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Adam's place is one of these town
houses across the wire hung street |
In the evening of day 87 I went to SFO and picked up Noah, one of Adam's best friends who I'd met before when he visited Taiwan a few years ago and stayed with Adam and I. I've always enjoyed the small segments of this trip where I've been able to travel with someone else and this trip to SF was no different. Together, we found Adam's apartment without a hitch and it was at that point when I realized how valuable space was in this city. First, I parallel parked in a space so tight that it required over ten full turns of the steering wheel and left me with less than six inches on each side. Then, it was up to Adam's studio apartment, which is located right across the street from Golden Gate Park. We caught up over a few beers in the tiny dwelling before laying down for bed like randomly fallen Tetris pieces.
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It really looks like China or Taiwan!!
The green tea store on the right really
is a Taiwanese chain. |
The next morning Adam had to work so Noah and I scratched our heads and wondered what to do in such a big, diverse city. It was a no brainer actually, Alcatraz, a strangely intriguing must stop tourist destination. First, we headed down to Chinatown to kill some time and meet Adam for lunch (he works in the area). It was one of the most developed and Chinese Chinatowns I've ever been to so I thought it was a good chance to practice my rusting Mandarin. I'd been craving one food in particular from Taiwan; chicken rice. It's a simple but delicious dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with stewed and shredded chicken and light gravy. I started asking around and quickly realized two things, 1) a lot of people didn't speak Mandarin, and 2) even if they'd never heard of chicken rice, they'd tell you they had it. After failing miserably at a few restaurants, I made one last effort at a Taiwanese tea shop called Ten Ren's. I know Taiwanese like to hire other Taiwanese so at least they should know what chicken rice was and where to find it, right? Wrong! They were mainland Chinese and had never tried the very Taiwanese dish I was craving.
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The Francis Coppola
building where many
famous films were written |
By then it was time to meet Adam at his office. He works at a new start up company called Pogoplug which makes a device to allows users to access their hard drives and share data with most of their external media devices. The old brick building turned modern office space was airy and comfortable and even had an exercise area where palates courses are offered to all employees. After seeing the office and feeling the atmosphere, I could better understand Adam's dedication to his job.
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This lady is making a
fortune...cookie |
Before heading to lunch Adam took us to one of the most visited tourist spots in Chinatown; the place where fortune cookies were invented. It was a small little factory shop, similar to places I've seen in Asia. Inside, a few people poured and folded cookies around an old, clanking cookie press. Another, had the sometimes divine job of placing fortunes inside each cookie. It cost 50 cents to take a picture inside, which I agreed to under the condition that one of the cookie ladies smile for me.
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and it was the first time I'd had Chinese food since I'd been back from Taiwan. It was sort of like eating western food in Taiwan where you pay too much and the quality is never as good as when you're back home. After lunch Noah and I headed over to catch a boat to Alcatraz, the infamous island penitentiary.
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| 'The Rock' from the Alcatraz ferry |
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| An Alcatraz cell |
Despite the cold rainy weather, we took our seats on the top of the ferry to ensure the best view. We met a Canadian girl who was traveling alone for the time being and teamed up with her for the remainder of the day. Since its closure more than 40 years ago, Alcatraz Island has been absorbed into the National Parks system as an historic site. There were quite a few people there, as I expect there is everyday, and the complex was well maintained to facilitate the high volume of visitors. The best thing they did to keep the flow of visitors from jamming up or being confined to certain tour times, was to offer audio guided personal tours. When we were ready, we each got a headset and audio device that allowed us to start and stop the tour at our own leisure. If not for the throngs of people wandering all around, I imagine the vibe of the complex would be much creepier. It was my first and hopefully last time in any sort of a prison and without the psychotic convict personalities present, it didn't seem as inhumane as I'd expected. The facility certainly did have an institutional coldness to it, and throughout the audio tour, excerpts of prisoner testimonies painted pictures of life's daily struggles.
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| A cold place to do time |
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A holiday party bumping on second
floor corner apartment |
It was an interesting crowd at the party, or at least one that I hadn't encountered yet on this trip. Without any empirical evidence to back this up, I'd say that most of the folks at the party were 20 something, came from affluent families, went to good schools and had found pretty well paying jobs. Most were pretty friendly despite carrying that snooty urbane ego common in proud cities.
I got back to Adam's place late and alone to find it empty. Noah forgot how to get home and got lost in the rainy city until nearly morning and Adam came back from his girlfriend Nirene's house around 7 because he had to go into work on Saturday morning.
