Lots of sights to be seen

I used this weekend to do a lot of sight seeing around SF. Since Memorial Day is often filled with road trips outside of the city to see new things, I figured the roads would be congested and I didn't want to deal with traffic. Besides, I don't have a car. So, I used Sunday and Monday to walk the city, take pictures, try new things, and explore. Below is my account of what happened, along with pictures, for your enjoyment:

Friday Night, May 25
I saw Pirates of the Carribean. I suggest not paying the $10 to see it in the theatres and waiting until it comes out on video. If, however, you must see it in the theatre, do wait the extra 20 minutes until after the credits roll. It's SO worth it. Check out the website for Pirates though - You can "piratize" yourself. Anyway, see it at your own risk. :)

Saturday, May 26
I spent most of the day hanging around the house. I did a little bit of cleaning, but not much. Really, I wanted to shake this cold that I had and thought bumming around the house would be a good way to do it. I think I ate a Farolito Borrito though, which was mighty tasty. Carne Asada wrapped with rice and beans in a fresh flour tortilla. I'm making my mouth water right now just thinking about it. The best part is it's only $4.20. So cheap and so good good.

Sunday, May 27
I woke up early and heard a lot of rumbling outside of my apartment in the Mission. The rumbling then turned into music - really loud music. I was thinking "Geez, that neighbor really likes to blare his Mexican Music at the loudest volume possible. I wonder if I should say something, it's really getting on my nerves." I looked outside and it turns out the music was the Carnaval San Francisco Parade! Ooops. How funny though.

I went out to see what was going on and I took a lot of pictures of the different costumes that people had on, etc. I really don't get the idea of parades in general, but it was fun to have that many people hanging around right outside my door. Neat. I talked to my friend Chris from Georgia Tech and my friend Brad from Google, and we decided to meet up at the Parade/Festival around 1pm.

Brad came by my house on his way, and we met up with Chris a little later. After we had all grown tired of the parade and festival, we went to a bar in the Mission with some friends of Brad. We got one drink, and some of us got some free food. They were doing a fairly large BBQ out back (which I think they do every Sunday...I'll have to check into that). Anyway, I hear the food was good.

After that, we walked for a bit to find some coffee and stumbled across Tartine, which is supposedly SF's best bakery. I guess other people had heard the same thing as we waited almost 20 minutes to order in a line out the door. The girl in front of me told me that it was a good day - not many people were there. Man this place is popular. It's so true - this is the best bakery I've ever been to. I had the chocolate pudding, and it was fabulous. The best thing that I tried, hands down, was the banana creme tart. I can't even describe it, just order it for yourself. You will know what I mean when you do. Include a friend on that order, it will easily fill two.

After Tartine, we decided to find this rope swing that I had hear talk of. We googled it, of course, and determined that it was on Billy Goat Hill, about a mile from where we stood. "Let's walk." When we got up there, there was a ratty swing that looked like it was hanging from a board that had once been securely fastened to the branch but had since been used by a 500 pound man. It was frayed and the parts which were supposed to be connected to the branch were not secure. This, we thought, was AWESOME!


Afer the rope swing view, we wanted the view from Twin Peaks. Even though we knew we were in for quite a hike, we decided to go for it. It was so cold up on top of those peaks, and the wind was probably like 40 mph it was so strong. The view was so nice, check out the pictures. It was about 8 when we came down from the top, so we all grabbed a burrito at La Taqueria and came back to my place for good food, nerdy conversation, and some ok beer.

Monday, May 28
I woke up late (around 10 or so), called Brad, and we decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf for the afternoon. He came by around noon, and we took the BART and a bus to Pier 34. We walked from there through Fisherman's Wharf to Ghirardelli Square. It was such a nice day and all the tourists were out. It was fabulous!

And, omg, we had sundaes in Ghirardelli Square that were to die for: vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate hot fudge, and whipped cream. It's so worth the $7 we paid for it.


After we walked around being tourists for a while, we hopped a few buses to the Haight to go to Amoeba Records. This place was huge; so big I didn't know what to do, so I followed Brad around for a while. :) Seriously though, they would have any album you would ever want - except Michael Henderson's 'Slingshot' which they should be stocking up on. I don't blame them though...


Anyway, we were tired after a long day of walking around, so we decided to go home. We took a bus to 24th, Brad got dinner and I walked home. What a great weekend!