Sightseeing In San Francisco

Hey guys,

I've been up to a lot since I last wrote. It's been a busy few days, and we packed a lot of sightseeing and activities in. I'm finding it a little difficult to keep track of it all - at the end of the day I can't remember what we did in the morning, or if we went to a certain landmark that day or the day before. Everything is sort of blurring together. If I didn't always have either my camera or my phone with me to take photos, I don't think I'd be able to work out what I've done and when. I'm generally exhausted, but I'm enjoying myself. I've stopped actively counting American flags now because I've surpassed 100. They're everywhere. Here is a picture to prove it.

MESSAGE TO MUM
Remember when we were packing, and we waited until the night before I left to pack, and both you and Dad helped me, and we had a list and everything? Yeah, I left my pajamas at home. I've been sleeping in my new pair of trackies and some old shirts. And that onesie you bought me for this trip, which is actually surprisingly warm, although, like almost everything, it's a bit too big on me.

FOOD AND SUCH
I miss home cooked meals! I honestly don't remember the last one I had, it must have been one that Mum made before I left. We eat out and buy takeaway food all the time, it's just so cheap and easy and we've been out  most nights anyway, but I'm over it already. And I'm not one to restrict myself to eating healthy food. The food we get isn't really unhealthy - we've had Indian, all sorts of Asian food. We did have soup for lunch the other day, that was nice. The pizza wasn't healthy, I'll admit it, and I may have eaten a bag of chips for dinner the other night. Oh, and maybe this nachos wasn't super healthy.

But I miss salads, and vegetables. I had an apple almost the size of my face for lunch yesterday, it was enormous, and I bought a bag of grapes. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I think it's time I hit Mum up and ask for some recipes. Spaghetti and meatballs might be the way to go.
I discovered that Americans don't have slices. I told Allison I felt like lemon slice, and she didn't understand what I meant by 'slice'. What? How? So I gathered ingredients and made her a lemon slice, and forced her, her best friend Janine (who I get along with so well and is hilarious), and her mum Patty to eat it and they all liked it. Success. I've managed to introduce yet another form of unhealthy food to America.
Also, almost all of their cereal has enough sugar in it to potentially kill you. But that's enough about food.

SIGHTSEEING (Shaming Allison by being blatantly touristy)

In the last few days, we've tackled most of the main tourist attractions that San Francisco has to offer, the traditional ones that you think of when you picture S.F, but we've also gone a whole bunch of places I'd never heard of or considered going to. Which is actually pretty bad because my best friend lived here for an entire year, and I've been friends with Allison for six months and she lives here. Obviously. So here's a rundown of stuff we've been up to:

We've cruised around Pacific Heights, which is basically where most of the rich people live. The houses were enormous and beautiful and a whole bunch had fancy little driveways with scary looking steel gates and fences. The view was great because being the rich people, they live on the top of a huge hill, presumably to look down upon the poorer peasants below.

This wasn't even taken from the top of the hill. This was taken where the less rich rich people lived. I just want you to have a feel for how steep the hills are here.

We ventured over to the Palace of Fine Arts, which is a gorgeous structure with huge, impressive columns, and a massive lake, and this family of swans that were adorable and somewhat hostile.

 The original was built in the 1910's to host the Panama Pacific International Exposition, which was this huge world's fair to honour the completion of the Panama Canal, and to showcase objects and artworks from all around the world, and they rebuilt it into the permanent structure it is today. It's just really pretty.

Of course, we went to THE landmark that everyone visits in S.F - The Golden Gate Bridge.

It was a little bit surreal to be standing there, actually looking at it in person. It really is an impressive structure, and beautiful, like most things over here. I actually love that we couldn't see the top of the bridge because of the fog, it represents San Francisco in an honest way. The weather here can be sunny and beautiful like people imagine Californian weather to be, but the fog is ridiculous, sneaky, and really picky on what areas it covers. Some days it can be so thick you can't even see the end of the driveway.

Another place we explored was China Town, which was a lot like Melbourne's but heaps more crowded. It has the highest population density in the city, and the streets felt more narrow somehow. It was pretty cool though, and everything was a lot cheaper than the tourist areas which was an added bonus.

