21 Cortland, our first place in the City. Not much to look at from the outside but it was actually a fairly cute place inside.
Up the hill to the best lesbian bar, Wild Side West. Not just for lesbians, but for those that are queer-friendly, too. This place has a pool table, old wooden everything, a fire place for those in depth conversations, and...
...One of the best gardens for a business in SF. Out the back and down the stairs and we have the ever beautiful Olivia joining us for a few. We chatted up about how our worlds have been swirling around us then said our see you laters.
Back down the hill to Zante's Pizza to satisfy the long time craving of their awesome Indian Pizza. The Cortland place is right behind Zante's so we used to go here all the time for a slice.
We night capped the evening w/ a visit to Dale, originally to watch the premiere of Work of Art, but apparently Bravo realized the depravity that it was and switched it to being on later at night. None the less, it was so good to see Dale and hear his stories about Census work and future pet kitties.
The morning came too soon and it was sadly time to leave the city. Into the arms of SFO and their way too cool razor air driers.
If ever I am financially able, Virgin Airlines will always be my plane of choice. Coach had never been comfier and the amenities were top notch by comparison to other planes. The safety video was a cool cartoon that humorously perfectly balanced the annoyance of safety videos w/ actual instruction.
The panels were all touch screen and had movies, music, tv shows, video games, or internet access. I think only the internet wasn't free.
