Saturday, June 9, 2007

Becca's Adventures in San Francisco

One thing led to another and suddenly I've been back from San Francisco for several days, but I had a great trip. In retrospect I should have extended the stay by several days and done more exploring since I paid for the tickets and all. Bob picked me up from the airport and gave me a grand tour all the way over to the Marina to meet Glenna and Tessa for breakfast, including a stop on Treasure Island. After a delicious brunch and a walk down the Union Street Art Fair that was in full swing, Bob drove me all over San Francisco on a Grand Tour Deluxe of the city including the house Karen (his Wife, now deceased) grew up in, and the twin peaks, Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, downtown, ect. It was wonderful and a good chance to just chat with Bob. He dropped me off on the waterfront and I walked back to Glenna's where I stayed for the next two days. Glenna actually lives in the apartment above Tessa in a nice quite building in the city. I hung around the apartment with my book by the window the rest of the afternoon and ate a ginormous and delicious burrito with Glenna's boyfriend that Tessa brought home with her.

In the morning I attempted my first bus ride into the city, which commenced with disaster! I got kicked off the first bus (it was going the wrong direction) and didn't wait in the right spot on the other side of the street so even though I chased down the next bus, the driver wouldn't let me on. I wanted to cry, as I had now been waiting for buses for like forty minutes, alas in my infinite wisdom I decided to walk to the Consulate. This plan quickly dissolved as I encountered the next bus stop and waited there for the next bus. From then on, the Muni Bus System and I got along great, and it proved to be an efficient and cheap way of seeing the city. However, I never did find a little pocket map to call me own (the bus stops and busses were always out, though every other passenger on the bus seemed to have managed to get their hands on one). Anyhow this created a little game where I sit at the bus stop shelter inspecting the map on that wall, trying to see how fast I could figure out where I am, where I want to go and which bus(ses) I need to get on to get there... all before the next bus comes. I got pretty good at it and I met Tessa down town for a pleasant lunch date of sandwiches in the park and a tour of Chronicle Books' headquarters.

After lunch I somehow got a sweet deal of a three-dollar ticket in the Museum of Modern Art. Now, I'm no artist by any means but Modern Art is WAY over my head. Most of it was pretty (I think that even I could paint big blue squares though, and the three panels painted soild white was a bit confusing, I thought the piece was just missing for a while), so even with the audio explanations I was still lost on the "great artistic value" of many of the pieces. I did, however, appreciate a giant and vivid Pollock and some nifty Picasso's, O'Keeffe's and Matisse's, oh yeah and some famous toilet that some French Guy said was art too and everybody was real upset about that for a while.

Feeling cultured, I headed up to the Golden Gate Park for a fabulous walk in the old Japanese Tea Gardens and a pot of tea in the teahouse with my book. On my way I found this hilarious message spray painted onto the sidewalk. I then headed back to Glenna's for yummy home cooked dinner, after which Glenna treated me to drinks at a trendy San Franciscan Bar called the Matrix complete with fireplaces, modern looking couches and rather dumb and annoying men.

Tuesday Morning I sampled chocolate at Ghirardelli Square and treated myself to an overpriced breakfast overlooking the bay at Pier 39. I spent the next couple hours at the consulate, where the Chinese door guard interrogated me harder than the Frenchwoman inside, who was actually quite nice and helpful. And I, in fact, received a very official VISA pasted into my passport in less than an hour! TRIAMPH! Feeling pretty darn pleased with my success at the French Consulate, I head up to check out Ashbury-Haight, including the house (the purple one) where the Grateful Dead were busted for Drugs in the seventies. Ironically the French International High School was across the street. After momentary thinking I had lost my whole wallet (insert slight meltdown), I rode back into the city, caught the Bart across the bay (like a sauve native) and meet Bob in Oakland, for a quick tour of Berkley and a ride to the Airport.

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