Monday, August 31, 2009

San Francisco Recap - Take 1

This was the most exhausting trip I've ever taken. I filled out itineraries to the brim and we even had to weed out a few things because there just wasn't time. Or because I was too exhausted by the end of each day. I have a million photos that I'll share as the days go by. We're still weeding them out. But here's a quick recap of how our trip went down.

Day #1 - Flew to San Francisco; went to a food festival and didn’t eat anything; ate at a taqueria in the Mission; watched Rob get shoved by a crazy homeless guy in Starbucks; walked Union Square and Chinatown

Day #2 - Walked the Mission; ate crepes; had drinks with internet friends; bought a pair of TOMS; shopped; took photos; visited a street fair; had really good sushi

Day #3 - Walked around Chinatown; struggled to get up some steep hills; visited City Lights Bookstore; saw the street from the opening credits of Monk; took photos; went to Coit Tower; walked to Fisherman’s Wharf; ate lunch at Pier 39; saw the sea lions; visited Lombard Street; did the nighttime tour of freezing cold Alcatraz

Day #4 - Went to SFMOMA and the Cartoon Art Museum while Rob wandered the city; rode inside a crowded trolley; had ice cream at Ghirardelli Square; watched the Giants beat the Diamondbacks; tried to figure out public transportation

Day #5 - Went to Golden Gate Park; walked through the Conservatory of Flowers; saw the Japanese Tea Garden, but only from the outside; saw the De Young Museum and the Academy of Sciences, but only from the outside; had lunch in the Haight; shopped; took photos; visited Alamo Square; went to Japantown and had terrible sushi

Day #6 - Walked to the bike rental place because the trolley line was too long; biked with wobbly legs across the Golden Gate Bridge while being tormented by Rob about my lack of fitness; had lunch in Sausalito; took the ferry back while Rob biked back; Rob beat the ferry; ate more ice cream at Ghirardelli Square; waited 40 minutes in line just so we could ride on the outside of the trolley, and it was so worth it; passed the eff out from exhaustion

Day #7 - Had breakfast at a diner; watched a homeless guy get thrown out of the diner; flew home on a very shaky plane

Overall summary: San Francisco is a beautiful city with loads to do. There are tons of crazy homeless people, way more than I anticipated. And they are far more energetic and brazen than the homeless in Philadelphia. The hills are killer, especially for a weakling like myself. And it was COLD. Like three layers of long sleeves and a scarf kind of cold. We'll hopefully go back in a few years to do all of the things that didn't make the cut this time.

5 comments:

Irit said...

Wow. Sounds so great. Makes me want to go to San Francisco right now!

BTW, you look amazing in the trolley photo. :-)

Mary said...

Wow, it began and ended with homeless people.... LOL ;) looks like fun!!

Andrea said...

Hello stranger, I just wanted to drop a one big THANK YOU for starting the Operation Nice, I just discovered it today and it made me smile :) (warm fuzzies anyone? lol) You are truly an inspiration!

P.S. Have you ever considered like going big with the operation nice? {Gather people from around the world and have like OperationNice USA or OperationNice Europe / Australia .. etc. you get the point lol.}

Anyways .. thank you again for the inspiration - you brightened my day :)


xoxo

Andrea

Ammie said...

Glad you enjoyed SF -- beautiful city, even if it is cold and hilly (I love the hills though). Next time pop over to the other side of the Bay to my 'hood in Oakland! I'll buy you a Bakesale Betty chicken sandwich.

More enticement: It's warmer with less aggressive homeless folks. We also have a couple of places with the best sushi outside Japan (the terrible truth is that Japantown has the worst sushi anywhere!)

tiffany said...

WOW! What a trip! You did more in 7 days than I've done as long as I've lived out here. That's awesome!