We walked through China Town right into the North Beach Festival, North Beach being an Italian district. There was music, and people swing dancing in the streets, heaps of ridiculously unhealthy food (I ate a funnel cake for lunch which is basically deep fried donut batter covered in icing sugar and shaped like a big tangley squiggle), and heaps of stalls.

It doesn't really count as a tourist attraction because it's only on once a year and it wasn't really that big, but it was still cool. I met a lovely man who was a candle maker from Texas, we had a great chat about Melbourne.

We moved on from there up a hill that literally had steps built into the sidewalk because it was so steep, and made it to Coit Tower, which is this majestic building here that is an important aspect of the San Francisco skyline. Inside are all these murals painted by various artists.

 We went down to Pier 39 (which Allison hated because of the tourists).

There were heaps of people, and we were getting sunburnt even though it was only about 21 degrees and incredibly windy. Most of the shops sold tacky souvenir crap at stupid prices, as you'd expect. My favourite part was when we were on a platform looking over the ocean, and there was a huge crowd of people all cheering and yelling. We rushed over to see what they were all looking at, and there were these two sea lions fighting over on the piers, and the crowd were picking their favourites and cheering on the one that kept pushing the other one into the water. It was hilarious. None of the other sea lions cared in the slightest.

The last place we went that I should mention is Fisherman's Wharf, of course, classic tourist destination. We got to visit Musee Mecanique, which is this super cool penny arcade made almost entirely of super old mechanical attractions. You put in a quarter and watch a bunch of puppets dance, or see a puppet execution, or watch a mechanical horse run, or have a piano play itself. It was really fun, I wanted to try everything but there's something like 300 machines in the collection. Just like in The Princess Diaries, I took on the mechanical arm wrestler.

That thing is strong! I blatantly cheated, used two hands, and it was on the weakest setting. Maybe I just suck at arm wrestling. I'm gonna go with that.

We also went on a submarine, which was tiny and narrow and Allison insisted on pressing all the buttons she could, which made me very anxious.

After that we wandered around the wharf, went past a bakery that makes sourdough animals like bears and crocodiles. I'll need to go back to explore it further, there was a wax museum that I want to check out.

ODD OBSERVATIONS - STORES

They have entire stores here that are devoted to selling magnets and keychains. Not just one store, mind you - at least five. And they are decent sized stores too. That just struck me as odd, but I guess it is a pretty large tourist destination. I also found a pretty large store that only sold socks, in hundreds of different patterns. They even had superhero socks with capes on the backs of them.

THINGS THAT WERE A LITTLE BIT DISAPPOINTING BUT OVERALL DEFINITELY FOR THE BEST

1. The Earthquake Of Doom And Terror.
Yeah, there was an earthquake. We're right on the San Andres Fault, what do you expect? It was bound to happen. I briefly entertained the thought of a quake happening while I was here, but I imagined it to be scary or impressive. In reality, the house shook for a few seconds, and I thought it might have been an earthquake, but Allison showed no response so I figured it was the garage door opening or something. But then when Janine came over later, she checked the news and it was a legit earthquake. 2.3 on the Richter Scale. I honestly think we've had bigger ones in KooWeeRup.
I mean, it's good that it was only a small one and nothing was damaged and nobody was hurt, especially since when a huge one happens it causes massive devastation, like the one in 1906 that set most of San Francisco on fire and left thousands of people homeless. But a bigger one would have been exciting. And really, it's all about entertainment value for me, not the safety of an entire city.

2. The Distinct Lack Of Mountain Lion Sightings.
Okay, this one is actually very fortunate, because people have been attacked by mountain lions about five minutes away from where I'm currently staying, and there was even a sighting at a nearby school a few years ago, so in reality I don't want to ever run into a mountain lion because it would most definitely attack, kill, and possibly eat me.
But we went on a hike today, and there were warning signs about cougars telling you to try to look big if you see one and report any sightings immediately, and even though I knew that if we did happen across a lion I'd probably scream or die or faint or be horribly attacked, a tiny part of me was hoping we'd see one. From a distance, where it couldn't see us, with plenty of space and time to get away from it.

