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(March 26 through March 29) After winter quarter was over, I decided to drive down to San Francisco from Portland to relax and sightsee before leaving for Colombia. The ten-hour drive is spectacular. The mountain ranges are beautiful and the scenes are breathtaking. Southern Oregon and Northern California are beautiful. I arrived into San Francisco late Thursday night. Driving into San Francisco is amazing. The nightscapes of downtown lit up are spectacular. I arrived into the Excelsior neighborhood of San Francisco where my friend Daisy lives. Daisy and I worked together in Mexico five years ago, and I hadn’t seen her in over two years. That night we stayed up late chatting over some Portland beer (Bridgeport) I had brought and catching up on the happenings of the last couple of years.
The next morning we woke up early to beat the traffic cop in order not to get a parking ticket. Two minutes late, and I had a fifty-dollar parking ticket. Daisy tried to hide it from me. After getting over it, we drove up to Twin Peaks. At the top you can see the whole city of San Francisco and the bay. There are great views up here.
After taking some pictures we drove toward the bath ruins (Sutro Baths) passing through Haight-Ahsbury. The walk around the ruins is nice, and the sound of the crashing waves is awesome, especially if you go into the cave.
The next stop from there was the Golden Gate Bridge. I had had some views of it from the bath ruins and Twin Peaks, but getting close to it and driving over it I was speechless. I had always wanted to see it, and now that I was there I had a smile from ear to ear. After crossing the bridge there are two exits for sight seeing. The first exit is on the east of the bridge, where the views are beautiful and directly of the bridge; the second exit takes you up the hills on the west side and you can get great views. We took the second exit, and I think the pictures show how beautiful it is. Before going back, we stopped right before getting onto the highway, where some parking spots are available and one can walk under the bridge (really cool) and go over to the area where the first exit off the highway takes
you. From there we took more pictures, and walked the bridge. Walking the bridge was spectacular and extremely windy. After getting my fix of the bridge, we headed for lunch where we met up with my friend Daren who I hadn’t seen since the fall (he had come up to Portland during the Wisconsin-Michigan football game, the only bright spot all season for Michigan).
After saying goodbye to Daren, we headed for happy hour in the Mission district with Daisy’s cohort and my friend Garret who I hadn’t seen in a while. After tacos and beer, and getting stuck in an elevator that fell two floors, we went bar hopping around the Mission until 2AM where the night ended with great food.
The next morning Daisy and I headed to the piers. We walked all over. We saw great views of Alcatraz (with more time I would have loved to have gone). We saw the famous sea lions, and had lunch at Boudin. Famous for their sourdough bread, lunch consisted of local beer (PDX beer for Daisy, the place had Widmer) and clam chowder in a huge, carved-out sourdough bread bowl. After lunch, we walked around and ended
the pier sightseeing at The Buena Vista where we had ourselves some of their delicious and famous Irish coffee.
After the coffee we jumped on a bus headed for China town where we simply walked around. An hour or so of doing this we jumped on the metro and headed back to the Mission where we had coffee and Daisy gave me a tour of the neighborhood and some of its famous murals.
Later that afternoon we met up with Oscar in the Mission. Oscar is also another friend who worked with me and Daisy in Mexico five years ago, and I hadn’t seen him in two years when he had been in Atlanta. The rest of the afternoon and night was amazing. After dinner, we headed to a bar atop the roof of a building at Elements Hostel in the Mission. From here we had some drinks and could see the whole city. We were excited about being here and being able to see city when the lights would be turned off for Earth hour. We waited and waited, but no big difference, so we headed to Hyatt to have ourselves some wine. The night we spent
telling each other our lives since the last time we saw each other. Before we knew it, several hours and two bottles of wine had come and gone. We headed for the metro and said goodbye to Oscar. The next morning I woke up really early, said goodbye to Daisy and drove back to Portland.
San Francisco is amazing and beautiful. There was great weather throughout the weekend. I saw great friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time. We were able to share great memories once again and make new ones. Definitely a place I will be going back to once back in the states.
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