San Fran
San Fran...
I left Sydney on the 29th of Aug, i bored a united airlines flight. I was lucky enough to get a seat next to me free for the trip across. I stayed awake most of the trip watching a variety of movies, the only one I remember being the proposal... it was average. I had no problems with the flight, and it was comfortable for the most part.
I Arrived on Saturday at around 1040am, 20 mins ahead schedule, got my bags and went to find Dave and Bill, my hosts for the stay in San Fran. I found them waiting for me at the arrivals area; after a brief hug and introductions we headed to the car. I was pretty tired; but excited to be there.
We decided to grab some food before heading back to the house, so we headed to the local in & out Burger. Everyone has been telling me to go there and try their burgers... so I had a double double, fries and soda. It was good... not the best burger, but good.
After eating, we headed back to the house and I settled in, and had a bit of a nap. After getting up, I gave Dennis, my Boss from Sydney a call - he was on the last leg of his holiday, and I said id try and catch up with him that day. He answered and we arranged to have a drink in the Castro - as that’s the only part of San Fran he hasn’t been to yet.
I and Dave headed to the Castro via the train that turns into a tram (kinda cool train that) and we wandered around for abit. I saw were Harvey milk use to live and took all sorts of photos of the 'gay area' I was kind of under whelmed by the Castro - I thought it would be bigger than it was...
I saw the famous Bear Bucks - and it is true what they say - all the bears do go there for coffee... really! It was packed... every time i went there over the next 4 days it was allways packed with bears.
Dennis got there pretty quickly and we went and had a drink and a chat about his trip; it sounded like he had fun. Our catch up with Dennis was brief as he had to depart for Sydney at 8pm.
After leaving the Castro, me and Dave heading back to the house got the car and went for a drive around the city. We got back around 12-1 and headed to bed.
I got up the next day about 10am and me, Dave and Bill went the the Pork shop for brunch / lunch. After waiting for about 10-15 min to get in, we sat down and enjoyed a traditional American breakfast. I must admit - I do love crispy bacon!
After lunch we dropped Bill back to the house and went for a bit of a drive around, and then headed to the local bear night at Lone Star.
Lone Star was a typical bear bar - but with more bears than you could poke a stick at. It was packed! I met a few of Dave’s friends and we just hung around the bar for a bit and talked. After the beer bust was over, I went up stairs to get some merchandise for a friend back home and tried to get some for me... but the sizes were not big bear friendly - they only went up to 4xl :( i got a shirt and a pin for my friend and left.
Dave's mates wanted to get dinner, so we headed out to a local Chinese restaurant and had a nice dinner there... after which me n Dave headed back to the house.
On the Monday, me and Dave went for a drive around the 49 mile drive in San Fran. It was designed for the world fair in something like 1939, and has the major tourist spots all over San Fran. It was pretty cool to see some of the sites - like colt tower and the fortune cookie place. Also the big ass roman looking thing that was really cool... i forget the name of it but i have lots of photos :) After touring all day, we went had had dinner and headed back.
On Tuesday I headed to Silicon Valley with Dave - as he had to go to work. He dropped me off at the Winchester mystery house while he went and did some work. This house was amazing! It was built back at the turn of the century when the widow of the Winchester fortune consulted a physic when her hubby died. The physic told her to start a building project 'out west' and never stop; she proceeded to build a 169 room mansion over the next 32 years employing carpenters non stop around the clock to work on the house. It sure is one crazy house with stairs going to no were, and doors opening to brick walls. Its also has one of the most amazing collections of tiffany’s stained glass out side of a museum.
After about 3 hours, Dave come and got me, and we then ventured to the mother ship - aka Daves work aka Apple HQ! It was interesting to see... cubicals and... Not much else! After all it is just another work place. I got my photo taken outside with apple sign and saw Steve jobs car - which has no number plates! Only bar codes! Weird but true. Dave took me to the apple staff store and I got my copy of snow leopard and a new iphone case taking advantage of Dave’s awesome staff discount :). After the big day out we headed back home to get bill, and then had dinner with the boys at an all you can eat Turkish food. Was great! :)
I forget which day, but on one of them I caught the tram into the city and explored fisherman’s Warf. It was tacky and touristy; but fun. They have shops for all sorts there - from magic to music boxes... very pretty stuff. While I was down there I also went to the Ripley’s believe it or not! And the wax museum. Ripley’s was allotting of fun - I love little titbits of fun facts like that. The wax museum was kinda crap... only cause it was static displays nothing too exciting... I had lunch at the rain forest cafe - which was very kiddy but fun; all tho the food was average to crap.
On the last day in San Fran I did the tourist stuff and saw the golden gate bridge... it was pretty... but in the end, just a bridge.
I then headed to San Fran for convergence!