San Francisco

Trojan turned me on to a great deal by Jet Blue to San Francisco for the weekend. Why not? After I found a cheap hotel online Friday afternoon, I left work half an hour early to catch my flight. After arriving at SFO, I took BART to downtown and settled in. The hotel was in an old building which was kind of cool--I had a small room, with no obvious form of air conditioning, and a small barely functional heater. The elevator was funky too with a pull outside door and a sliding inside door. I only had enough energy Friday night to make it half a block away to a deli where I had a couple of good beers and a corned beef sandwich which looked small, but had enough beef in it that I couldn't finish it.

I was tired, so I didn't get going until Saturday afternoon. I went to the local Mel's Diner and had Steak & Eggs. B4I was B4me to come to see her but I didn't know if she'd be there when I got there, so I went with the plan I formulated the night before. I walked south past City Hall when my Garmin finally locked on.



Then, I started running south and turned west when I got to lower Haight. I dodged all of the few actual hippies and hordes of wanting-to-see-hippie tourists, and ran into a music store to buy a few souvenir guitar picks. I kept heading west. I was already tired from climbing the hills but then got through Golden Gate park fairly easily. The weather was what I would have expected from San Francisco--overcast, cool, and misty. There was a cool waterfall in the middle of the park, which turned into a stream which I ran beside for half a mile or so.


Waterfall at Golden Gate Park

[I know that short video and picture below are sideways, but I'm too lazy/stupid to fix it.]

I walk/ran all the way to Ocean Beach, where I made sure to touch the Pacific Ocean.
Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach
Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach

It's funny, I've been to the bay area for probably ten weeks in the last year or two, but never saw the Pacific Ocean the whole time. I'm struggling to remember the last time I did--probably seven or eight years ago.

Saturday evening I headed to the Marina to say hi to B4I but her bar was packed with USC fans. I had one PBR and left. At this point B4I was thinking I was a creep because she hadn't recognize me after I dropped a couple of hints. I guess I should start posting pictures of myself here. I went down the street with a $2 Miller Lite and $3 Pilsner Urquell special going on, and had a rather enlightening conversation with an old teacher dude as I watched Cal hang in there for a bit but finally lose to USC. B4I had already left work when I got back, so I went back to the hotel with intentions of seeing some music, but the beer specials took hold and I was done.

Thanks to the time difference, I woke up really early, so Sunday I decided to make the best of it by running the Embarcadero 10K.


Start of Embarcadero 10K

It started at the Hyde Street Pier and went along the coast 'til almost AT&T Park before turning around. The race was put on by the Dolphin South End runners club, who holds a race every weekend. Their races are casual (no blocked off streets, no timing chips, a small field, etc). I was kind of worried about screwing myself up by running all dehydrated and hungry, but it went rather well and I still feel fine. There were no water stops so I thought I might have run faster than my last 10K, but I ended up around 55 minutes--still a good time for me. My Garmin's battery was dead so I don't have any specific data. I talked to hasher at the end of the race named Jack the Ripper. The timing didn't work out as far as going to a SF hash, so maybe next time. I was close to the Marina so I made it down to try to say hi again to B4I and was successful this time. I had a nice burger and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had the Packers/Vikings game on, and also had fans of both teams sitting at the bar. B4I was nice enough to call GF to come down and drink with me.

GF and I at bar
B4I at work

They make B4I wear a helmet at work so she doesn't hurt herself.

I then headed to Krissy Field on B4I's recommendation for a few minutes.

Golden Gate Bridge from Krissy Field
Alcatraz from Krissy Field

After that, I went out to eat with my dad and planned to check out some music but failed yet again. I had to get up shortly after 6 the next day so decided to be responsible and crap. Blah.

I enjoyed this short trip, and am now more determined to get up to SF whenever they send me to Santa Clara for work. It's much cooler than Silicon Valley.