Trip to San Francisco

So a few weeks ago my girlfriend and I were in San Francisco and I never got around to writing about it so here is a brief wrap-up.

North Beach
By far the most fun neighborhood in San Fran. Tons of great little bars serving Irish Coffees and Cocktails, and miles of Italian restaurants. On the weekends Columbus ave. is packed with people and everyone is having a Grand Old time. For a short while I was one of those people. Now I'm a poor bastard sitting behind a desk typing away on a computer.

Alcatraz
Amazing. Definitely a must see. Alcatraz was a jail. According to our tour guide, a jail is this place where people are forced to go when they do bad things that make other people sad. I found that to be very interesting.

Chinatown
Every guide book I came across said whatever you do in San Francisco you have to make sure you check out the "Chinese Market" on Stockton ave. And they were so right. There is nothing more exciting than watching Chinese people buy groceries. I'd spend a few minutes watching an old chinese man inspecting a tomato, and then I'd turn my head and watch a young asian women trying to decide between 3 different types of squash. I mean it was so exciting. It was kind of like when I go grocery shopping, only these people were chinese. I think they should start doing tours of Jewel Grocery store by my apartment. I could totally see people coming from around the country to view me buying frozen pizzas and searching for the cheapest case of beer.

Haight/Ashbury
This was the famous "ground zero" for the summer of love. We took a cab to the intersection of Haight & Ashbury expecting to see all kinds of music memorabilia, or like a monument or something. But instead what do we find at this world famous intersection? A GAP, and a Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!?! We thought we'd at least see a few hippies, but all we got were girls in khakis gorging themselves with Ice cream. Yikes!

Fisherman's Wharf
Its kind of like Navy Pier in Chicago. Tacky, Sterile, a god forsaken tourist trap. The only difference is that they have sea lions. Sea Lions are sweet.

Muir Woods
Big trees. We saw them. They were huge. seriously. for real. not for fake.

Wine Country: Sonoma County
Nothing like going on your first wine tour. You go into these little private vineyards and try all these high class wines with a bunch of snooty people. When I saw Sideways, I thought wine connoisseurs were these real hip, cool people. Then I actually saw some jackass sniffing his glass of wine and then says to the bartender, "I think I smell a hint almond, with the smallest pinch of cinnamon." I have changed my mind.

Then there is this other phenomenon where people spill out perfectly good wine into a spill bucket after they have tasted it. I thought to myself, man that just doesn't seem right, wasting good wine like that. So vineyard after vineyard, I drank every last drop of wine we tasted.

Two hours later I was wasted. But not only was I wasted but since I drank like 80 different types of wine in a short period of time, I was also sick. Turns out I too am a jackass.

Bad Neighborhoods
At one point during the trip I talked my girlfriend into walking instead of taking a cab. The only problem was I didn't know where I was going. Next thing I know we are in one of the worst neighborhoods in San Francisco. You know, with a currency exhange and a liquor store on every corner, people openly dealing drugs and carrying concealed weapons? As soon as we realized this we grew very concerned as it wasn't the place for pasty white yuppies to be strolling through. And as we started "power walking" out of the neigborhood, a kind african american man carrying a bat yells out, "that be a fine ass woman" as my girlfriend walks past him.

And yes he was right, but maybe we should have taken a cab.

San Francisco was a good time.