1 post tagged “san francisco”

...and lots of it. :-) Saturday afternoon I got restless...and restless plus wanderlust plus, well, me equals waking up in another time zone. Occasionally in another country. So at 3pm I booked a round trip flight and two night hotel stay in San Francisco. By 6pm, I was air-born. I really love traveling like this, just getting up and going. Of course it has it's advantages (instantaneous happiness from being in motion, having fun, being adventurous) and disadvantages (forgetting sunscreen and burning the crap out of your forehead, not having clean underwear when you get home and have to go to work) but all in all? It was pretty freaking awesome. And I never liked underwear all that much anyway.

I landed at SFO around 10pm and was just smiley from the moment my feet touched the breezeway to the terminal. It was contagious, and I think I rarely passed a person who made eye contact with me who didn't smile back. It was kind of nice.

But back up. lol I ran into a guy on the plane while on a short layover in Phoenix who actually lived down the street from me in Atlanta and was headed back to live in one of the towns I lived in years before in California. It was kind of strange, just this random kid making a little life adjustment, moving back out to SoCal for a job in the hills and a chance to surf. We had dinner there and just hung out. Some other guy from Cal Poly gave us the fries the waiter gave him mistakenly and we just sat around talking. He was pretty much broke and laid over for three hours so when I left I gave him the magazine I'd finished reading. You'd think it was the best gift anyone ever gave him...long layovers really do suck.

Fortunately none of mine were more than 80 minutes and as soon as dinner was done I had to go. It was a short flight to San Francisco and I was in my hotel before 11. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Sunday morning I was up early and out the door as soon as breakfast had settled. I caught the 14 bus down to Market and Main, then the F to Pier 39 to play tourist.

I'd managed to get out before most of the others and had the place mostly to myself. I walked around taking photos in the early light and picked up a ticket for a cruise that left around noon. That left me a couple of hours to go get in the water, walk aroun and dry off, hike around the area a bit and just enjoy the place as it awoke. Early Sunday Morning, indeed.

The cruise was a typical tourist excursion but worth the 20 something dollars it cost. 90 minutes of blue skies and sunshine, a trip under the Golden Gate Bridge and then a couple of times around Alcatraz Island. Not a bad way to spend part of the afternoon. Also not a bad idea to wear sunscreen.

I finished up the tour and caught lunch at the Eagle Cafe above the docks. The view was great for people watching and the food was outlandishly large. I think they specialized in mussels and things on the halfshell, but they made a damned fine club sandwich, too with beer-battered onion rings.

The rest of the daylight hours were spent walking around. LOTS. I hiked back up the hill for a view of the bay and bridges, walked up to Chinatown and then all the way back down Stockton to California, then up Market and Mission back to 7th and my hotel. I hung out a bit and chatted with a couple of locals along the way. Mostly just busstop chitchat. I helped some guy find McDonalds (because you know, it was RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM) much to the amusement of the bus riders. He seemed pretty happy about it. I just kept smiling. :-)

After a quick shower to cool off and a little rest, I caught the buses back down to the marina, watched a few street performers, grabbed a beer and caught a little fishing boat out for a sunset re-enactment of the earlier cruise. At the last minute we were joined by 38 seventeen and eighteen year olds from a church group. They turned out to be an easygoing, happy bunch and really made the trip fun.

It was weird being the adult. I'm not sure how it works but sometimes I seem to be in this odd limbo place. Kids (and I call them that, they being half my age) generally treat me like an adult (like when asking me about Alcatraz, or when one starts to look a little green and I send her to the center, low part of the boat where the motion is much less) but seem to just as easily interact with me like another kid (like when it gets cold and they tell me I suck because I have beer and they don't :D ). Maybe it's always been like that...but it's kind of nice.

The sunset was spectacular and I'm amazed I got any clear shots since the waves in the evening after a day like that can be pretty rough. A lot of the kids walked away cold and wet but nonetheless happy and singing and I was certain I had a lot of nice "intentional motion blur" but I was shooting in manual and RAW (for which I am totally proud of myself) most of the time and some of the shots turned out nice. So I'm pretty happy about that. Overall there are a lot of snapshots from the day but that's ok. Not everything has to be art or a portrait, right? Sometimes it's just a testament of the day. I kind of like that.

I finished the day off with a Hawaian Burger and a beer at one of the surf bars then mingled with the crowds for a bit before starting off on the trek again.

I walked from the Piers to the Port and got there just in time to catch a rogue DJ throwing a little dance party in the square. He had a pretty good crowd going and they were really having a great time.

After hanging out for a bit and taking a couple of photos it was time to call it a night and catch the bus back to hotel area and hit the sack. I'd walked a lot more than I probably should've and was just worn out. 

I caught a noon flight back and was home and in bed by 11pm. I really needed to just get away, even if for one day and I really have a great time. I've missed California more than I like to admit; it's just a part of me I guess. A part I never intend to give up.

It was a pretty good trip. Not bad on a moment's notice.

I do love that city.