I'm sure it won't be the last time we see you, especially if Jacob has anything to do with it. We had fun, and as always - learned a few things:
1. I am allergic to down. The morning that we left, I woke up with a sore throat and every morning after that for about 3 days I was stuffed up and had a sore throat. But when we left the room, it would clear up. Jacob put 2 and 4 together (thank you for that! love you!) and we had housekeeping change out our bedding. Problem solved.
2. If you want to take a cable car, don't get on at the turnaround. A homeless person gave Jacob this tidbit, and it was awesome!
3. We are getting very efficient at packing - we went a whole week with one carry-on each, and that was with buying souvenirs! Saved us at least $40.00.
4. Go-Cards. We tried these this time. Normally we don't do them, but we thought we would get our use out of them. We saw a lot (MOMA, Yerba Buena, Hop On/Hop Off, 2 cruises, and something else I think) and they definitely paid for themselves, but all the running around you have to do for them is annoying. I don't know if I would use them again, I would have to think about it. I'll get back to you on that.
5. Just so that people don't feel their only option is to walk - Jacob and Dad discovered AFTER they walked 2 blocks at a ridiculously steep angle, that there is a cable car that goes right to the top of Lombard Street (crooked street). Dumbasses.
On our last full day, we went to Golden Gate Park. It was huge. We saw the waterfall, the rose garden and part of the Japanese Tea Garden (I was not paying $5.00 to get in to see it). We walked over by the museums. There are a couple, De Young and California Academy of Sciences (this has a 4 story rainforest inside - how awesome is that!)
Anyway, the stage is by those museums. There were a bunch of skateboarders there, and some guy asked if a nearby fountain was the site of a bunch of skating videos. I can't find them online though! I found this though:
That was right where our pictures above were taken. The kids there were pretty good - and they didn't even get kicked out for skating! (Or arrested...if you're reading Taylor James...). The rest of the world needs to get on board with that. The park was a nice escape from the traffic and sirens, it's always weird to me how you can have escapes like that in such a huge city.
I did not take any pictures of the Presidio because I think it's creepy. A bunch of wealthy people who live on an old military base where every house looks the same and there appears to be no life at all. No children playing, no noise. It's creepy and I don't do creepy.
But we went to Japantown!
Peace Pagoda in the middle of Japan Center
Japantown is a big calmer than Chinatown. They have this big mall with all their stores being focused on Japanese products. Note to the wise - do not buy the "Shrimp Crisps" at the supermarket. Jacob was not a fan. But the Hello Pandas? The panda cookies with chocolate in the middle? Fabulous.
We went to quite a few stores. We bought, well actually I bought, a bag with the Japanese flag on it, but Jacob has decided that it needs to be his now. It can be his "man satchel" until I need it.
Speaking of exploiting culture...lol
We didn't get there until late, so we didn't get to see a lot. They had a lot of stores that had already closed, but what we did see was cool. They had a bag that said: "Profanity makes me calmer" and had "F*ck, F*ck, F*ck" all over it. It reminded me of me and I say that all the time. It was fate - but no, I did not purchase it. Maybe they will have one when we make it to Japan someday.
While I was in Chinatown, apparently dad and Jacob took a bus to the Presidiio and then walked up Lombard Street (which they say is the crookedist street, but really isn't. Don't ask me which one is though, because I am not certain.) After they were done with their adventure, we went back to the hotel, got lunch and then headed out for the Castro.
The Castro is the area that is where the gay population primarily resides. It's where Harvey Milk lived in the movie "Milk". There is actually a plaza named after him:
I very much liked it there. We didn't stay long, but we did go to Harvey Milk Plaza and a store called "Does Your Mother Know?" I had heard that this one was tamer than it's counterpart "Does Your Father Know?", which apparently has much racier material. I truly do no know how that is possible. I took my dad to this store with me. There was a wide assortment of "toys" for the viewing, and male on male porn playing on tv's in the background. My dad took longer looking at the merchandise than I did, which was awkward. lol.
Here's a stupid story for you - I was looking at the stickers by the front counter. They had a rainbow gay pride sticker and a couple others. I didn't know what the blue one with lines meant, so I figured - "hey, i'll ask the guy behind the counter!" So I ask the guy if I can ask him a stupid question. He gives me a weird look and says sure. I ask what the sticker means. He tells me: "That means leather pride." How do you respond to that? I literally just said: "Oh." and went back down to look. But later, when I was purchasing the other sticker (the rainbow one that will go in my door), he started up a convo about the other stickers, so I think he did appreciate my question. He told me that the sticker with the bear on it meant "Bear Pride". I don't really want to google that one.
As we walked out, my dad was trying to tell us about the "apparatus" he saw with rubber feet. He was trying to point it out through the window when I pointed out that he was standing in front of a poster of two naked men. lol. Good times.
Out of the Closet Thrift Store - with free HIV testing.
I did like the Castro though. The houses were gorgeous, it was out of the touristy area. The only problem though is that there is a threat to the Castro being extinguished due to tourists coming and gawking (which I tried very hard not to do, but I'm sure many do when they come). It's their area, and people need to respect them when they go there. I am all about equality and "gay power" as I call it, and I think it's ridiculous that people are still unaccepting to the population. It makes me want to punch them in the face.
I will put my rainbow decal in my front window, next to the CodeFormat google sign. And if anyone has an issue with it - then I guess they don't need to come through the door, right?
Tuesday morning we headed to breakfast and then broke off. My mom had to write a paper for school, I wanted to go back to Chinatown, and Jacob and dad wanted to do things that they didn't even know of yet.
I went to my favorite spot in San Fran. There are two areas of Chinatown, the touristy part and the Chinese part. The Chinese part is like stepping into a street in Beijing. A lot of the store owners don't even speak English. I remember when we were here in 2008, I had a horrible headache (and my Tiger Balm wasn't doing the trick lol) so we stopped into a pharmacy and got some Motrin. We went next door to a restaurant to get something to drink. We realized then that the woman did not understand us. We were able to buy our drink (I think it was a can of Mountain Dew) but then I tried to ask her where a trash can was to throw away my Motrin box, and she didn't know what I was talking about. We then knew what we were in for in Beijing.
I mainly stayed on the touristy side, because I wanted to buy souvenirs. I also bought a ton of tea, because Chinese tea is far superior to any other kind. I did venture over to the other side for a while though, but it's mainly produce markets there, and I didn't have a need for any cabbage or grapes.
I did however, get Strawberry Green Tea Bubble Tea. I had asked for Strawberry Milk Tea with bubbles, but the lady must have gotten confused. I'm glad she got confused though, because it was ridiculously good.