After seeing my sister in San Diego, I spent four days in San Francisco with my friends Kaitlan and Jon. They live in an adorable neighborhood, in an adorable apartment with great neighbors. I started looking at apartments on craiglist my first night there. I kid you not. After a couple hours, I already knew San Fran was my city.

(bikes found on my walk from Dolores Park to Mission Dolores Church. I’m a big fan of all these colors.)

My first full day there, my friend Becka drove in from Sacramento and we spent the afternoon together. We had delicious open face sandwiches at Tartine Bakery, then wandered around toward downtown (so I could pick up some literature at the visitor’s center). As we were sitting by a fountain so I could thumb through my pamphlets, we noticed two teenagers acting odd. We stared awhile and finally realized they were doing drugs. I kept staring, and instead of annoying them, they actually asked me if I wanted to try some. Um, let me think about that. No. After we were propositioned for drugs (which were apparently the good stuff, they said, some name involving the word “purple”) We visited the Presidio, which used to be an army post and is now a forest/cemetery/neighborhood with great views of the city.

Kaitlan and Jon appreciate good food and wine, and every place they picked was delicious. We had Chinese at Eric’s, followed by ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe — the flavors were so outrageous I wasn’t sure what to think. I settled on Tahitian Vanilla and Balsamic Caramel. Let me tell you. They were amazing. I also tasted Peanut Butter Curry, which didn’t taste as crazy as I thought; the flavors were actually pretty complimentary.

Jon has a car, so I was able to ride, not walk, down Lombard Street (America’s crookedest street). And after surviving that, he drove us down the steepest street, which felt like you were at the top of a cliff because you couldn’t see anything over it. All this was marvelously handled with a stick shift, ladies and gentleman. That takes talent. A talent I most certainly do not possess (shout out to my Oregon minivan, which I miss. Hi minivan!)

I spent a lot of time just walking around exploring neighborhoods, falling in love with the styles of houses and variety of colors. My quads felt like they were on fire after dominating all those hills. Almost forgot what that wonderful pain felt like since I haven’t run in three months because of my stress fracture). I wandered down Hayes Street, and Haight Street and walked through Golden Gate Park. I strolled through the Mission and stopped by 826 Valencia, which was the most incredible store (that all Dave Eggars fans should visit. I unhappily waited in line for 45 minutes with annoying tourists in order to ride on a cable car.

(view from my cable car, before it lost electricity)

It was delightful, when my view wasn’t blocked by an overly affectionate pre-teen couple or giant dude. The electricity actually went out on my first car, so my ride was cut short.

Aftr Happy Hour on Friday, we grabbed drinks and appetizers at Jon and Kait’s neighborhood bar. The bartender made his signature drink for me, which just won a tequila contest. I’m not much of a tequila person, but the drink was surprisingly tasty. I felt quite special to have it made even though it wasn’t on the menu.

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Napa for my first ever wine tasting. The weather was gorgeous, so the Golden Gate Bridge was actually visible on our way out of the city.

(Kaitlan and me before heading to Napa)

Jon and Kait belong to a Vineyard (which means we could drink for free! Very important people!) And the vineyard just happened to have an event that day… but even though we didn’t have tickets, Kait and Jon are such likeable customers that one of the managers gave us free tickets, which was awesome because they were expensive. And dudes. It was insane. All the (delicious) wine you could drink. Lots of tasty appetizers (I tried lamb for the very first time). An ’80s cover band. Sunshine. I was so happy (and not just because I’d been drinking all day).

(St. Supery in Napa)

Before Kait and Jon dropped me off at the airport on Sunday (oh how nice it was to have friends with a car!), we went to The Butler and the Chef French Bistro for brunch, where I had the most scrumptious french toast. The food was one of the highlights of my visit. Everything I ate was like the most delicious food I’d ever tasted. The ice cream. The cheese. The croissants. The entire visit was like a big dose of happy food cheese wine architecture heaven. A life I could get used to.

Lots more San Francisco photos are up on Flickr.

A few things I learned from this experiment:
1) Maybe don’t prop the computer up on pillows, which will inevitably wobble
2) I am completely unaware of the facial expressions I’m making
3) For the love, stop saying “um” or “like” every 12 words
4) Look at the camera more
5) Have a little outline – just to know where I’m headed

If you’re wondering how it’s possible for me to swing this extended vacation, you can read my post about being laid off at This Ordinary Day.

sidenote: my trip to California was actually scheduled before Jet Blue’s promotion, so I want to give a shout out to G-Unit (aka my grandparents) who donated their miles for me to visit my sister.

I already had a vacation planned to San Diego and San Francisco, and now I’ll be able to see an old friend in Houston, return to Portland just because I love it, and meet up with another friend in Costa Rica (omg Costa Rica, I know). I probably have time for three other places, but I’m having trouble narrowing it down. Right now the rain forest in Puerto Rico is calling my name.

Pending internet access, I’ll be sharing stories and pictures from my all travels as they happen. Stay tuned. Things are about to get really exciting.