That's about it. Yes, I realise this post was even longer than the last one. And I left out so much stuff, like going to Christian Science Sunday School, which I could write an entire separate post about, and Black Watch, this play we saw that was critically acclaimed and got a standing ovation and raised so many points about the war in Iraq as shown from a Scottish point of view. I'm going to Alcatraz tomorrow night, and Allison is giving me a personal tour because she works there, so that'll be brilliant, I'm really looking forward to that. I leave you with this majestic photo. 'Merica.

Hope everyone is fine back home, miss you lots and love you all,
Bridie xx

Settling In - The Mostly Boring Stuff

Hey guys!

So, I'm actually finally here, for real. Even just saying that is such a big deal for me. You should know how much I've been looking forward to this trip, I've been planning it for over a year. May have laugh-cried when the plane got close enough to the coast to actually see California for the first time, but then again I had just spent 17 hours on two planes with only two hours sleep to balance out my emotions, so it's okay.

But I'm jumping ahead. First I need to list off answers to some basic Mum questions that I know she's probably going to ask me. Feel free to skip them.

Mum Question 1: How are you?
Well I'm actually sick right now with some sort of cold that's quickly morphing into an annoying cough but I should be fine by the end of the week. I had a coughing fit at 2am that I was so scared would wake up Allison or Patty but I think we're okay. Hooray for sharing germs on planes.

Mum Question 2: How was the flight?
The flight was fine, not much turbulence. The tv in the back of my headrest was broken for the flight to NZ but that was only three hours so I just read a Jodi Picoult book the whole time. I got two hours sleep on the long flight from NZ to S.F, I read, wrote, watched Warm Bodies and Beautiful Creatures. My flight from NZ got delayed by an hour because something was wrong with the hydraulics, but it was fine. Yes I walked around, no my feet didn't swell, yes the food was actually really nice, and the two Kiwi fifty-something women I sat next to were lovely. I had the window seat.

Mum Question 3: Are you jet lagged?
Yeah I actually was for the first four days but I'm feeling a lot better today. Like, I woke up at 10 today (which isn't ideal but just go with it) and I actually felt like I was meant to be awake, which is a huge improvement seeing as for the past four days I've been tired and moody until around 4pm.

Mum Question 4: Are you aware that the dog actually loves me more now that you're gone?
There is no way Luke loves me more than you, I show him more love than any of you. Allison has a dog called Vince but he's no Lukey Loo. That whole thing rhymed and it was completely unintentional.

THINGS I HAVE SEEN THUS FAR

1. Airport Weirdos: At Auckland Airport I saw a Chinese businessman spit directly and purposely into the carpet and then rub it in with his shoe. Locked eyes with a stranger and we shared expressions of disgust. At that same terminal I also saw a forty-something year old man proudly wearing a Nickelback shirt. Same level of disgust.

2. 46 (and counting) American Flags: This number isn't accurate because I'm sure I've counted several of them twice and maybe even three times,  but even so, there are flags all over the place. It probably isn't fair that 4th of July is coming up and Americans in general are feeling extra patriotic, but still. So many flags.

3. Squirrels, deer, a bear, and a bald eagle: Allison's house is on a really steep hill that makes my ears pop every time we drive down it, and they have these deer that just chill in the streets and sleep in people's yards and it's the coolest ever! Especially since there are two baby deer with spots on their backs still. I'm yet to take a photo of them.

Down to the right of the beach closest to Allison's house there is a quarry, and there are a heap of largish rocks that line the shore front and litter the ground up the cliff next to the quarry, and a family of squirrels live in them. I didn't know they lived near oceans so that was a bit of a surprise to me but they are really cute and kinda tame, I saw them on my second day here.
The bear and the eagle don't really count because I saw them at San Francisco Zoo, but still, I felt very American seeing them.

4. Some sort of police chase: Okay I more heard the sirens and saw one police car screeching around a corner, but still, it's police in America so at least one person had a gun and that's exciting.

THINGS I'VE GONE AND DONE AND STUFF

Allison, being the majorly prepared, super enthusiastic person that she is, has got a rough plan set up for every single day I'm here, whether that includes things she's already bought tickets for, or places she wants to take me, or me just wandering around the city by myself while she goes to poetry workshops. I've messed with this schedule a fair bit already because I've been sulking around feeling sick and tired for the first half of most days until the jet lag wears off, but we've still packed a fair few things in.

