San Francisco, home to sourdough bread, Ghiradelli chocolate, cable cars, hills, Alcatraz, hippies, LGBT love, Mission burritos, the Golden Gate bridge, and so much more!
As Jeremiah left off, we left Green Valley Village and headed down to the bay to be tourists for a while, waiting to hear about details of the job in Hawaii. We actually spent much of our time in the East and South bay areas as it was just too damn expensive to stay in the city. In total, we spent just over a week in the area but only two days in San Francisco. Even getting in and out, whether driving or taking public transit required a second mortgage and a Ph.D! We spent several nights in Vallejo, northeast of San Fran and close to Berkeley. Berkeley was amazing, but more on that in a bit. We also stayed several nights in Fremont, just southeast of the city and near San Jose, which I'll also talk a little about. Finally, we were able to stay a few nights in northern Oakland with some of our favorite couchsurfing hosts yet. More on that to come as well.
In the course of our week in the area, we visited Berkeley several times. Our first few visits we spent mostly on Telegraph Ave near the campus. We found some great vegan food.
For lunch one day we picked up some local sourdough bread, a salad from Maoz vegetarian, and some pomegranate walnut spread from the local Whole Foods and had a picnic lunch on the steps of one of the buildings on the Berkeley campus while we people watched.
As the school year wasn't quite back in full swing yet, there weren't too many people around but it was still a great way to spend some time. For dessert we hit Cream (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me) for a vegan ice cream sandwich – OMG!
As Telegraph is a main thoroughfare in Berkeley, there were a ton of street vendors set up on the sidewalk so we enjoyed a stroll, while we worked off the ice cream, and did some more people watching and checked out the cool things people were selling. We spent more time in Berkeley a few days later, during our visit with the couchsurfers in North Oakland, but I'll elaborate on that more in a few.
During our few visits into San Francisco, we tried to make the most of our time and see as much as we could. The first day we parked at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in the East Bay and paid about $8.50 each to get into the city. We arrived in the Mission District, famous for being the birthplace of Mission style burritos - delicious burritos wrapped in foil (think Chipotle). We proceeded to Papalote Mexican Grill and shared a soy chorizo burrito and a seitan mole burrito. We were stuffed when we left there! Nothing a walk up/down some San Francisco hills wouldn't cure!
After walking a bit we hopped on one of the streetcars that runs throughout the town ($2 each) and headed to Pier 39, one of the better known and very popular tourist traps in the city.
Once we arrived, we joined the throngs of tourists and took in the sights. Although it mostly consists of lots of shops, Pier 39 does allow visitors to get a great view of Alcatraz, the harbor, the Golden Gate (although it was shrouded in fog when we were there), and the sea lions! A huge colony of sea lions calls a group of platforms at Pier 39 their home. We spent 30-45 minutes just watching those guys. They would jump in and out of the water, argue with one another, crawl all over each other and bark like crazy. It was the ultimate in free entertainment!
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As close to Alcatraz as we could get. There was a wait of several weeks for tickets to go see it :(
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From Pier 39 we made our way to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, or so it's called. We arrived at the bottom of the street and took a few photos, vowing to come back the next day to drive down it! As it was starting to get cold at that point (did I mention how freakin cold it was in San Francisco!), we found our way back to the bus and eventually to BART and back to our van. Having worn shorts and t-shirts that day, we were freezing in the 50 degree weather and quickly grabbed more layers of clothing when we got back to our van
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| Watching a trolley turn around. Not shown: us freezing our asses off on the other side of the camera! |
The next day we chose to drive into the city. There is a $5 toll and parking can be a challenge, but we wanted to try it. We headed first to Chinatown. Holly and David from Santa Rosa had told us about Vital Tea so we had to find it and try the tea tasting. It was better than we could have hoped for. Uncle Gee, the owner of the place and a vibrant 80 year old Chinese man who doesn't look a day over 60 lead us in the tea tasting. He had a big personality and lots of humor, which made the tea tasting entertaining as well as informing. We got to try about 10 different Chinese teas prepared the traditional way and served in tiny cups. It was an experience we enjoyed a lot and we took some tea home with us.
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| Inside Vital Tea |
We next went looking for the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie company. Had we not heard about it online, we wouldn't have stumbled upon it, as it lies down an alley in the middle of Chinatown! We were glad we did find it though, as we got to watch the making of fortune cookies and taste a free sample.
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| The Chinese are such capitalists. Pay to take a photo? Ha, we no pay!! We steal photo! |
As we left Chinatown we decided to drive over to the Castro district. This area of San Francisco is famous for being the most openly gay area of any city, anywhere in the U.S. It was awesome!
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| Note the pride flag. The wires are for cable cars and electric buses. |
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| We thought this was an appropriate name for a restaurant in the Castro! |
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| Storefront in the Castro. 'nuff said. |
We took a stroll to check out the sights in the Castro, then headed to Haight and Ashbury. This intersection/neighborhood in San Francisco is known as the birthplace of the hippie movement in the 60s and still retains some of that charm. As it was later in the evening, some of the shops were closed, but we could still tell it was a cool area and we got to walk around and check it out for a bit.