Noah and I were pretty beat and so we toured the city uneventfully through the neighborhood of Japan Town. However, the aimless nature of our stroll soon took its toll on our legs and just as we decided to look for a place to sit down, we rounded the corner and found a movie theater. I'd only seen one movie on this trip and with the rain spitting down like it was, it was a perfect day for it. We saw Tron in 3D and although Jeff Bridges is one of my favorite actors, the story didn't really captivate me.
When we got back to Adam's place, he was back from work and gave us a quick tour of the part of Golden Gate park that is right across from his apartment. It's a really nice park and I liked how the M.H. de Young and California science museums were integrated right into the park. The rain never really let up and Adam had to run off for a family diner so Noah and I chilled for a bit before going out to meet Adam's family and girlfriend for a drink.
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Nirene, Adam, Noah and I at 21st
Amendment. |
It was cool to meet Adam's family for the first time and they were really nice, as was his girlfriend. After we finished our drinks, his mom, step dad, sister and her fiance, went home and Adam, Nirene, Noah and I went out to a brewery that someone from Stone Brewery recommended called 21st Amendment.
The next morning came with high hope of getting some surf. Adam wanted to give us a tour of some of favorite places around the bay so we packed up the boards and wetsuits and headed out. On our way over to Ocean Beach, we stopped at some cool boutique clothing shops and some local surf shops. Ocean Beach is a long stretch of beach just south of the bay. On the day we were there, the wind was blowing out the waves and it looked like a mess.
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| Fort Point, S.F. |
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| Crowded take offs are always a turn off |
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We circled through the city and checked out Fort Point, a wave that breaks off a point just under the Golden Gate Bridge. It's amazing how the swell can sneak that far into the bay and wrap around the point to produce a fat left-hander, and judging by the number of folks in the water, that's nothing new. There were at least 25 heads in the water and although I had really wanted to surf with Adam, we decided to give it a miss. Some of the drop-ins looked downright dangerous as three or four peopled would paddled for the same wave within a couple of feet of each other.
We continued along the bay to Dead Man's Point, a "secret" spot clouded in a reputation of localism. It was another left-hand point, more exposed to the swell than Fort Point, and also better shape and longer ride. We watched a bit from China Beach and saw some guys getting nice rides, but the consistency seemed to fade as the swell continued to rise. That's the thing about those two points, they only work on low tide. We decided to get some food instead, which left me feeling a bit unaccomplished. I had really wanted to surf with Adam, the guy I learned to surf with, but the stoke and vibe of moment was far different than it had been in Taiwan.
We prepared dinner at Adam's place over a good supply of beer and everything was delicious. There was a lunar eclipse that night and the clouded parted just enough to allow us to view the show. I went to bed hell bent on surfing and with great anticipation for what the Pacific could serve up.
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| Fort Point on a sunny day |
I'd been watching a swell approaching the area that was due to hit on Monday. The wave charts were reading 17ft+ which, despite Adam's more realistic outlook, I had been refusing to believe was really too big for any chance of good waves in the area. Nevertheless, I borrowed Adam's 6'10" board and headed out with Noah to see what the ocean looked like under these conditions. I thought the crowd would be much less on a weekday morning at Fort Point and indeed it was. In fact, no one was out because the place was nearly flat; it was high tide.
With little optimism, we drove over to Ocean Beach, stopping at a few minor beaches along the way. Ocean beach was completely out of the question. There were huge sets breaking hundreds of yards out, but to reach them you'd have to be superman. Damn, my chances of surfing SF were running out.
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| SF from Twin Peaks |
Noah and I made the best of a day around the city by having lunch at a very thoughtful vegan Mexican restaurant. San Francisco must be one of the best food towns in the country and the establishments are not at all short on diversity or creativity.
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| So much to see! |
After lunch we took a random detour up to Twin Peaks. They are the highest points in San Fransisco's steep hilly topography and provide great views of the city. We enjoyed the scenery and people watching (it's a touristy and date place) and by that time, we were ready to head back to Adam's place to pack and rest a bit.
Noah had a late night flight and Adam was pretty busy with work so after he was packed, Noah and I headed across Golden Gate Park to a cozy pub. It had a local feel to it, and was a great place to stretch out your legs on some really vintage furniture to enjoy a beer and sports game. When I went to pay for dinner (Noah got the beers) neither my credit card or my debit card worked. This was a big problem since I had a limited supply of cash and lot of mile yet to go. Of course I straightened things out by having them extend my credit for 5 more days on the card (it wasn't expired but they had sent me a new one that I hadn't started in the required time). Thankfully, out of great generosity, Noah picked up the tab for food and beer that night.
It was another quiet night. Adam and I talked until late like we often did as roommates in Taiwan and the next morning, I packed up and continued north. Thanks Adam and Noah for the great time in San Francisco!
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