Ah, San Fran, a very nice time. Tracey and I left last Friday morning and got to SF at 6:30pm. Lars and his roomies live in Pacifica, which is 15 minutes south of SF and is right on the cliffs and the ocean, a very beautiful location. Friday was Valentines day, so went took the BART train downtown SF for some dinner. We strolled through China Town and ended up in the Italian district at a cool little restaurant. Our food was really good and we had some great Chianti. After dinner we went to this cool bar called Vesuveos where Jack Kerouak hung out in his day, it was very fun, great atmosphere. Then we headed home for the night to get some rest cause Joel had to get up early for class.
Saturday showed up and we chilled around their apartment and chatted with Astevens and Macan, Lars’s roomies. Tracey and I took off exploring a bit for the afternoon, got some lunch and found some cool spots for pics and conversation, it was really cool. It was kinda cold, well, pretty cold, wind coming off the ocean and overcast, but still beautiful. We were going to do a surf session but decided not to and waited around for Lars to get back from class. Saturday was the Chinese new year and there was a bit parade downtown that we went to check out. Tons of people, streets closed off and good laughs. The parade was sub par, and then it started to rain on us, and that sucked. We left the parade early to find some food in China town. Most places were packed because of the rain, but we finally find a place. I wasn’t hungry for Chinese so I just had a Corona, without a Lime, I might add. The service was horrible and had to argue with our waitress over price and whatnot, but funny experience. After dinner we went to this other cool fisherman’s bar/grill place. It had all kinds of cool things all over the walls, very fun. Had a good time there. It was still raining when we were done and had to walk about 15 blocks to the BART train to get home. So we got soaked again. Joel thought it would be funny to start kicking puddles of water at AStevens, while getting the rest of us wet.
Sunday morning we headed out to surf at this great spot called Linda Mar (I think). It was very cold, crazy cold, but I braved it and charged with my bros, good time. Tracey came also and just hung out on the beach and read and took pics of us. After freezing my butt off, we went back to the pad and got cleaned up, got some lunch and Tracey, Joel, AStevens, Macan and I went to Muir woods to hike. It was beautiful and smelled good. We all had great chats as we walked and talked and admired God’s beauty. Getting to Muir Woods we had to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge which was awesome, although scary cause I have weird terrorist fears about it blowin up when I’m on it, oh well, I made it. After Muir Woods, the dudes took us up to this great lookout point to see the bridge and the city, very cool. From the lookout point we drove down to the Haight Asbury district for some dinner. We went to this cool Mediterranean place called Kans Zemans, I think. I had Lamb Kabobs, very good. Very cool atmosphere. More great convo was had by all. After dinner we walked around a bit. I went to Amoeba records and got a live Spiritualized CD and an old Public Enemy CD I have been wanting to pick up for a long time. We ended up stumbling into a jazz club that looked very retro and fifties. The band was just starting so we decided to check it out and stayed for like an 1 1/2hrs. We sat around and re-visited the weekends events and sighed that they were almost over. At some point in these events Joel and I walked down to the actual corner of Haight Asbury and discovered a disturbing fact, there is a Gap on one corner and a Ben and Jereys Ice Cream shop on the other corner. For some reason it does not seem like that type of capitalism should be located where the hippie movement supposeably started, I don’t know, what can you do?
We had to leave on Monday morning, but we decided to drive down the coast to at least Monterey. Highway 1 between SF and Santa Cruz is absolutely amazing. Curvy roads inbetween cliffs and overlooking the crashing waves of the Pacific. The sun was shining and we were feeling good about a great weekend spent with friends. We passed through Santa Cruz, which is about an hour south of SF and did not stop. We headed down another hour to Monterey. We got down to the Fisherman’s Warf and Cannery Row area, which holds special meaning for me because Monterey and Cannery Row are Starflyer 59 song titles from way back in the day. Anyway, Monterey was very cool. We only got to spend an hour there. We then decided we should cut back over the the 5 for the long trek home. We got home about 9:30, almost 12 hours in the car, we were tired, sad to be gone from friends, but glad we were coming home to warm SD and not multiple inches of snow and blowing wind.
I’m sure I missed many details, but overall, SF was one of the best times of my life.
