a new sort of adventure: San Francisco!
July 12, 2008
I’m going to try something new here. Instead of sticking all the videos at the end, I’ll embed them throughout the post. That way they can do substantive work (in terms of explaining what’s going on in the post) instead of being more like an after thought.
So! To explain what this post is all about I give you video one!
So steps one and two were finding food and making our way to WALL-E, which was playing at the big shopping center up Market.
Now in terms of food in San Francisco I have what some might find to be a weird goal and practice. I try and avoid going to any and all big chains. Why? Because we’re in San Francisco! There are like a trillion zillion good one-of-a-kind restaurants around and they’re all yelling out into the ether, “try meeeeeee!” So I make it a bit of a goal to try lots of new places. But, sadly, meal number one today didn’t align with this mission. First off, we were starving. It was already eleven and neither of us had eaten anything. Secondly, we ended up not feeling like Tartine (we were more in a lunch mood) and that BBQ place I was referring to wasn’t open yet. So basically as we made our way up Market we were just looking for anything edible! Walking on an empty tummy is just no good. And, as I’ve been told by numerous people, I have a bit of what’s been called a “hunger grouch” — this basically means that when I’m hungry I get a little feisty and, well, grouchy. So Eric, fearing the emerging grouch, was quite keen on Subway. Plus, I swear to you, in LA Eric and I would eat at Subway at least two times a week most weeks. So, to my dismay, we ended up at Subway.
After that we made our way to WALL-E. It was totally adorable. Seriously, WALL-E is the cutest little guy ever. There were more “awww” moments that I can count. Plus, I love that Pixar always puts one of those short movies right before the main feature — and this time I was laughing aloud through that one, too! (seriously: it was adorable). The only contentious bit about WALL-E was how it equates consumerism/the stereotypical “American” lifestyle with obesity. There’s no denying that WALL-E has a political/green message to deliver, and it’s a good message (delivered in a most Platonic of ways!), I just think the obesity thing could have been left out. And, as a nice Slate article also points out, obesity is most rampant not with the upper consuming classes but instead with the lowest - with those who are eating the most cheap fast food and don’t have access (nor the time to prepare) a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. So judging by the trajectory laid out today, I’d guess in a techno-dystopic future like that there’d be a lot of really skinny really stupid and really ‘plastic surgery pretty’ people floating around instead.
but either way! The movie was super duper good and adorable. You must go see it.
After the movie Eric and I were reading for our epic exploring day. So we continued down Market until we hit water. Then, a bit hungry again, we saw this little cafe area near the Ferry terminal. When we went over to check it out (and get a few of the new Bay bridge… which we couldn’t locate) we stumbled upon an entire giant indoor market thing! I’m talking serious awesomeness here people! A bunch of speciality scrumptious sellers all lined up inside that big building. And Eric and I both being Taurus, were jumping up in down for these earthly delights!
After looking at pretty much every stall, we decided to get a snack of lobster chowder. Here’s the video of that (oh and my “wait for it” comments have to do with getting Eric to wait to have his first bite of yummy chowder until I could film it… he wasn’t that enthusiastic about cooperating with that bit!)
So after looking at some more shops (where I stumbled upon the most pretty of flowers!!) we continued our trek down the Pier area. Passing Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Warf we came upon a little mechanical museum that was showcasing a bunch of games and the like from years past. We invested a quarter to watch a flip-book-esque movie and then headed back to the road.
Next up: sugar! I was starting to loose my spunk so we needed a pick me up! And, in order to complete our touristy vibe, Ghirardelli Square was the obvious choice.
On our way up to the ice cream place of wonders I saw this cupcake place and just had to take a picture. Do you notice anything amusing about the line of people waiting to buy cupcakes? Awesomeness.
After having a good laugh about that we got a cookies and cream rootbeer float. And it was just what the doctor ordered. Of course while waiting in line we saw these two girls, the younger of the two couldn’t be older than 15, who had (sorry) the dumbest piercing… ever. Alright, you know your bottom lip? Now, right under that imagine moving in about a pinky fingernail length in on both sides. Got it? Not stick a metal ball there (on both sides). That’s the piercing they had. Why?! I have no idea. What is aesthetically pleasing about that? And, perhaps more importantly, how the hell did a girl that young get that piercing?! It was pretty obvious that she was following in her big sister’s footsteps, which was sort of sad. However, she was blazing her own path when, while we were all in line, she came up behind me and petted my hair (without asking!) and said how much she liked it! I still am always shocked when people do that (”that” being touch my hair without asking first). But oh well.
So we had our ice cream and then made our way up and over the hills. By the time we got back to the Mission we were hungry and decided to eat at the Ethiopian place down on Valencia. I’d been there once before and really liked it so I was totally up for that.
But on the way we decided to play a game. We shall call it the Hipster-Watch game. We watched all the hipsters ride down on their fixies and single speeds, decked out in their hipster attire, and tried to determine what the ultimate hipster exemplar (both male and female) would look like. It was good clean fun. And, for further research, we entered one such hipster shop to get a better feel for the hipster style. I think I’ll hold off on saying much more and instead do a post entirely dedicated to explaining this hipster life. I find it highly entertaining. Eric has informed me that if and when he moves to SF he will most definitely be taking up this style. And I don’t think he was joking.
After all that was done we ate! Yay! We were both starving.
Afterwards, to practice our hipster ways a bit, we headed down to Ritual for a latte (coffee latte for me, chai latte for Eric) and sweet foods.
To see the Ritual video you must, temporarily, go here. The server is supposedly too busy so I can’t embed it. LAME!
But anyways! That was our SF exploring day! If you’re curious, we walked approximately 10.5 miles (in flip flops mind you). To see a map of this walk, click here.
And to see all the photos, click here.
And ok ok, one hipster picture!
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