Blogs from San Francisco, California, United States, North America - page 205

It's absolutely a cool feeling when you're sitting in a cafe talking to an attractive man, then he proudly intruduces his cute boyfriend to you. Ahh...How disappointing! But indeed, men couples have created a beautiful picture holding hands under the rainbow flag in this gay community, Castro. Unfortunately, I came here with my beloved mother so didn't dare to stay too much longer. Chinatown in SF is another highlight to my surprise. It's home to many fine antiques, high quality arts and crafts. You can sit down and listen to old Chinese street artists playing ErHu, I don't remember seeing that kinda scene even in China nowaday. Grant Avenue's prosperous and drug-free image does give me a ancient Tang dynasty feel. whereas many other Chinatowns that I've seen look more like QingRenJie than TangRenJie. Anyways, heard ... read more

We got to SF on Thursday to several emails and voicemails about our mortgage so unfortunately spent the afternoon dealing with that. Thankfully things seem to be in better shape now and we were able to go out and enjoy a fun dinner with Neera & Sanjiv (Laura's friends who we're staying with). Friday consisted of one last REI trip to exchange Mike's backpack and then seeing Mission Impossible 3 - very good. Then we stopped by Laura's old office to say hi and enjoyed a fun dinner with her fomer coworker. Today we're going to get out of the SF clouds and go to Sonoma for some sunshine and wine and then tomorrow it is wheels up to Beijing! ... read more

Got a late start today while working on last minute adjustments and getting last minute supplies for Tris. We were finally underway at around 1pm and rode from Tris' mom's house to the BART Station nearby. We then todr it to San Francisco and began the ride to Baker Beach beyond the Golden gate Bridge so we could actually dip in the Pacific. We took a few pictures there and then rode back to where we came from to catch a ferry to Vellejo. We did a lot of urban riding today which eventually trailed off once we left the downtown area. We had the lovely aroma of cows for the duration of the ride to Benicio where we had a little trouble finding a place to bivy (sleep). We settled on a drainage near an ... read more

Well hello fellow Marist Volunteers and fans of our travelblog! I haven't checked in for a while so I thought I would write a quick post. There hasn't been too much new and exciting here in San Francisco although things have been going very well. Just as it seems like I am finally getting settled and have comfortably aquainted myself with all the local customs its almost time to count the days left in my west coast adventure. Work is going very well at the shelter. One of my coworkers recently left on maternity leave which allowed me to pick up a few cases of my own. Both clients who have moved out received permanent housing giving me a 100% success rate!(as much as I would like to take full credit for this I am pretty ... read more

Things to Do Walk along Embarcadero from Ferry Building to Fisherman's Wharf Great view of the Bay and the bridge. If you get hungry there is tons of great food at the Ferry Building (Slanted Door for Vietnamese, Hog Island for Oysters, Golden Gate Meat for Pastrami sandwich, Cowgirl Creamery for chinese, Miette for cupcake/lemon tart, Scharffen Berger for chocolates .... or at Fisherman's Wharf (a cup of chowder or Dungeness crab or Ghirardelli Chocolate) Visit a museum. There is the MOMA in downtown SF, DeYoung in the Golden Gate Park, Legion of Honor in the Presidio. All great places to simulate the mind and spend a wonderful afternoon. BTW, they all have good cafes for a light lunch Spend two or three days in wine country. Visit either Napa or Sonoma. Great food and great ... read more