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The most famous hippie intersection in the world.
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Then, we headed off to the Tenderloin district to catch a drag show. We couldn't leave such a gay friendly city without checking out a drag show! The tiny little bar we went to was Aunt Charlie's and, though not the best we'd ever seen, the drag show was fun and entertaining. That was about it for our time in San Francisco.
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| all dudes |
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| yep, that's a dude. |
We never did get a clear view of the Golden Gate bridge due to foggy weather and we didn't drive over it ($6 toll each way!) but we can always go back!
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| The best view we got of the Golden Gate. |
Our few days spent in Fremont were mostly biding time and getting paperwork and everything else ready for my pending job in Hawaii. If I never have to set foot in another FedEx office, I'll be a happy girl. The one cool thing we did check out while we were in the area was the Googleplex, corporate headquarters for Google, in Mountainview CA. Although they don't really allow visitors, we decided to drive around the campus and see the sights. What a fun looking place! It reminds you of a college campus more than a workplace. The preferred mode of transportation for those needing to get around campus were these cute little multicolored bicycles, which were readily available. We passed the headquarters for google maps, which was appropriately marked by a giant point marker you see on google maps. It was definitely a cool place.
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| The Google bicycles |
From there we headed to North Oakland to stay with a group of folks in Caravelle house, a co-housing of 8 people. Our host, Heather, was super welcoming and charming :) We jumped right in and cooked something to pitch in to their potluck that evening. Their house was a late 1800s, 8 bedroom house with a courtyard garden area, rainbarrels, 2 kitchens, several baths, and a great room surrounded by windows where members did yoga regularly. It was such an awesome place. As most of the house members were vegan, they knew some awesome places to eat. They were practically in Berkeley so our first stop was Cinnaholic. What a crazy place! 100% vegan, this shop specialized in cinnamon rolls. You would start with a basic plain roll and then choose your frosting and topping. OMG! I chose caramel frosting and pecans and Jeremiah got the “daily special” which was maple frosting and peanut butter. They were both awesome!
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| Proof that vegan does not always equal healthy. |
After all that sugar, we were nearly in a coma when we left, so we headed back to the house for a bit and then it was back out to get some groceries at Berkeley Bowl with a stop for a snack of vegan taquitos at Flacos. We got groceries to make pizza that night and then headed back to start cooking. Jeremiah and I together took on the task of cooking some vegan pizzas. We made a whole wheat dough, homemade marinara, and vegan parmesan. The pizza toppings were roasted garlic, sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms, tofu cashew ricotta, and fresh basil. We threw together a salad to go with the pizza and I must say everyone seemed to enjoy. We pay our couchsurfing hosts in food, what can we say!
The next day on our way out of town, Heather and Matthew invited us to lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant. We were intrigued, as Ethiopian food was all new to us! We ordered the vegetarian platter and it came out as a plate of these various beautiful bean and veggie dishes on a huge platter. On the side, we got injera, which is a rolled up flat bread that you use to scoop up the food and eat it. Finger food – I love it! The spices and seasonings made it some of the best food we'd eaten and the experience of eating with our hands and trying something new made it even better.
From there we traveled back to Santa Rosa for a repeat visit with Holly and David. These guys were so awesome! After staying with them the first time, they invited us to come back anytime. When we contacted them and explained our situation and our need to have a place to organize our belongings and sort/pack/ship things, they welcomed us with open arms. We practically invaded their garage and it was a godsend! I am 100% sure we wouldn't have gotten it all done without being able to stay at their place and do what we needed to do. What an awesome couple! After a frantic weekend of cleaning the van, sorting our things, and packing them up, we ended up with a huge donation pile, a box going to Nashville, a box going to Virginia, and three boxes going to Hawaii. We had 3 suitcases, 2 backpacks, and our laptop to take on the plane and a big box of bulk foods to give to the Caravelle crew in Oakland. After dropping our van at the port on Monday, those awesome Oakland folks let us stay our last night with them.
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| Boxes of stuff headed to Hawaii, Richmond and Nashville |
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| Our van at the port of Oakland waiting to be loaded onto the container ship |
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| The Matson ship being loaded with containers. Not sure if our van will ride on this one or the next one. |
W
e were up early in the morning August 16, 2011 and got to the airport and on the plane with plenty of time to spare. We bid goodbye to the mainland, for now. The staffing agency that hired me has covered our car and boxes being shipped, my plane ticket, and the first 5 days of hotel and car in Kona. I get an hourly salary plus a per diem pay, which is a daily amount that I'll get every day from August 22ndto May 27th, whether I'm working or not, to cover housing expenses, etc. That's quite a package and it's the reason we couldn't turn this opportunity down. It takes us a bit off of our path of finding community, but I believe in the universe sending us in certain directions. Maybe what we are looking for will be found in Hawaii or maybe it's a stopping point for us to have some awesome experiences for now. We will continue to blog about our adventures and experiences so that everyone can continue to follow our journey. ALOHA!!!
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