Day One: Arrived at Allison's to discover she'd organised for one of her friends to lend me their acoustic righty guitar because she knows how much I love to play and she only has a lefty. That was awesome, I've played it every single day so far. It was really sweet and she didn't have to do it but I appreciate it a lot.
We went to a Safeway and I browsed the odd American foods. Most of the cereals are like, 80% sugar. I've been eating Honey Nut Cheerios. Their lollies come in fairly large bags, they have a hell of a lot of cleaning products, and their produce is gross. Not just like the customer complaints we get at Woolies where an apple or a carrot has a slight discolouring on it so they demand a refund because they can't deal with a tiny speck - actual grossness. They are treated with so many chemicals that Allison said she didn't even know what a real carrot or real celery tasted like until she was a teen and went to a farmer's market. That's ridiculous.
We went out for Indian food for tea. I had tikka masala and it was delicious, so good, and it was so cheap, I wish eating out was that cheap back home.

Day Two: Explored Pacifica, which is where Allison lives. It's very hilly (like everywhere else I've been so far) but don't take that term lightly - these are real extreme hills, so steep. I doubt I could walk up Allison's driveway, and I bet Kelly's car couldn't make it up the slope.
We went to the beach and the quarry, saw the squirrels and the deer. The weather was gorgeous if a bit windy, and I managed to get sunburnt even though it was only 20 degrees. Saw some poison ivy on our walks around the cliffs and along the beach, know to stay away from it. The sand on the beach is black, supposedly because it has a high iron content. It's also covered in pebbles and pretty rocks. We looked through some rock pools and found these cool sea stars and purple crabs and hermit crabs.

I met a couple of Allison's friends and we went to this end of year picnic thing for their middle school, and that was really nice, just sitting in the sun and chatting. We made daisy chains. Then we went to a chai shop and I had a delicious banana smoothie.
Probably the best part was when we drove down to Janine's Grandad's house to sneak through his backyard and walk along the cliff. The view in itself was gorgeous, but the funny bit was we found out that Janine's Grandfather fought in WWII... for the other side. So he was a Nazi. She has no real proof apart from the facts that he's really racist, is a German, lived in Germany during WWII and fought in WWII. It just adds up that he wasn't fighting on behalf of the Allies, and it's a little bit hilarious.

Day Three: I was getting progressively sicker so we stayed inside and watched about six episodes of The Gilmore Girls (no complaints here) for most of the day. When I managed to summon up some energy we went to Safeway and got some cold and flu tablets for me, and some throat lollies. Turns out you need to have ID even to get that here, which I thought was weird. We went into San Francisco proper to this cool tea shop that played classical music and was quaint. I had cinnamon/orange tea that was really nice, and we had scones with it.
After that we cruised around S.F. The buildings are gorgeous, I love all the colours. It was really picturesque. We went down to Allison's friend Austin's place and ended up staying for tea, even though we refused to eat anything. His family are so lovely. His Mum is Australian and still sort of has her accent. It was really nice to just sit and chat. Austin works at the Zoo so he gave us a badge that could sort of sneakily get us free entrance to it the next day.

Day Four: I was in such a bad mood for most of the day, I was sick and exhausted and moody. We went to the San Francisco Zoo and it was really good, there was a tiger cub that was playing with it's mother's tail, and two grizzly bears that came right up to the glass of their enclosure.
That night we went to Queeriosity in Downtown S.F, which is a division of the Youth Speaks poetry slam events where youths perform their own spoken word poetry based around sexuality. Queeriosity isn't judged though, I think because of the sensitive nature of the theme. It was soooo good, I really loved it. Some of the pieces were so beautiful and I think all the poets are really brave to get up there and speak so openly about their lives and experiences. The featured poets were awesome, it was just really impressive. I wish we could go to a Youth Speaks event that Allison would perform at, but I don't think I'll get to see her do it on this trip. For the record, here is the first poem of hers I heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBKShms4LcI

That's about it so far. Tonight we're going to a mystery event that Allison has been keeping a secret for ages because she loves to torture me.Sorry this post is so long, the other ones will be smaller I promise.
Much love and I miss you all,
Bridie xxx