San Fran

In September (oops, meant to post this a while back) I flew to SF to visit my good friend Ashlee.  I don't remember many of the details from this trip, but posting something feels better than posting nothing.  I was there for a long weekend, and because she had school on Friday, I spent the day walking around Berkeley where she lives.  

I did some shopping (lots of awesome Buffalo Exchanges!) and walked to the UC Berkeley campus.  I went up into the Campanile, a 307 foot tower housing a full concert carillon.  There are 61 bells, the largest being over 5 tons.  5 tons!  The pictures don't do the size of them justice.  I'm not sure how they even got them up there.  Anyway the cool part is that students learn to play the carillon and do so several times per day.  They played not too long after I was up there, but I was tired and hungry and didn't want to wait.  I did listen while on campus and it sounded beautiful.

The largest bells.

I got lucky, it was an unusually clear day and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The tower from campus.

Day two we walked to the BART station, then went into the city.  This awesome market was on the way.  It had an impressive produce selection.  Potatoes - would you like pink, purple, yellow, white or red?

We started in the Mission to check out the graffiti/murals.  Check out that tooth brush with Ganesh!

Where we went from here exactly is kind of a blur, but I think next we ended up in the Castro?  And somewhere along the way found our way to this cement slide hidden in a neighborhood.  There is a woman who lives next door who frequently comes out to shoo away adults going down the slide.  I was at the top when she came out and didn't know she was there and screamed my way down.  Ah well.  It was surprisingly (scary) steep. 

I don't have many other photos from this day, but we had a fabulous time.  We walked for 10 hours, taking breaks to shop and eat whatever looked good along the way.  Ashlee loves to walk as much as I do, and walk we did.

Our last meal in the city ended up being in China Town.  In a Japanese restaurant.  The kind with the little boats floating by in a tiny lazy river.  We were exhausted by then, and everything was hilarious.  Including the tiny river and the mean Chinese women running the restaurant.

Curious as to if the river had a current, or if the boats were being pulled, Ashlee constructed this teeny paper boat to conduct an experiment.  We were laughing hysterically at our plan and had to wait for just the right time, as we were being watched and the women in the restaurant wouldn't think it was as funny as we did.  Verdict: Current.  And they overcharged us which we didn't figure out until we were a few blocks away.  China Town as a whole?  Not my favorite place.

We stumbled upon Sift.  That whoopie pie was to die for.  The salted caramel rice krispie treat was pretty good too.

Frosting shots?  

My last night we hiked up to a place I can't remember the name of to watch the sun set.  

It was gorgeous.  On the way to the airport we were going to swing by Novella Carpenter's vacant lot in Oakland, buuut we didn't do our research and the address we thought was her house was actually her publisher's address.  Next time...